I don't know why this particular aspect of this particular news item gets to me, but I am really feeling ticked off about it.
It's all over the news that police in Texas recently raided the polygamist compound led by Warren Jeffs. News stories like that are fine, except when they start talking about all the poor mothers that are worried about their kids who were taken in the raid.
Example: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080414/ap_on_re_us/polygamist_retreat
The problem I have with this: are any of these the same mothers who shut doors in the faces of their 13 - 17 year old sons, boys who were exiled from the same Warren Jeffs communities, ostensibly for infractions like kissing a girl or owning a rap CD, but actually because there are just too many boys/men competing for multiple wives?
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2005/jun/14/usa.julianborger
I just can't get this out of my head and I wish someone in the news would point it out. Maybe if I post about it I can move on and not think about it any more. It just makes me so mad. These women abandoned their children. So I have a hard time having sympathy for them when they're worried their "worthwhile" children will get colds.
It's all over the news that police in Texas recently raided the polygamist compound led by Warren Jeffs. News stories like that are fine, except when they start talking about all the poor mothers that are worried about their kids who were taken in the raid.
Example: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080414/ap_on_re_us/polygamist_retreat
The problem I have with this: are any of these the same mothers who shut doors in the faces of their 13 - 17 year old sons, boys who were exiled from the same Warren Jeffs communities, ostensibly for infractions like kissing a girl or owning a rap CD, but actually because there are just too many boys/men competing for multiple wives?
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2005/jun/14/usa.julianborger
I just can't get this out of my head and I wish someone in the news would point it out. Maybe if I post about it I can move on and not think about it any more. It just makes me so mad. These women abandoned their children. So I have a hard time having sympathy for them when they're worried their "worthwhile" children will get colds.
A few months ago, I read the book "Escape" by Carolyn Jessop, who escaped from the sect before they left Colorado City. It was really enlightening. While I feel the same about the mothers they keep interviewing (do they know how ridiculous they sound?), the book does somewhat show why they act that way.
ReplyDeleteThanks Jenn, I'll have to get a hold of that book.
ReplyDeleteI hear ya sister. Every time I see one of those women crying on the news I feel super frustrated about what their children would have to go through when if they were sent home. But, on the other hand, most of those women were probably raised in the compound themselves. I don't think they see the world right.
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