A6 kpcnews.com Looking Back • 100 years ago • With the help of a government hog cholera expert, it is hoped to keep that loathsome and fatal disease out of the Haw Patch this year. A report received by the The Ligonier Banner this week indicates that a specially selected expert from the department of agriculture will be in this vicinity during the next few days and will spend some time investigating the situation and advising the farmers and veterinarians as to the proper measure to stamp out and keep out the disease from the swine herds. The condition of the hogs in this vicinity is good and it is hoped that they may be kept so this year. The News Sun 25 years ago • The St. Jude Children’s Hospital Wheels for Life Bike-a-thon was held at East Noble High School. A total of $1,245 collected. Top earners were Ben McCormick, Sarah Papaik, Megan Sanders, Aaron Sanders, Seth Fritz, Mike Prater, Michelle Manger, Chris Nickles, Elaine Lewis, Laura Bassett, Angela Bassett, Deb Couture, Sarah Sparks, Tim Keyes, Scott Vorndran, Corey Cooper, Chad Cooper, Jacqueline Tayler, Kara Taylor, Darrin Taylor, Donald Taylor, Jonathan Rose, Tina Rose, Jeremy Handshoe, Sarah McCue, Jeremy Caudill, Sean Caudill and David Manger. Letters • All letters must be submitted with the author’s signature, address and daytime telephone number. We reserve the right to reject or edit letters on the basis of libel, poor taste or repetition. Mail letters to: The News Sun 102 N. Main St. P.O. Box 39 Kendallville, IN 46755 Email: brochford@ kpcmedia.com The Star 118 W. Ninth St. Auburn, IN 46706 Email: dkurtz@ kpcmedia.com The Herald Republican 45 S. Public Square Angola, IN 46703 Email: mmarturello@ kpcmedia.com The News Sun Established 1859, daily since 1911 The Star Established 1871, daily since 1913 Herald Republican the Established 1857, daily since 2001 President/Publisher Terry Housholder [email protected] Executive editor Dave Kurtz [email protected] the news sun The Star The Herald Republican Sunday, July 6, 2014 Our View • Help children have hope “With liberty and justice for all.” As a school principal in Texas, Katherine Reddick repeats the Pledge of Allegiance at school daily. But as a woman who grew up in the foster care system, she knows tens of thousands of children are growing up abused, neglected, without justice and without hope. Speaking at the Kendallville Public Library June 26 Reddick called for effective interventions and processes to identify victims and perpetrators of child abuse and better oversight, screening and support for foster parents. Last year her scathing obituary on the death of her mother propelled her to national prominence as a speaker. (See related story elsewhere in today’s paper.) Beginning as infants, she and her seven siblings were abused and neglected at the hands of their parents and those who were supposed to protect them. She advocates for serving the spiritual, emotional and educational needs of foster children and preparing foster children with an effective “exit plan” for when they leave the system. An example of the need for better support for foster is the lawsuit that has been filed Let’s couple our resolve to combat againstparents the Indiana Department of Child Services child abuse and neglect with by Debra Moss, an adoptive parent who is suing over unpaid adoption subsidies. efforts to enable all children to theADCS June 30 article in The Indianapolis Star said Moss’ lawsuit claims DCS denied payment have job skills and hope. to more than 1,400 Indiana families that have adopted special needs children from the state’s foster care system. DCS promised in a contract to pay adoption subsidies to those families “if funding becomes available,” according to the lawsuit. Yet, since 2009, DCS returned more than $238.6 million to state coffers while not paying subsidies to families that have adopted. “We need you. We have to change the way the system works,” said Reddick. Let’s couple our resolve to combat child abuse and neglect with efforts to enable all children to have job skills and hope. Liberty and justice for all. That is what we want for our children. Report child abuse, neglect In Indiana any adult who believes that a child has been abused or neglected is required to immediately call Child Protective Services or law enforcement. Individuals who report suspected abuse or neglect may remain anonymous and are immune from civil and criminal liability if they have made the report in good faith. The 24/7 CPS hotline is 1-800-800-5556. The 2013 Indiana Youth Institute Data Book states that in Indiana in 2012, there were 14,802 substantiated child neglect cases, 3,214 substantiated child sexual abuse cases and 1,992 substantiated child physical abuse cases. (iyi.org/databook) Signs and symptoms of abuse are unexplained bruises, welts, burns, lumps, bumps, fractures, lacerations, abrasions, hemorrhages, burns by cigarettes or dental/oral injuries. Behavior that may indicate abuse includes being too eager to please, depression, low self-esteem, behavioral extremes, role reversal or exaggerated startle responses. Other indicators are a child who appears frightened of his or her caretaker, school absenteeism or if the child verbally reports abuse. We thank the court appointed special advocates (CASA volunteers) who receive special training to serve as advocates for these children. For more information about CASA visit neincasa.net. Volunteering through the arts is another way to help children suffering from abuse and/ or neglect. Three Rivers Arts Center for Kids (TRACK) was the sponsor of Katherine Reddick’s visit to northeast Indiana. For more information about TRACK, contact Terry Doran, founder, at 338-2807 or email [email protected]. • OUR VIEW is written on a rotating basis by Grace Housholder, Dave Kurtz, Matt Getts and Michael Marturello. Publisher Terry Housholder is also a member of the editorial board. We welcome readers’ comments. Letter • Revenue losses are culprit in DeKalb County To the editor: Over the last 14 months the DeKalb County Council and Commissioners have worked using rainy day, riverboat and CEDIT funds to bridge the budget gap of 2013. This structural budget deficit continues and must be addressed. In the last two calendar years, the DeKalb County general fund has spent an additional $2.7 million. Increased costs such as communications and public safety, along with decreases in income tax revenue and property tax revenue due to