From: Mark Small
Date: July 16, 2022

Dear Representative DeLaney,

Thank you for the mailing in which you invited constituents in IN86 to share our thoughts on issues upon which we have big decisions to make. I shall address each as follows:

-How extreme will the restrictions on abortion be?

It seems that few people understand either that the opinion issued by the United States Supreme Court in Roe v. Wade was written by a Republican nominee to the Court, Justice Blackmun, or that four (4) other Republican-nominated justices joined in the 7-2 majority. To answer your question, over five (5) decades of jurisprudence have established a woman’s right to make decisions about reproduction is fundamental. The only restrictions on abortion should be those recognized as appropriate in Roe. Extremists in my party, including an AG who graduated from Wabash College, already have sought to force a 10-year-old victim of rape to take a child to term. This cannot be tolerated.

-Is there any hope for effective gun regulation anymore?

Australia had a mass shooting the in the mid-1990s. The government’s response was to eliminate private ownership of firearms. Australia has had no mass shootings since. In 2020 the United States saw 43,222 people die from gunshot wounds, nearly sixty percent (60%) of whom were suicides. Advocates for the gun culture demean efforts at gun control as being ineffective. They are correct. Half-measures cannot effectively reduce gun violence. I believe we need to follow Australia and take guns off the streets and, in light of the number of suicides and gun deaths that occur in the course of domestic violence, out of people’s homes. Any lesser measures only will be scoffed at as ineffective - as they should be.

-Are we going to face a statewide controversy over prayer in schools?

Years ago United States Senator Barry Goldwater, the GOP nominee for President in 1964, said:

“Mark my word, if and when these preachers get control of the [Republican] party, and they're sure trying to do so, it's going to be a terrible damn problem. Frankly, these people frighten me. Politics and governing demand compromise. But these Christians believe they are acting in the name of God, so they can't and won't compromise. I know, I've tried to deal with them.”

There is a local preacher who has run for political office (GOP) who believes The Framers (whom he calls founding fathers) intended this country be a theocracy. Any controversy over prayer in school exists only because a raucous minority continues to obscure the fact that this country has a wall erected between church and State.
In the early 1960s we had “voluntary” bible lessons in grade schools I attended. There was nothing “voluntary.” Kids were made to feel. Odd if they did not go along. Besides, prayer in school never has been banned. Only group prayer is out-of-bounds, as it should be.

-Will Indiana try to promote clean air and prevent climate change from worsening in the wake of the Supreme Court’s weakening of the EPA’s authority?

The short answer to your question: no. The longer answer: we need to do that and more. You and I both spoke at the launch of Indiana United for Our Future (INUF), a PAC established to promote governmental action to protect our environment. Few people care to remember that the EPA came into existence during a Republican administration. At that time, fowling our air and water caused outrage.

You add “two more big issues we faced long before the previous ones arose:

`-Is Indiana willing to invest in its people for the long haul or just scatter small amounts of money into short-term programs?

The answer to your question is implicit. So long as “trickle-down economics” has a strangle-hold on State and local fiscal policies, the only people in which the State will invest will be the very wealthy. That only serves to harm Indiana in the long-term.

-What are we doing about public universities that are losing students?

If women’s right to determine reproductive choices is not recognized in Indiana, we only will lose more students.

Bipartisan efforts to resolve our problems are becoming less frequent. I believe that you and I agree on many of the issues, and the nuances of such issues, facing our State and our nation. As your opponent in the November general election, I would point out two (2) general distinctions. First, I believe you take stands that are more conservatives than the stands I take. These are matters for good-faith disagreement. Second, I represent a younger orientation to matters.

Sincerely,

Mark Small.