EDITORIAL: Silly legislation helps no one

Lately we’ve been hearing a lot from Indiana Republican lawmakers about how disappointed they are in Democrats for not showing up to make decisions in the first session. We could not agree more with them. We realize there are a lot of opinions running amuck at the moment due to hot-button issues on the table, most notably the right-to-work legislation.

No matter what your opinion on the matter, everyone must agree that Republicans and Democrats not agreeing to hear one another out and work to compromise gets nothing done and we all suffer.

We urge Democrats to forget the notion of “not showing up to work” and do the people of Indiana a favor by getting to the Capitol to do what is needed.

However, we have to chastise the Republicans, too. A few of the current issues Republicans are bringing to the table are making us scratch our heads a little.

The first would be proposed legislation from Sen. Vaneta Becker R-Evansville. A bill she put forth would establish standards on how the national anthem should be performed at public events at schools and universities.

We understand how important “The Star Spangled Banner” is. We, just like any other Hoosier or American, have a great respect and love for our national anthem and expect no less than the utmost respect shown to the song by all performers.

But we cannot understand the frivolous need for government to step in on such an issue. During a time when we hear so much talk about less government involvement in our lives, why the need to add this bit of legislation?

Do our lawmakers need to take their time to come up with standards, monitor all school performances and issue fines for those who haven’t made the cut?

We don’t think so. Schools can handle this on their own terms, so they should be left to such.

Another silly issue being looked at is changing Indiana’s high-school basketball tournament back to a single-class tournament.

According to an article appearing in the South Bend Tribune, Sen. Mike Delph, R-Carmel, claims the current system is failing and that a single class would unite the state again, pointing to the message in the movie “Hoosiers.”

IHSAA Commissioner Bob Cox doesn’t agree with him, however, and in a guest column piece appearing in Thursday’s News, asked legislators to leave the choice of class to the school and let the fairness of the current system remain.

Again, this seems to be an issue of opinion. Is there tradition with the one-class basketball tournament? Yes, one that is very unique to Indiana.

But is this a government matter? Should this be an issue that is on the table during this time, when jobs are few and the economy is down? Are these the most important issues to Hoosier families at the moment?

We don’t think so.

It’s a new year; it’s time to listen to each other and make some needed changes. We hope state Democrats show up to do work this year in the legislative session and we hope state Republicans forget the unneeded legislation changes and focus on what is really most important to our state at the moment.

Our view: Editorials reflect the opinions of the newspaper.

Your view: Tell us what you think. Comment below, send e-mail to us at editor@perrycountynews.com or mail your comments to P.O. Box 309, Tell City, IN 47586.