A Texas appeals court ruled today that state child welfare authorities had no right to seize dozens of children living at the ranch of a polygamist religious sect, saying they were in no immediate danger of abuse.It isn't necessary to have any respect for the beliefs of any LDS cult, "fundamentalist" or otherwise, to recognize that one kind of wrong does not justify a far worse wrong: that which our supervisors practice against us every day. Only occasionally does the wrong perpetrated by the "legal" gangsters who feed from our taxes become spectacular enough to be deemed newsworthy by the modern lapdog press. It goes on all the same, though.
The 3rd Court of Appeals in Austin ruled in favor of 48 mothers seeking the return of more than 130 children who had been living at a ranch near Eldorado, Tex., associated with the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.
An attorney for the women said the ruling is likely to become a precedent for other mothers seeking the return of the 468 children in all who were taken from the ranch last month by the Texas Department of Family and Protective Services.
In due course, I suppose some "higher" court yet will reverse the appellate court in Austin, and the State will continue its work. Meanwhile ... who knows? It's pleasant to see a "Department of Family and Protective Services" (ha!) and the tame judge who served as its cat's-paw get smacked upside the head, if only temporarily.
3 comments:
I have a gut feeling (no proof, just a gut feeling) that there's more to both sides of this than what we've heard/ read/ seen. I read a really interesting book over Christmas break about a woman who lived in such a community for 30+ years. My impression is that some aspects she really adored and believed, while others came to be nice ideals but almost physically impossible - i.e. being forced to have multiple pregnancies when when each one nearly killed her.
I'd like to see mroe attention paid to how many fo teh second, third, etc. wives qualify for food stamps and get aid from the state.
I'm sure you're right. Myself, I assume that the FLDS is pretty much scum. I just have much less concern about scummy folk who don't get paid out of my pocket than I have about the lawless "law-enforcement" types who do feed out of all our pockets, and act in our names, and who increasingly conduct themselves as an occupying army.
Forgive the cliche, but: "I said nothing when they came for the Fundamentalist LDS, because I'm not a polygamous cultist. And when they came for me, there was no one left to say anything."
My feeling hs always been that consenting adults can do whatever they like in terms of relationships, monogamy, swinging, etc. I also think that some people have more sense at nine than others do at nineteen. That having been said, I worry about fifteen year old mothers and about the genetic consequences of having children with your cousin.
I know that in some polygamous families, welfare and food stamps form an important part of the financial support for the second wives onward. That's where I get nervous - my tax dollars?
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