There are a couple bills in the state legislature right now that are a bit unsettling.

First, the Indiana Senate passed a bill to repeal the state's charitable gaming law.

Sen. Morris Mills, an Indianapolis Republican, sponsored that bill. The charitable gaming law was originally passed to allow charities to conduct bingo games to raise money.

Most of the money raised by local groups goes to charitable causes.

But Mills says statewide, the picture is different. He says this bill is necessary because big companies calling themselves charities have opened big bingo halls and pushed out the churches and other charity groups.

This legislation is a good example of tossing out the baby with the bathwater.

If, in fact, there are some less-than-reputable bingo operators out there, why not craft legislation that will target them without ruining it for the legitimate charities?

Surely there is a way to determine where the money goes from these games. Surely there is a way to identify which games are legitimate and which ones aren't.

Bingo games in this county raise thousands of dollars for organizations like the American Legions in Warsaw and North Webster, the Syracuse Knights of Columbus and the Warsaw Elks Lodge. That is not a complete list.

Money from the games goes to lots of worthy causes.

The Warsaw Elks uses bingo money to help fund cancer research, state and national scholarships, its annual hoop shoot, and local events such as a Christmas party for needy kids.

Why would any lawmaker want to shut down those bingo games?

There is some good news, however.

To become law, the bill must be passed by the Indiana House of Representatives and signed by the governor. The likelihood of that is slim.

The second piece of legislation that seems a bit amiss originated in the House of Representatives. It is HB 1346, the welfare reform bill.

The bill passed the House, but a couple parts of the bill dealing with parental rights were stripped out in the Senate. Now the bill is in committee and will likely go back to the full House early next week.

Under current law, child protective services can use anonymous telephone tips to gather information about alleged abuse cases.

Problem is, the accused parent is prohibited from hearing the tape. The reason is because child protective services wants to protect the accuser, reasoning that no one would call if they weren't truly anonymous.

If the accused could hear the tape, the caller could likely be identified.

A portion of HB 1346 called for the tapes to be transcribed so parents could at least read the accusations against them. That part of the bill was stripped out.

So as it stands, parents can be accused anonymously. They can't face their accuser and they can't find out exactly what the accuser said.

It seems not a lot to ask that parents be given the right to read the accusations against them.

Another part of the bill dealt directly with parental rights.

That part was modeled directly after federal legislation authored by Michael Farris. Farris is an attorney and head of the Home School Legal Defense Association.

Farris' legislation, the Parental Rights and Responsibilities Act, established the legal standard to be employed in judging cases where the rights of parents comes in conflict with the decisions or policies of government officials.

These are rights that parents have always had, but over the years, lower courts have not necessarily been supporting these rights.

The state bill says that parents have the right to: 1. Direct the education of their children. 2. Make health care decisions for the child. 3. Reasonably discipline their child. 4. Direct and provide for the religious traning of the child if desired by the parent.

Just as the rights to free speech and religious freedom set forth in the Bill of Rights have limits, this bill does not allow parents to abuse their children, keep them uneducated or deny life-saving medical treatment.

The bill simply re-affirms the right of parents to make decisions within the law without government interference.

Of course, this drives some people nuts.

Educators are lining up against the legislation, saying that it means parents would be able to decide what curriculum the school would teach.

But that's not what the bill says: "A parent's right to direct the education of a child does not include the right to insist upon or mandate any action or function of an educational institution."

It does, however, give a parent the right to excuse a child from "a class activity or an assignment without disproportionate penalties regarding grades or graduation."

For example, if you as a parent didn't want your high school student to do an assigned film review on "Pulp Fiction," you could request that he do it on "Toy Story" instead, without being penalized.

Farris will join with families from around the state in a rally to support the parental rights portion of HB1346 this morning at the State Capitol Building in Indianapolis.

They're trying to influence legislators. They want the parental rights portion put back in the bill.

If you think parental rights are important and need to be reaffirmed, give your state legislators a call.

Also, if you think local charitable organizations should be allowed to operate bingo halls, give your state legislators a call.

State senators that represent Kosciusko County are Potch Wheeler, Robert Meeks, Kent Adams and Tom Weatherwax. Call 800-382-9467.

State representatives are Dave Wolkins and Bill Ruppel. Call 800-382-9841. [[In-content Ad]]