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Am I the only person looking at this polygamist situation and feeling truly grieved for these children and mothers?
I watched an interview with some of the moms, and although I do not wear prairie dresses or wear my hair in a bun, I could see that these are women are just as I would be---truly heartbroken and concerned about their children.
Certainly I am also concerned about the alleged forced marriages and sexual abuse, and in no way do I support such a thing. However, it seems to me to be a very complicated situation. Children who have been raised in as insulated a way as these children seem to have been are not likely to do well in foster homes or regular school. Even if placed in a foster home as compassionate and sensitive as my own home might be, I am sure that probably much of how we live here would be considered wrong, sinful, or frightening to children who have been sheltered so much. Regardless of our opinions about whether or not it is wise or necessary to raise children under such sheltered conditions, it is surely a scary and confusing situation for these children right now. And even if we think it odd or overkill, it is not against the law to wear prairie dresses, never watch TV, go to church a lot, or in general close out the rest of "normal" society.
I do not understand why the mothers have been separated from their children. Why couldn't they set up a way for mothers to care for their own children while being supervised in some way, if they felt that the mothers were a danger to the children (which I do not think is the concern). I cannot imagine that keeping these children in an already overburdened foster care system is necessarily safe or wise. I am not so optimistic as to believe that no harm will come to these children while in state care.
Yes, certainly the anonymous phone call needed to be checked out. Yes, we do not want young girls forced into marriages and turned into baby-making vessels. Yes, we want to protect the innocent. I am just not convinced that this is a good way to go about doing that.
Thursday, April 17, 2008
Texas Polygamy Situation
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3 comments:
I definitely agree with your post. This is such a sad situation all around. I can't even imagine the pain these families are going through.
I am with you. I do not understand this separation - rarely if ever, though, has a state or Fed agency been able to act with wisdom in such a situation. They only have a hammer and every problem is a nail. Even small children and their mothers.
Having been in Social Work, I can testify that almost every Mother loves her child-many for reasons other than ones the Court considers normal. I have seen Mothers allow their boyfriends to kill their child-and testify that they loved their child. I have seen children bruised and broken and had to sit through a Mother's lamantations of true, deep love and motherly feelings. Remember James Jones-those Mothers undoubedly would profess their love for the babies as they held them up to REVEREND Jones for the killer dose! I am somewhat familiar with the CULT (notice NOT "religion") in Texas. Would you marry off your beloved fifteen daughter to a fifty-year-old man to be his seventh spiritual wife? Read yesterdays news-there are many, many cases found-even if the Colorado person is a publicity-seeker who made a false call, nothing justifies child rape...not the religious belief of the Mother or the sperm donor that they need seven wives and fifty-seven children to get into Heaven-NOTHING. To "new to the game" I can't imagine the pain that those girls went/will go through. Concieved by a Mother who KNEW she was raising a daughter to be married as a very young person to an old man-denied schooling at an early age and instead groomed to be raped, no choices in life-and that doesn't even start to include the nine other polyg colonies that these young girls are traded with. "I LOVE you, darling, but tomorrow is your fourteenth birthday and you are menustrating now, pack your bags, your Daddy needs a new wife so you are going to live with Winston Blackmore in Canada as his thirty-first wife. We LOVE you and want only the best for you and Winston is the best, your Daddy's life will be enhanced by the relationship. Go, have sixteen children, you have a fifth-grade education, you have never had anything that daughter's in the outside world have, be happy. Listen closely to the escapees and read their books. It is really true. And what say you about the "Lost Boys" who were kicked out because they represented competition for the girls-oh, I forgot-they were "bad boys"-listened to music on a contraband radio, did they? Assure me that it isn't a game of numbers-one man gets eleven women, do you see ANY young married couple there? ANY courting? Must be there aren't enough girls for boys AND men!
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