BernieHund: The Political Watchdog

I am against child abuse.  Let’s get that fact out in the open.  I detest the idea of a child, or an adult for that matter, being abused either physically or mentally.

That said, I can no longer remain quiet about the Polygamist sect that has been the recent source of so much news coverage.  First of all, like most Americans, even those closest to the situation, I don’t know what went on in the so-called “compound”.  But, I fear that we have been duped into believing that once again our national distaste for anything that isn’t within the general realm of “normal” gives us the right to invade.  Now, it appears that having displaced some 416 children from their families the “authorities” are forced to move forward, pursuing what more and more seems to have been a concocted phone call, just to save face.

Granted, these children have not lived the life most of us lead.  The general appearance of those who have emerged from the compound leads me to think of a scene from Little House on the Prairie.  But, so what?  I have heard condescending comments from some television programs that the women need a new hairdo or a new wardrobe.  Oh, please.  We would question the appearance of these people when we can’t wait to see the next cover of a panty-less Britney Spears flashing the world.  So, let’s just get over the fact that we don’t all dress alike and don’t all wear our hair in the same “fashionable” style.

I can’t say that I am particularly fond of thirteen year old children giving birth.  But, before we go off on some tangent and start condemning these people, let’s look back at our own national history.  My grandmother, born in the late 1800’s was married and had a family by the time she was sixteen.  According to today’s standards, my grandfather would be called an abuser and probably be in jail for statutory rape.  I remember them as a happy couple, who had their struggles and faced hard times, but successfully raised a family of eight children who all turned out pretty well.

Every day in America there are 13 year olds getting pregnant.  I’m not saying that makes it right or wrong.  It is just a fact.  And, it is a fact that over time it has become less palatable to the American public.  We hear stories of our grandparents going to work when they were eleven or twelve to help the family.  Yet, according to today’s standards, our dear young people can do nothing more than play computer games or we call it abuse. 

Eighteen is not a magic number, except for those who believe it is and those who wait to seduce our young people into military service.  I find it difficult to believe that it is so terrible in our eyes to see a sixteen year old married with child, when we are more than willing to hand a gun to an eighteen year old and send him off to war. 

We have also heard about some male member of the compound who reportedly has 22 wives.  And, the crime is?  I know that polygamy is “outlawed” in America.  But, if the gentleman with all the wives can support them and they are happy, why do we feel the need to say they are criminals, to take their children? 

Why don’t we look in the house next door rather than drive to the Texas flatlands?  What about the “nice people” next door who beat their children, or the man who beats his wife?  What about the teenager next door who is pregnant without a husband, or without knowing who the father is?  What about the father next door who sneaks into his daughter’s room at night?  What about the mother who knows her child is being abused by a husband or boyfriend and says nothing?  What about the Catholic Church who apologizes for facilitating pedophilia by promoting one of the facilitators to a higher position in the church?

I’m not supporting what has gone on inside the polygamist compound.  I am not sufficiently knowledgeable to form an opinion or make a judgment.  My point is simply that we love a story when we can point to someone as being different from us.  All too often we point and attack from fear… fear that threatens what we believe or how we live.  So, rather than accept other people and their way of life, we feel the overwhelming need to save them from that which we do not understand.

If there has been real abuse within the confines of the compound, it must be dealt with.  But, I’m not sure that rounding up hundreds of unsuspecting children and herding them off into a world that is foreign to them is the answer.  In fact, I dare say the act of the authorities “for the good of the children” is as detrimental, perhaps more so, than leaving them where they felt safe with those who loved them. 

Of course, while all this has been going on, we have welcomed the Pope to America with open arms, accepting his words of apology for acts of same sex pedophilia.  Sure, the church has paid settlements to many of the abused, a pay-off to make the situation go away.  But, how many of the priests have actually gone to jail?  A very few.  Instead, we have opted to leave the determination of the futures of those who acted against our children to those who allowed it and covered it up. 

We know what went on in the Catholic Church by admission and we have left them alone to deal with it.  Yet, on the whim of a authority figure in Texas we have taken 416 children from their families.  It is not my intention to condemn, damn, or excuse.  Perhaps, we need to better decide exactly what is “for the good of the children.”