COMMUNITY COMMENT: Residents willing to fight to improve city
By Gail Riecken Special to the Courier & Press Gail Riecken is a Democratic state representative from Evansville.
Saturday, May 11, 2013
I have lived in Evansville most of my life. Anyone who thinks this community belongs on any kind of “worst city” list hasn’t spent enough time here to make their opinions worth caring about.
But if there’s a fight to be made to defend the city I love, let me be the first to dive in and speak my piece.
I think the people of Evansville would be the first to tell you that we have some problems. That’s one of the things I like about being here.
But let me tell you a few stories about things I have witnessed from my part-time job as a state legislator, just to show you how people here can turn challenges into opportunities.
A while back, I watched a mother from Evansville successfully fight for a bill requiring officials to notify parents when their children are mentioned in crime reports. Why? Her child had been a victim and she didn’t even know about it. She didn’t want other families to go through what her family had suffered.
There is a local attorney in the prosecutor’s office who was involved in that fight and who continues to advocate for an Indiana law for children’s rights.
Our Prosecutor, Nick Hermann, has always been front and center about arranging what we needed at the Statehouse to advocate for legislation. The same goes for our Chief of Police, Billy Bolin.
Our local child protective services get a lot of criticism, but we also must note that their work is so respected in Indianapolis that our city may very well be on the short list as a location for one of the new hotlines being placed outside Indianapolis.
And then there are the other child advocates from Evansville who call and email me regularly. I feel privileged to have worked with them on legislation to protect abused and neglected children, and it is because of their efforts that we were able to pass some reforms this year.
Representatives of our police department and fire department advocated successfully for a bill to provide emergency medical procedures in certain limited situations like a school shooting. They initiated the issue this year, they testified in committees, and they won.
Our police played a key role in passage of a bill to protect victims of theft in instances where precious family jewelry is stolen and melted down too quickly for law enforcement to identify. Our police initiated that issue statewide and stayed at it for three years to get it approved this session.
Our police continue to the fight the problems caused by the production and distribution of meth. Every year, they help legislators pass additional tools to fight this menace, and they keep at it.
Finally, these folks are relentless in keeping focus on the problems caused by unlicensed scooters on our streets. We haven’t reached our goals yet, but I wouldn’t bet against them succeeding.
There are other mentions, too
The brave souls who traveled to Indianapolis more than once to support fair legislation on government consolidation, a concept that isn’t so popular among some of the powerful people in our community.
I’ll always remember the 13-year-old who helped us pass a bill that enables people his age to officiate in sports and earn money. Just try and tell me sports don’t rule!
Or the young man who lives his life in a wheelchair and spends his time courageously advocating for others like himself. He came to Indianapolis to gain support for his fight about lack of access on airplanes for certain wheelchairs. His next stop is Washington, D.C.
An Evansville youth organization spent hours in Indy talking to legislators about the value of effective drug prevention programs. In the end, this group helped get funding in the budget for these programs.
And, I couldn’t end without a shout out for USI (I feel comfortable identifying them by name!). There was a point this session where I thought they would be denied some state support, but thanks to tireless work from administrators — particularly Cindy Brinker — they were able to succeed and the university got the funding they deserved. I couldn’t be more proud.
Do you see a common theme here? Problems are recognized, and people from Evansville don’t stop until they are solved. We aren’t fond of taking no for an answer when we’re doing the right thing.
We’re not perfect here in Evansville. Yes, we have problems. But we don’t run from them. We do something about those problems. It’s called personal responsibility and we’ve got lots of it.
Evansville residents are responsible.
We take initiative. We follow through. We win.
Gail Riecken is a Democratic state representative from Evansville.
But if there’s a fight to be made to defend the city I love, let me be the first to dive in and speak my piece.
I think the people of Evansville would be the first to tell you that we have some problems. That’s one of the things I like about being here.
But let me tell you a few stories about things I have witnessed from my part-time job as a state legislator, just to show you how people here can turn challenges into opportunities.
A while back, I watched a mother from Evansville successfully fight for a bill requiring officials to notify parents when their children are mentioned in crime reports. Why? Her child had been a victim and she didn’t even know about it. She didn’t want other families to go through what her family had suffered.
There is a local attorney in the prosecutor’s office who was involved in that fight and who continues to advocate for an Indiana law for children’s rights.
Our Prosecutor, Nick Hermann, has always been front and center about arranging what we needed at the Statehouse to advocate for legislation. The same goes for our Chief of Police, Billy Bolin.
Our local child protective services get a lot of criticism, but we also must note that their work is so respected in Indianapolis that our city may very well be on the short list as a location for one of the new hotlines being placed outside Indianapolis.
And then there are the other child advocates from Evansville who call and email me regularly. I feel privileged to have worked with them on legislation to protect abused and neglected children, and it is because of their efforts that we were able to pass some reforms this year.
Representatives of our police department and fire department advocated successfully for a bill to provide emergency medical procedures in certain limited situations like a school shooting. They initiated the issue this year, they testified in committees, and they won.
Our police played a key role in passage of a bill to protect victims of theft in instances where precious family jewelry is stolen and melted down too quickly for law enforcement to identify. Our police initiated that issue statewide and stayed at it for three years to get it approved this session.
Our police continue to the fight the problems caused by the production and distribution of meth. Every year, they help legislators pass additional tools to fight this menace, and they keep at it.
Finally, these folks are relentless in keeping focus on the problems caused by unlicensed scooters on our streets. We haven’t reached our goals yet, but I wouldn’t bet against them succeeding.
There are other mentions, too
The brave souls who traveled to Indianapolis more than once to support fair legislation on government consolidation, a concept that isn’t so popular among some of the powerful people in our community.
I’ll always remember the 13-year-old who helped us pass a bill that enables people his age to officiate in sports and earn money. Just try and tell me sports don’t rule!
Or the young man who lives his life in a wheelchair and spends his time courageously advocating for others like himself. He came to Indianapolis to gain support for his fight about lack of access on airplanes for certain wheelchairs. His next stop is Washington, D.C.
An Evansville youth organization spent hours in Indy talking to legislators about the value of effective drug prevention programs. In the end, this group helped get funding in the budget for these programs.
And, I couldn’t end without a shout out for USI (I feel comfortable identifying them by name!). There was a point this session where I thought they would be denied some state support, but thanks to tireless work from administrators — particularly Cindy Brinker — they were able to succeed and the university got the funding they deserved. I couldn’t be more proud.
Do you see a common theme here? Problems are recognized, and people from Evansville don’t stop until they are solved. We aren’t fond of taking no for an answer when we’re doing the right thing.
We’re not perfect here in Evansville. Yes, we have problems. But we don’t run from them. We do something about those problems. It’s called personal responsibility and we’ve got lots of it.
Evansville residents are responsible.
We take initiative. We follow through. We win.
Gail Riecken is a Democratic state representative from Evansville.
