I am pleased to announce that Ryan Nees, Dr. Chrisopher Stack, Indiana State Rep. David Orentlicher, and former Marion County Fire Chief Louis Dezelan, each of them in their own unique ways a prominent citizen-activist, have agreed to join our expanding list of contributors. Each of these individuals brings a distinguished record of accomplishment in their respective fields.

Ryan Nees will be a senior at Western High School outside Kokomo, Indiana, this fall. In 2006 he won a public access lawsuit against the City of Kokomo, made national news, and was recognized with a prestigious Sunshine Award from the Society of Professional Journalists, who recognized him for his “youth, tenacity, understanding of the law, and his courage in the pursuit of public records.” Last year, he launched IndianaOnMessage.com, one of "the best and most viewed Internet sites on Indiana politics," according to the Herald Times, has worked for years in Democratic politics, developing media for municipal, legislative, and gubernatorial campaigns, and is now serving as Sen. Richard Lugar's youngest-ever intern in Washington, D.C. He writes for The Kokomo Perspective and the Howey Political Report. Ryan will be writing about Indiana and national politics and the youth culture.

David Orentlicher is the Samuel R. Rosen Professor of Law at Indiana University Law School at Indianapolis. Before that David served as the Director of Medical Ethics for the American Medical Association. He is a 1981 graduate of Harvard University Medical School and a 1986 graduate of Harvard Law School. He has published more than 80 articles in leading medical and legal journals addressing critical issues in medical ethics. Since 2002 he has served in the Indiana House of Representatives. David will be writing about public policy and ethical issues involving the law and medicine.

Christopher Stack was known as one of Indianapolis’ leading orthopedic surgeons prior to his retirement in 2004. He graduated in 1979 from IU’s School of Medicine and began his practice at IU Medical Center, later joining Indiana Orthopedic & Sports Medicine. Chris was appointed by Gov. Joe Kernan to the Indiana Mandated Benefits Task Force on which he served as its chair. He is a member of Physicians for a National Health Program as well as Hoosiers for a Common Sense Health Plan. Dr. Stack is an active advocate for single-payer health plan coverage, and will be writing about health care issues.

Louis A. Dezelan was a professional firefighter 30 years and served as the Fire Chief for the City of Indianapolis from 2000 through 2004. Chief Dezelan holds a bachelor’s degree from Indiana University and is a graduate of Harvard University’s Program for Senior Executives in State and Local Governments. He has had 26 articles published in nationally distributed trade magazines.

Dezelan has served on the Board of Directors for the Indianapolis chapters of the American Red Cross and the American Heart Association and is currently a member of the Advisory Board for the National Institute for Fitness and Sport. He now serves as an independent consultant in matters of public safety and government consolidation. Louis will be writing about local government politics and administration and other public policy issues.

We look forward to Lou, Christopher, David and Ryan sharing their wisdom and commentary with the AVA community. Welcome aboard!

read more | login or register to post comments

Thursday, June 28, 2007
7 PM
Key Cinemas, 4044 S Keystone Ave

IN DEBT WE TRUST is the latest film from Danny Schechter, "The News Dissector," director of the internationally distributed and award-winning WMD (Weapons of Mass Deception), an expose of the media's role in the Iraq War. The Emmy-winning former ABC News and CNN producer's new hard-hitting documentary investigates why so many Americans are being strangled by debt. It is a journalistic confrontation with what former Reagan advisor Kevin Phillips calls "Financialization"--the "powerful emergence of a debt-and-credit industrial complex."

While many Americans may be "maxing out" on credit cards, there is a deeper story: power is shifting into fewer hands.....with frightening consequences.

IN DEBT WE TRUST shows how the mall replaced the factory as America's dominant economic engine and how big banks and credit card companies buy our Congress and drive us into what a former major bank economist calls modern serfdom. Americans and our government owe trillions in consumer debt and the national debt, a large amount of it to big banks and billions to Communist China.

login or register to post comments | 1 attachment

Friends, we need your help!!!

We are facing a crucial time stopping this bigoted amendment and it is urgent that certain IN House districts are targeted immediately. Indiana Equality and HRC are implementing the patch-thru call campaign I blogged about last week to reach out to voters to call their representatives. This is a very expensive effort but with SJR-7 coming out of committee today, we need to do this now more than ever! The more money we raise, the more voters we can reach! All money previously raised will be given to this initiative.

HRC will match your donation to Indiana Equality, dollar for dollar, up to $5000. Anything that you can give will be doubled!

Donations can be made online here or can be mailed to: Indiana Equality, PO Box 20621, Indianapolis, IN 46220-0621. Please put "patch-thru calls" on the memo line of your check.

Please forward this to all your friends and ask them to distribute it widely.

login or register to post comments

Don't forget that The Indiana Lawyer Chapter of the American Constitution Society, the American Values Alliance and Lambda Legal are sponsoring an evening discussion with Paul Smith. Smith, the legal council for the plaintiffs in Lawrence vs Texas, will be speaking on "The Legal Recognition of Same-Sex Relationships from Lawrence v. Texas to the proposed Indiana Marriage Amendment."

More info is available here. RSVP here.

login or register to post comments

This fundraising appeal has been suspended.

Attorneys for the AVA have raised concerns over whether this activity would jeopardize our 501(c)(3) status since this could be considered political lobbying.

We are continuing to work with other organizations to find a way to implement this action. All funds already raised will be given to another organization that will implement this plan or it will be refunded to the donors.

We apologize for any confusion or misunderstandings.

login or register to post comments

American Value Alliance president William R. Groth will be a featured speaker at an upcoming Indiana Lawyer Chapter of the American Constitutional Society. Bill is an expert in election law and serves as co-counsel for the Plaintiffs in the lawsuit challenging Indiana's photo ID law, which is currently pending in the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals. He will be joined by Daniel P. Tokaji an expert in election reform.

read more | login or register to post comments

Yesterday AVA ventured out into the daylight to host a public, face-to-face, conversation rather than an online one.  (As in radio, there’s always that slight fear of people finding out what you really look like.)  About 30 people came to the Sagamore Institute to discuss the difficulties involved in holding a civil, evidence-based political dialogue about such controversial topics as the recent detainee bill, immigration policy, and election reform.

read more | login or register to post comments

We would like to invite you to an exciting event being held by the American Values Alliance (AVA). 

The AVA isn't your run of the mill "issue group".  We're not left-wing or right-wing; we have Republicans, Democrats, Libertarians and Greens in our midst.  We believe that there's plenty of room for multiple points of view on just about every issue as long as those views are expressed in a civil and fair manner.  At the AVA, it's not about being right or wrong, instead we're more about expressing our own personal view without the partisan rancor and baseless attacks found so often in modern "discussions."

read more | login or register to post comments

The American Values Alliance had its first "introductory" reception on Friday, January 20, in Indianapolis.  Art Farnsley laid out the organization's three underlying goals:

1) To Raise the Level of Discourse:  The AVA stands for fair, civil, evidence based discussion of public issues.  It stands squarely against any strategy for driving wedges or fomenting resentment.

2) To Provide Both Positive and Negative Resources to Such Discourse:  On the negative side, the AVA hopes to use its website to call down any who attempt to profit from mischaracterizing their opponents or mistating the facts.  On the positive side, the AVA hopes to provide primary documents and thoughtful critiques that extol the virtues of reason, civility, and fair play.

read more | login or register to post comments