Legislative Session

Editor, Times-Union:
As a longtime reader, letter-writer, and resident of Indiana’s forgotten corners, I’ve learned not to expect much from state leadership. But even my cynicism has limits — and this year’s legislative session seems determined to exceed them.
We were promised "accomplishments." What we got was a legislative sleight-of-hand: utility bills padded to benefit corporations, public school funding gutted under the banner of "choice," and a property tax overhaul that leaves rural residents footing the bill for a system collapsing around them. My reward for years of community contribution and rising costs? More asphalt chunks in my yard and fewer services to show for it.
Meanwhile, roads crumble, libraries serve as the last public spaces in neglected towns, and access to healthcare drifts further from reach — if you can afford it, that is. Our rural paper arrives a day late, quite literally, because paying a livable wage to delivery workers was too much to ask. And don't even get me started on the state-sanctioned cruelty of puppy mills, tucked away in windowless barns while officials whistle past the horror.
We hear talk of “aimed” funding for teachers, which likely means pay raises for those at the top while classrooms remain under-resourced. They say they’ve “supported veterans” — but if the most ambitious act of compassion this legislature can muster is a canned food drive, we have defined success far too narrowly.
To those drunk on power or profit — and those too blind to see — I say this: governing is not supposed to be a performance for donors and lobbyists. And for the record, there is nothing Christlike about stripping communities of health services, dignity, and care while piously quoting scripture at ribbon-cuttings. That brand of faux Christianity might sit well in the Statehouse, but it does little for those suffering just beyond its limestone walls.
I know this letter won’t change the minds of those determined to ignore the damage. But I write it anyway — as a testament, as a warning, and as a reminder that some of us still see what’s really going on.
Janet Collins
Etna Green, via email