This site makes extensive use of JavaScript, for the best browsing experience we recommend you enable JavaScript in your browser.
Primary tabs
Recent Blog Posts
By some estimates, Indiana has been the hardest hit state by the 2012 drought, but you would not know it by listening Republican Richard Mourdock or Democrat Joe Donnelly.
They are the front runners to become the next Senator from Indiana. Unfortunately, both have been stunningly quiet when it comes to the causes and meaning of the 2012 drought, perhaps the worst natural disaster to ever threaten the state.
Rain during the last few weeks have allowed Indiana to go from being in an exceptional and extreme drought zone to merely a severe one, but the damage has been done. It was miserable this summer in the Hoosier state. Way too hot and way too dry, served up with dire warnings of "fireweather." Nearly every major Indiana City broke or tied records for the hottest day on record and Terre Haute set at an all-time state record at 108°F. July was the hottest month on record in Indiana and June was the driest. It gets worse. The Union of Concerned Scientists have painted an even bleaker picture for Indiana over the next century if nothing is done to combat greenhouse emissions. The 2012 drought might just be the beginning.
It was a bad and sad day for Indiana on Tuesday.
Senator Richard Lugar not only lost in the Republican primary; Tea Party extremists did their best to humiliate America's finest public servant. A few even trespassed onto the senator's farm and put up the obnoxious "Retire Lugar" campaign signs that popped up like weeds across our state this spring.
Through his work on the school board and as Indianapolis mayor, Lugar set the stage for the remaking of the Indiana capital city into a major, world class city. As senator, he made Indiana a better state, but also globally important.
As an Indiana Republican, Senator Lugar made the party a powerhouse, but often saved the GOP from its worst excesses. The man once known as Nixon's favorite mayor was now deemed too moderate for a strong majority of Indiana Republicans.
Here is what some other, more graceful, Hoosiers posted on facebook on Tuesday night:
Kiel, Terre Haute, IN: Thanks for 36 years of representing Indiana well on a global stage, helping end apartheid and all of that.
Gabe, Columbus, IN: Lugar stood up to the hawks in the Reagan administration to demand the President break with the Marcos dictatorship in the Philippines.
Dave, Indianapolis, IN: Sad day for the hungry, a sad day for our nation. Democracy is about talking with one another, not shouting at others.
Citizens for Global Solutions organized the first ever Indiana Genocide Prevention Summit, held on Saturday, March 31, in Indianapolis. The summit brought organizations, students, teachers, genocide survivors, activists, and concerned citizens from across the state.
Indiana is seemingly far away from the killing fields of Syria, Sudan, and the Democratic Republic of Congo. It is even farther away in time from the mass graves of Rwanda, Bosnia, or Auschwitz. At the Indiana Genocide Prevention Summit though, it was clear that many of us from Indiana had the power and bore the responsibility for genocide prevention.
We could either build a movement to engage our communities and our politicians in genocide prevention. Or let the words "Never Again" be meaningless once again.
Kizito Kalima, a Rwandan genocide survivor, told his story to a captivated audience. He was 14 when he escaped certain death during the 1994 Rwandan genocide. He eventually ended up in Indianapolis where he started the Global Genocide Prevention Alliance, an organization for survivors of genocide to have their voice heard.