Where does it end?
My sister and I have been having an interesting discussion about the whole FLDS child-sex scandal that seems to have disappeared from the front pages since Jeremiah Wright stepped up to claim his 15 minutes. I'm tossing out some of my thoughts and asking you all to chime in with what you think. This blog has been a great sounding board in the past and I always come away with a new perspective.
My sister thinks that the state of Texas acted as it should have in removing the all of the children from their homes. I kind of disagree. I am of the mind that evidence should preceed such a traumatic course of action. When the state CPS entered the community and found underage pregnant girls, they should have conducted an investigation. Since the FLDS people were uncooperative in the Q&A they had no alternative but to remove the pregnant girls to verify that they were victims of statutory rape. Unless there were allegations or visible evidence of abuse against the prepubescent children, I don't know why they should have been removed from their mothers and relocated. Yes, yes, I know that more than half of the girls between 14 and 17 have either had or are expecting children. I'm not suggesting that this is acceptable. What I am saying is that you don't traumatize the younger children based on what might happen or what happened to another. You don't remove children from a community because the community at large is rampant with illicit activity. There wouldn't be a child left in the inner city if we held to that standard.
I actually heard one Div. of Family Services representative on CNN say that the absence of toys in the compound was a form of emotional abuse. He announced, as if we'd all find this completely appropriate, that the toylessness constituted a lack of stimulation. I don't know about ya'll but if CPS busts down my door to see if I have enough playstation games or the right kind of books, some poor social worker is going to come to a full understanding of the 2nd amendment.
I've also heard the idea tossed about on Nancy Grace that since this closed FLDS society may be complicit in the whole child-bride/statutory rape business, all of the parents should lose their children and be charged as accomplices to this gross and heinous crime. I'm wondering where this kind of logic will end? I don't want to be responsible or punished for the crimes of my neighbors, do you? My best friend in high school got pregnant our junior year and her boyfriend was 21. No one filed charges. Her doctor didn't ask questions. Since a large percentage of the girls in the school were mothers or were pregnant, I doubt if the counselors or teachers even noticed. Division of Family Services never knocked on her door. No one asked if her mom knew Darnell - of course, she did. She knew they were dating and yet no one removed my friend's younger sister from the home or filed charges against my friend's mom.
Of course, I understand that the presumption in this Texas case is that there is systematic and institutional abuse - but I also remember that others have claimed people like you and I are systematically abusing our children every Sunday morning and most Wednesday nights. And I'm just not sure I trust the government to establish appropriate parameters of parenting. If a lack of toys is considered abuse, it's absolutely foreseeable that a parent smoking in a car with children present could be charged with child endangerment. How about those awful parents who feed their children fast food - first we tax them, then we outlaw the marketing on t.v., and the next thing you know... your kid's in foster care. It's an oversimplification but it's what has happened and continues to happen with cigarettes, isn't it?
Seems like I've strayed from statutory rape, huh? In the FLDS case, all the overaged fathers should face charges. And mothers and children should have routine home inspections until it is clear that this child-bride business is a thing of the past. As far as the polygamy goes, well, unless there are actual bigamists among them, the FLDS can call their version of swinging or shacking up whatever they want to and it's not going to bother me. So long as we don't stoop to legitimizing the behavior, they can do whatever in their own homes. If you are going to hold everyone to the standard of no extramarital sex, there are going to be a lot more people in jail that the couple of hundred at ElDorado. And if, as seems to be a major concern with some of the on air analysts, the issue of abusing the welfare system bothers you - think about how many Jerry Springer guests have several "babies' daddies" and are swiping their EBT cards all over town.
Again, I'm not defending these people, I'm just wondering how the law is going to be applied equally when others are committing the same acts but don't live in communes.
I heard of another case very close to me that illustrates an even graver concern. The 3rd grade daughter in from a loving family with no history, or even allegation, of abuse was found dead in the home. No immediate cause of death was determined. DFS removed all the siblings from the home and placed them in foster care. Eventually, with the help of determined lawyers and some wiser-than-the-coroner M.D.s, the couple regained custody of their children after it was shown that the child had a seizure and the death was caused naturally. Apparently, grieving the loss of their child wasn't enough, the state decided that since they had no explanation for her death - it must be the parent's fault. Sound crazy? Consider the case of a West Virginia woman who was forced to share custody with her daughter's babysitter. Or the case of a new mother struggling with a sick baby who was falsely accused of Munchausen by proxy and lost her baby to DSS. How about the parents (guessing they are Jehovah's Witnesses?) who refused a blood draw on their 6 week old and then the sheriff showed up on the door step and took baby Joel away.
When I think about what is happening in Texas, I wonder where the line is for government intervention. Were two year olds really in danger in the compound? Nursing babies? There weren't allegation of abuse for those children, were there? Were they removed for lack of toys or the probabilty of being raised in a kooky environment? Were they removed to prevent future abuse by men who ought to be in jail before they even come of "spiritual marriage" age? Isn't that kind of Minority Report? What do you guys think?
