Today a large group of children were reunited with their parents (some of the parents are themselves very near to being children) at a West Texas ranch. These reunions were wrong, but that is only because the children should have never been taken out of the ranch to begin with.
I have no problem with polygamy any more than I have a problem with gay marriage or interracial marriage or inter-faith marriages. Consenting adults should be able to live with and have relations with anyone they choose regardless of race, religion or sexuality and the government (federal, state or, in this case, County) should have NOTHING to say or do about it. This IS America and our constitution NEVER gave any government entity the power to regulate interpersonal relationships.
But the problem, you say, at the Yearning For Zion Ranch in Eldorado, Texas was that adults were having sexual relations with minor children and you’re right, if that is a fact, it’s a major problem and it should never be allowed. But what do you do about it?
You DON’T do what the County government did and indiscriminately take every child away from his or her mother. What they should have done is sent people into the ranch — if, indeed, they even had probable cause to do that — gather evidence against the adults who have raped these children and arrest them. Let them have their day in court and prosecute them — if they can.
What they did instead was punish the innocent children (who are now mothers) and many mothers who were of legal age when they conceived, by taking away their children — more than 400 of them.
Sheriff David Doran, the sheriff of the county where the ranch is located, is of course claiming that they did the right thing and, even though no charges have been filed against anyone at the ranch, he says that there will be indictments filed in the next several months. Somehow I doubt that. The Sheriffs department probably broke more laws than the entire population of the ranch; just for starters: they abducted hundreds of children based on an anonymous call by a still unidentified person who may have had ANY motive for making the call and they gathered DNA samples from the children clearly without their parents consent.
Every crime needs a victim and it looks like Sheriff Doran will be hard pressed to find any victims who are willing to testify against any of the rapists. As far as I’ve read, the people at the Yearning For Zion Ranch are there because they believe in the way things are done there.
No, I’m not condoning child rape — I’ll never do that — but the victimization of the supposed victims by the County Sheriff’s Department is not a legal (or even rational) first step in resolving the problem or bringing the perps to a well deserved justice.
News Links:
Associated Press: More sect children reunited with happy parents
News 8 Austin: Inside glimpse of sect’s West Texas ranch
Blog Links:
NIQNAQ: what texans mean by “yearning for zion”
Lobotero’s Weblog: FLDS Children Go Home
3 users commented in " Yearning For Justice in West Texas "
Follow-up comment rss or Leave a TrackbackWhat the local government did in Texas may not have been the right thing to do, but I do believe that something detrimental needed to be done to wake these people up from the nightmare that psychotic Warren Jeffs put them in. As a former polygamist child myself, I would have been intrigued to see the “real world”, and how “normal people” live! The polygamists teach these children that the “outside world is bad, and that they are the chosen few of God” what kind of God choses only a “few” children to be so special as to live a restricted life and have the fear of marrying some total stranger whom you arnt even attracted to? That does not sound like the “father of all fathers to me”. I was terrified that I would have to marry someone that I didnt want, someone I was unattracted to, and have to sleep with him and have as many children with him as my body could give!! It is so sad to me that these children do not get the opportunity to “fall in Love”, and are taught to believe in themselves, and (yes) in God enough that they have the ability to chose their own partner in life!!! This is one of the greatest gifts in life, and to think that “Gods chosen children” dont have the luxury of this gift just never made sense to me…I am happy for the mothers and the children to be reunited, but I do hope and pray that the experience from the raid in Texas will help to open their eyes if only a little bit that their are other options out their, and that the world isnt a bad place. I am more grateful than ever that I had the courage and strength to get out of that insanity years ago!!! And as for the authorities in Texas, thank you for doing something to make these people think about the predicament that they and their children are in, I beleive with all of my heart and soul that something needed to be done, and you did it….God Bless all of you, and God bless the polygamists of Texas that you cared enough about their children to take that risk to help them!!
Dusty
Dustin, you are a dumb as that stupid sheriff in Texas. What they did was illegal, immoral and unjust. They went in there because they do not agree with the lifestyle. Well guess what, that’s what America is supposed to be about. Freedom to live your life the way you want to.
According to you, it’s ok for some nameless person to place an anonymous call and for government to come in to your home and take your children with no evidence whatsoever. God help me from ever living in a country like that.
I hope they get sued for every dime they own.
Dusty,
There is no doubt that what Jeffs and the other Elders are doing to the people at the ranch — and specifically the children — is cruel and inhumane but we are all victims of our circumstances (and very few get to choose their circumstances). On the other hand this does not excuse the intervention by the Sheriff’s Dept — an intervention that, no doubt, took place MAINLY because their lifestyle is not “socially acceptable.”
I agree that “something” needs to be done!
ryanpatton,
You point out that “America is supposed to be about (the)Freedom to live your life the way you want to. Can’t argue with that but I don’t think living your life in ignorance and fear is the way its supposed to work — nor is the the way the majority of the people at the ranch would choose to live their life if they had an option.
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