Recent Columns

Calling someone ‘woke’ is never an insult

Apr 16, 2021

Stan Laurel once said, "I had a dream that I was awake and woke up to find myself asleep." That is how I feel much of the time, now that I am almost a full presidential term into my fifties. It's hard to say when Laurel said it, but I'm pretty sure he meant "woke" as...

GOP: Corporations are not people anymore

Apr 9, 2021

At a news conference in Kentucky on Tuesday, Senate Minority Leader, Mitch McConnell made the following remarkable statement: "My warning to corporate America is to stay out of politics." It was remarkable even to him, leading to this later statement in that same news...

How awesome is Joe Biden’s honeymoon?

Apr 2, 2021

There is something strange going on in Washington. The American President has an approval rating that is so lopsided to the positive, it almost feels heroic. So, how popular is Joe Biden? His numbers are so good, one might think the alleged election "irregularities"...

Background checks are infrastructure

Mar 26, 2021

For what seems like a lifetime, most of us have been anxiously waiting for life to return to normal. Two mass shootings in consecutive weeks remind us that regardless of how much we have grown to miss in the last year, not everything that is "normal," is OK. These...

A hate crime is in the eye of the beholder

Mar 19, 2021

On Tuesday, a 21-year-old Georgia man walked into Big Woods Goods gun shop and purchased a 9mm handgun. Within a few hours, he had used it to kill eight people at three different locations in the Atlanta area and was apprehended on his way to Florida to continue his...

It’s values vs. interests, like Godzilla vs. Kong

Mar 12, 2021

Godzilla vs. Kong finally opens in theaters this month after a series of delays. There is a good chance this installment in the monster series won't be good, but with every new battle there is new hope. Monster movies or the Marvel and DC Comic adaptations never...

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Keeping the Big Ten Network on the Air

One of Mr. Leppert’s successful projects was his media campaign on behalf of the Big Ten Network in its dispute with cable formats for broad distribution of the network during its start-up years. He wrote and distributed press releases, organized supporters to attend press conferences and traveled the state for media events with both Mark Silverman, the original president of the network and Jim Delany, the long-time commissioner of the Big Ten Conference. Silverman has since moved into an executive position at Fox Sports, and Delany has announced his retirement in June of this year. The media output and related responses to it were vital in moving the stalled discussions to a mutually beneficial resolution between the network and cable formats. The Big Ten Network is distributed widely today and is a model for college sports networks.

The three of us were only flagged for speeding one time during the campaign, fittingly on State Road 37, while racing between press conferences at IU and downtown Indianapolis.

Moving Indiana Forward with Bias Crimes Legislation

Mr. Leppert was engaged by the United Way of Central Indiana to design and implement the campaign in 2018-19 for the passage of new hate/bias crime legislation in Indiana. The foundation of this coalition was built by joining two organizations, the Indiana Alliance Against Hate, and Indiana Competes. After several years of resistance in the Indiana General Assembly, specifically since the RFRA session of 2015, this campaign was the catalyst to passage of the new law and removing Indiana from the list of only five states without hate crimes legislation.

More than 800 members of the smaller merged entities were mobilized. Press events were held throughout the state. Editorial boards were visited. Letter writing and phone banking strategies were implemented. The management of this large group, and the short timeframe available to make our impact was an experience. While the law enacted by the legislature did not include all of the protected classes our coalition sought for inclusion, the establishment of hate or bias as statutory consideration in sentencing was established for many classes. Our campaign proved successful.