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April 23, 2013
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Current in Fishers
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FR O M T H E BACKSHOP An improved Current designed just for you
Growing tolerance It is our position that the Anne Frank Center USA Sapling Project serves as an important reminder of the need for tolerance. One of 11 saplings from the 170-year-old white horse chestnut tree that was Anne Frank’s only connection to nature during the two years her family hid from the Nazis during the German occupation of the Netherlands, was recently planted in the Anne Frank Peace Garden at the Children’s Museum of Indianapolis. The sapling is a living monument to Anne’s pursuit of peace and tolerance, and at the same time will serve as a powerful reminder of the horrors caused by hate and bigotry and the need for collective action when humanity fails. As Anne wrote in her diary, “April is glorious, not too hot and not too cold, with occasional light showers. Our chestnut tree is in leaf, and here and there you can already see a few small blossoms.” May tolerance grow in tandem with Anne’s beautiful chestnut tree. Visit the Anne Frank Peace Garden and enjoy the blossoms in honor of Anne and those like her. And like those who made the Sapling Project possible, there is more good in the world than evil. For more information on the Sapling Project, go to www.childrensmuseum. org.
Is collusion the real threat? Commentary by Terry Anker There are scores of expressions to describe the disposition of government officials to take our money and use it like a venture fund manager. The current nomenclature calls it government entrepreneurship. One wonders if it is an assistant, barrier or competitor with a healthy free-market. Entrepreneurs do great things and change the world, but they also take breathtaking financial risks and routinely fail. The natural government monopoly boasts a gaggle of advantages outpacing even the most competitive private company. In a world where rapacious private businesses are attracted to easy money and public guarantees, shouldn’t government “assistance” be limited to the broadest possible private entrepreneur participation? When speculating on who can claim credit for entrepreneurial success, some would openly assert that the individual entrepreneur “didn’t do that.” Even if one assumes veracity in this supposition, would it likewise be accurate to claim
that government “didn’t do that either?” Indiana is in the black. In fact, the current governor is locked in some James T. Kirk like battle with an alien Republican legislature about the return of some of those tax dollars to those who were overcharged for the services. A balanced budget amendment prevents official largess being unchecked. Yet, we still set aside dollars to spawn home-grown high-tech companies. We build and maintain infrastructure. And, we directly support countless stadiums and billionaire sport team owners. The pressure to undertake ever more expensive and elaborate schemes from entrepreneurial government officials is intense but no more so than the rent-seeking tendencies of entrepreneurs inside the private sector. Is collusion between these two forces the real threat? Terry Anker is an associate editor of Current Publishing, LLC. You may e-mail him at terry@currentincarmel. com.
Q U O T E O F T H E W E E K Wanna write us a letter? You can do it a couple ways. The easiest is to e-mail it to info@currentinfishers.com. The old-fashioned way is to snail mail it to Current in Fishers, 30 South Range Line Road, Carmel, IN 46032. Keep letters to 200 words max (we may make exceptions), and be sure to include your home ZIP code and a daytime number for verification.
Only those who dare to fail greatly can ever achieve greatly.
- Aldous Huxley
You’re noticing something different about Current today, aren’t you? You found the paper on which the news and ads are printed to be a little brighter, right? You also noticed that the pages are “stitched” by two staples on the fold, meaning no more loose sheets, correct? You also detected that the paper is ever-soslightly shorter and narrower, we’re guessing. It all is owed to a decision we made to move our printing efforts to a new location. Cox Media Group of Franklin, Ohio, effective with this edition, handles the printing, inserting and packaging tasks for all Current products and the Carmel Business Leader, as well as titles produced by our “sister” company, Times-Leader Publications (The Southside Times, Hendricks County ICON, Center Grove ICON, and the Southside Business Leader and the Hendricks County Business Leader). We’re excited about the change, because we believe it will provide a better reading experience. We’re still printing on paper that contains post-consumer content, and we’re still using low-rub, soy-based ink, which we believe to be important. Our art director, Zach Ross, has made subtle changes to the appearance of the news report, including new typefaces, story identifiers and different ways to package the news. By virtue of his moving ads to the “outside” edges of the paper, he has created something of a news well, which will accommodate a changing news presentation. We hope you enjoy the improvements, and we invite your comments at info@youarecurrent. com. ••• We bade a sad farewell last week to our friend and landscape-business owner, Cliff Bivins, who died all too soon at age 44 on April 14 of respiratory complications. He served customers across northern suburban Indianapolis for a number of years. We were the beneficiaries of his lawn-and-garden expertise, but it was his wide, genuine smile and easy-going nature that we’ll miss the most. Sail on, Cliff. Brian Kelly, publisher, and Steve Greenberg, general manager, are co-owners of Current Publishing, LLC. Write them at info@ youarecurrent.com.
BELIEVE IT! Our nation has all sorts of arcane, nonsensical laws on the books. Each week, we’ll share one with you. In St. Louis, Mo., it’s illegal to sit on the curb of any city street and drink beer from a bucket.
Source: dumblaws.com