It was the best of times. It was the worse of times in Indiana during the last couple of weeks. The events of the last two weeks demonstrate what can be done when the big, hairy, audacious goal is the target and focus of strategy and action. January and February was a fascinating time to be a Hoosier[1].
Hosting the Super Bowl was a forty-year dream come true. Former Mayor William Hudnut III traveled with a caravan of Mayflower moving vans to Baltimore and picked up the Colts. The city built a stadium without having a home team. His predecessor, then Mayor, Richard Lugar, was focused on revitalizing the inner city and stop urban blight. One strategy to do this was to bring people back to the downtown. Conventions and sports were the ticket and key to the city.
Indianapolis hosted the Pan American games decades ago – and was successful. Year by year, mayor after mayor, key their eye on professional and amateur sports as a way of making the city a major league community. The Super Bowl was the prize secured by a former mayor; this week demonstrated that Indianapolis was no longer IndyaNOplace.
Everyone in the city – current and former residents of Indianapolis, grinned ear to ear with each day’s events during the Super Bowl. By all accounts, it was a major success. Even the weather cooperated!
Concurrently, the Indiana legislature was in session. Indiana became the twenty-third state to pass Right to Work. A demonstration through Super Bowl village highlighted the event. Keeping their eye on the prize, the picketers were relatively quiet and did not disrupt the events or game.
As a side note, the football season almost didn’t happen this year because of a labor dispute and walkout. The unionized players kept up the fight to secure benefits for its players.
One can argue for or against the right to work concept. At the end of the day, it isn’t positive for unions. The other legislative action demonstrated the grassroots nature of the Hoosier state and was the antithesis of Super Bowl hoopla.
The Indiana Senate’ passed a bill allowing Tuesday creationism to be taught in statewide classrooms. Senate Bill 89 enables schools to teach religiously based perspectives of creation in tandem with evolution. An Indiana Department of Education spokesperson said Indiana would not develop any such curriculum or guidelines for teaching creationism in its public schools.
These three events demonstrate Indiana’s history, it present, and potentially its future. All three events demonstrate what can occur when you have a single focus, dedication, perseverance, and implement strategies that are clearly designed to achieve a BHAG – big, hairy, audacious goal. There are some who argue that spending on sports has been at the expense of infrastructure. Right to work might bring in new business; it might destroy unions. Teaching religious belief is clearly unconstitutional; proponents don’t care because they are focused on a single outcome.
If you see me riding in the cab of a Mayflower moving van, wearing a Colts hat, Super Bowl 45 jersey, and heading out of Indianapolis, you’ll know Governor Daniels signed this bill into law. When I drive by, I’ll probably be muttering something like, “I can’t believe I live in Indianapolis!”
[1] The definition of a Hoosier is undecided. A Hoosier is a native and/or resident of the State of Indiana.
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