This column was originally published by Sheila Kennedy on her blog, “A Jaundiced Look at the World We Live In.”
By Sheila Kennedy
May12, 2025
My sister was one of those Hoosiers who once held out hope that Indiana’s Senator Todd Young would grow a spine. After all–unlike Senator Jim Banks–he appears to have a working brain and at least a dim understanding of the current constitutional crisis. But after several attempts to communicate with him, she concluded direct messaging was useless–that he is simply more concerned with retaining his seat in the Senate than in fulfilling his constitutional duties or protecting the common good. Frustrated, she has written an “open letter” to him, and sent it to local media outlets.
I don’t know whether those media outlets will print it, but today I am reproducing–and enthusiastically endorsing– it.
______________
Senator Young,
I am one of the many constituents who have written, phoned, and/or visited your
office, and given the non-responsive form letters I’ve received in return, I seriously
doubt if any of my concerns have been heard, so I am writing this open letter in hopes
that someone will share it with you. (I have not made a similar effort to communicate
with Senator Banks, who is clearly a lost cause, but due to previous actions and
remarks on your part, I had hoped you might be more independent, more open to
reason – thus your recent behavior has disappointed me greatly.)
You were a Marine. You are currently a member of Congress. In both of those
capacities, you swore an oath to uphold the Constitution. You did not swear allegiance
to a person or a party, but to our founding document – to a set of principles. You
continue to violate that oath in multiple ways.
In spite of his obvious gross incompetence and lack of qualifications for the job, you
voted to confirm Pete Hegseth as Secretary of Defense, putting the lives of service
members and the national security of our country at risk. You put your loyalty to a cult
leader ahead of concern for the health of your constituents by confirming another
grossly unqualified candidate – a conspiracy theorist without any scientific background
– as head of the HHS. You ignored questions about the dependability of Tulsi Gabbard
to guard sensitive information necessary to the safety of our country. These are just
three of the many example of times you have shirked your duty.
The United States is in a crisis, one that could be somewhat mitigated if only a few
Republicans would put country before party and the good of the people before their
own self-interest – if they would remember their oath to uphold the Constitution and
take back the power it grants them and which they have so cravenly ceded to a
wannabe dictator.
You could help negate Trump’s executive orders, most of which are grossly illegal. You
could help counter the horrific consequences of Elon Musk’s attempts to destroy
government agencies that provide critical services to your constituents. (And whose
actions have, coincidentally, put an end to several of those agencies’ investigations
into his very questionable business dealings.) How does cutting off funding for cancer
research or Alzheimer’s disease benefit the residents of Indiana? How will gutting
Education and the Arts help citizens of this (already under-educated) state? Tell me
how your own children will benefit from leaving them an environment with less
breathable air, drinkable water, and safe food. How do you think women and other
marginalized groups in Indiana feel about being returned to second class citizenship,
and how do citizens on the edge of retirement—many of them Hoosiers who have
struggled for years to put food on their tables– feel about the GOP’s vicious proposed
cuts to Social Security and Medicaid?.
In my almost 78 years (several of which I spent as a member of a Republican Party that
no longer exists), I have never seen an administration that is so brazenly corrupt.
History will record that every member of Congress who failed to protest this
corruption, who cravenly enabled our would-be autocrat, was complicit in that
corruption.
It’s probably just as well that former principled Republicans such as William
Ruckelshaus, Dick Lugar, and Bill Hudnut are not here to see the debacle you have
made of a once Grand Old Party.
_________
Those of you who are so inclined might forward a copy of the letter to Young’s office, with a note suggesting your agreement with its message. Given the sentiments expressed at Young’s “empty chair” Town Hall, it’s clear my sister speaks for a significant number of angry Hoosiers…..
Sheila Suess Kennedy is Emerita Professor of Law and Public Policy at the School of Public and Environmental Affairs at Indiana University Purdue University Indianapolis. As an attorney, she practiced real estate, administrative and business law in Indianapolis before becoming corporation counsel for the City of Indianapolis in 1977. In 1980, she was the Republican candidate for Indiana’s then 1th Congressional District and in 1992, she became executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Indiana. She joined the faculty of the School of Public and Environment al Affairs in 1998.
The views and opinions expressed are those of the author only and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Indiana Citizen or any other affiliated organization.