circuit breaker credits, and assessor refunds are significant contributors. Local governmental units in DeKalb County did not receive $1.5 million in tax cap credits and assessor refunds of $1.4 million which both were in 2013. For us, it turned our balance sheet upside down. It became clear to us that our cost expenditures just didn’t explode past revenue as some have written in the newspaper but revenue losses have been the culprit of DeKalb County. We need to correct our financial condition. Council members have been working for over a year using budget cuts and shifts for two-thirds of the 2013 budget and we have a status quo budget for 2014. With the help of the Public Safety LOIT and the shifts that we have made we will be able to correct this situation. There has been name-calling, accusations and misconceptions toward and about the DeKalb County Council officials. It is not an easy task before us but one that we have affirmed will be corrected. All of the county employees and elected officials know of the challenge upon us as we enter 2015. I have faith in those officials and employees to best serve the taxpayers of DeKalb County. Alan Middleton DeKalb County Council president Marriage part of ever-evolving American experience The last week of June brought extraordinary images to Indiana. With the stroke of a pen, federal Judge Richard Young stuck down the state’s marriage laws passed by overwhelming bipartisan majorities. Within hours, hundreds of gay couples flowed into Hoosier courthouses from Indianapolis, to Nashville, to Washington. Three days later, a stay was sought by Republican Attorney General Greg Zoeller, and it was issued by the 7th Circuit Court of Appeals in Chicago, leaving many of the newly-married Hoosiers in legal limbo. Several things struck me about these turns of events. First, the hundreds of gay and lesbian couples that flowed into Hoosier courthouses large and small did not do so on a whim. Many of them had been in committed, monogamous relationships for years, if not decades. They were seeking equal protection. There was an inverse reaction by many. Polling over the past three years by my publication Howey Politics Indiana measured around 50 percent of the population who saw an affront. To these Hoosiers, marriage is to be between one man and one woman. The laws were passed by Republicans and Democrats and signed and supported by governors from both parties. They saw “judicial activism” turning over laws enacted by the people’s representatives. It was Daviess County Clerk Sherri Healy who found herself confronted by this legal and cultural twist, or the “gray area” as she described it. But then she articulated thoughts that had many Hoosiers nodding in agreement, telling a gay couple seeking a license that “our country was founded on the Biblical principle of one man and one woman in marriage, and until I hear otherwise, that is what I will follow.” Thus, another tormented chapter in the ever-evolving American experience. State Sen. Mike Delph, a Carmel Republican and a big proponent the marriage HOWEY of laws as well as POLITICAL the constitutional REPORT amendment, once handed me a pamphlet entitled Brian Howey “The Constitution of the United States.” On several of the first pages, it quotes George Washington, Daniel Webster, Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Jefferson and John and Samuel Adams as “Observing the Hand of Providence.” The U.S. Constitution, Webster would observe, was the work of the “purest patriots” who were aided “by the smiles of a benignant Providence. It almost appears a Divine interposition in our behalf.” John Adams was quoted, “Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people.” But the predominantly Christian nation of the 18th through 21st centuries may, in two or three centuries, give way to a majority Buddhist or Hindu nation. The founders purposely separated church and state. Yet, thumbing through the U.S. Constitution, there is no reference to marriage, as Clerk Healy believes. But there is the 14th Amendment, Section 1, which reads, “No State shall make or • enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.” I am no attorney, but when I first began writing about the gay marriage issue a decade ago, the 14th Amendment jumped out at me. I saw nothing else in our Constitution that would trump it. Yet our current governor, attorney general, speaker of the House and president of the Senate — all with law degrees — come to a different conclusion. How could they? Personal belief and politics. All first became public servants or were elected in an era when close to 60 percent of Hoosiers believed that marriage should be between one man and one woman. Their political reality is that still today, as a standing vote at the Indiana Republican Convention revealed with 75 percent supporting a marriage platform plank. Much of the rest of the electorate is moving in a different direction. We project our own views through the American experience. This is why Thomas Jefferson could pen, “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.” And we all know that Jefferson was a slave owner, as were about a third of the signers. America evolved on the issue, fought a Civil War to change and amended the Constitution. When I first began writing about the gay marriage issue a decade ago, the 14th Amendment jumped out at me. I saw nothing else in our Constitution that would trump it. • State legislatures create laws, just as Hoosier legislators have, that have been overturned. In his 1963 inaugural address, Alabama Gov. George Wallace defiantly defended his state’s Jim Crow laws, declaring, “In the name of the greatest people that have ever trod this earth, I draw the line in the dust and toss the gauntlet before the feet of tyranny, and I say segregation now, segregation tomorrow, segregation forever.” In 1982, Wallace told a group of Alabama blacks, “We thought [segregation] was in the best interests of all concerned. We were mistaken. The Old South is gone,” but “the New South is still opposed to government regulation of our lives.” Think about that: Government regulation of our lives. We don’t want it in our gun cabinet, in our bedrooms and a growing number of Hoosiers believe they don’t want government regulation at the alter of our nuptials. BRIAN HOWEY is publisher of the Howey Political Report, a weekly briefing on Indiana politics. Contact him at 317-506-0883 or at: howeypolitics.com.