POINT | Mayor wrong to chastise family-focused lawmakers

Guest column by Rep. Bethany Soye

As a legislator I feel compelled to respond to Mayor Paul TenHaken’s recent comment asking the state Legislature to “stay out of culture war issues and focus on the core needs of delivering services.” One wonders what he means by a “culture war.”

I think it can be defined by stating what he clearly thinks does not fall under that category: spending. The Mayor believes that the government exists in order to tax its residents for the purpose of providing goods and services. This is a sad departure from what the founders of our country and state believed the purpose of government was: to protect the rights of the people. Our founders would never have dreamed of government bodies building houses, providing healthcare or paying for childcare. They would have anticipated government officials standing up for the rights of parents and protecting the vulnerable.

One of the areas specifically given to the state Legislature under the South Dakota Constitution is public education. The reason for the creation of our public school system is set out in our South Dakota Constitution in Article 8, Section 1: “The stability of a republican form of government depending on the morality and intelligence of the people…” This leads me to the specific policy called out by the Mayor in his complaint against “culture wars.” The bill in question is House Bill 1197 from the 2024 Legislative Session. This bill required public schools and libraries to create and publish a policy explaining how the institution attempts to keep children from accessing obscene materials. This bill passed unanimously in both the House and Senate. That means that every representative and senator from the Sioux Falls area, including Democrats, supported the bill. How is that an evil culture war?

VIEWPOINT | Kids need freedom