Rewinding history
So much for a slow Sunday.
Our big plan today was to get up and attend services at the First Baptist Church. We were interested in seeing how the congregation might be feeling after three days of hosting the FLDS members taken off the YFZ Ranch in Eldorado.
I have never been to a Baptist service, either.
But that plan got scrapped before I even got out of bed. I got a call from a Utah woman who had flow into town to help provide ''cultural competence'' training for the Child Protective Services workers interviewing the FLDS women and children. Less than an hour later, we were in town.
During events like this, authorities don't announce their plans. You have to pick up what is happening by watching. And luckily, that is easy in a little town like Eldorado.
We spotted buses driving in from San Angelo around 9 a.m. while we waited to meet someone at the corner of County Road 300. By the time the sixth bus had rolled by, we were rolling too. We followed them to the government center, figured out they were staging to take the women and children to San Angelo and went to the church to wait and watch.
I don't know how this thing is going to end or even all the reasons authorities went into the ranch. I suspect there is more to this than we currently know. I don't know what they’ve found up there; I don't know what they have heard from the people they've detained. I don't know what they’ve seen.
Whatever it is, I hope it justifies all this.
As it is, I feel I am watching history unfold -- and repeat itself.
Allegations of child abuse/neglect and underage brides were raised way back in 1953 when Arizona authorities took over 250 women and children out of Short Creek, the community now known as Hildale, Utah, and Colorado City, Ariz.
They're being raised again now.
In 1953, Arizona authorities monitored the people for a few days in the community, feeding them in a chow line set up in a field, and then loaded them on buses for a long drive to Phoenix.
Women were allowed to stay with their children, but the men were separated out.
The women and children were kept in state custody for two years.
Can't say ''ditto'' yet, but it appears no one is going home any time soon. A spokeswoman said today that Child Protection Services has 30 days to finish its investigation.
And the state has already taken legal custody of 18 girls -- exactly why, no one is saying. Are the teens in danger of being married off? Are they pregnant? Have they been abused, neglect, deprived of an education?
The media corps, me included, are getting restless for specifics -- particularly from law enforcement.
Some people are describing this as a kinder, gentler action than happened in 1953.
I don't think that description works when you're talking about young children -- and there are hundreds of them involved here -- who've been taken from their homes and made to stay in a church hall or civic center and then military outpost, all in the space of three days. And they face the prospect of other moves to strange locales, too.
Trent's photos of the joy and sadness a group of women showed earlier this evening when reunited at Fort Concho in San Angelo show the stress these people are under.
We were told Friday there would be a court hearing Monday. Now no one seems to know whether there will be a court hearing at all.
We have heard nothing about what may happen to the men at the ranch, but you have to wonder if they will need to hold them, too, while they figure out whether any one has been abused or neglected.
So, the news from Texas? No end in sight yet.
Our big plan today was to get up and attend services at the First Baptist Church. We were interested in seeing how the congregation might be feeling after three days of hosting the FLDS members taken off the YFZ Ranch in Eldorado.
I have never been to a Baptist service, either.
But that plan got scrapped before I even got out of bed. I got a call from a Utah woman who had flow into town to help provide ''cultural competence'' training for the Child Protective Services workers interviewing the FLDS women and children. Less than an hour later, we were in town.
During events like this, authorities don't announce their plans. You have to pick up what is happening by watching. And luckily, that is easy in a little town like Eldorado.
We spotted buses driving in from San Angelo around 9 a.m. while we waited to meet someone at the corner of County Road 300. By the time the sixth bus had rolled by, we were rolling too. We followed them to the government center, figured out they were staging to take the women and children to San Angelo and went to the church to wait and watch.
I don't know how this thing is going to end or even all the reasons authorities went into the ranch. I suspect there is more to this than we currently know. I don't know what they’ve found up there; I don't know what they have heard from the people they've detained. I don't know what they’ve seen.
Whatever it is, I hope it justifies all this.
As it is, I feel I am watching history unfold -- and repeat itself.
Allegations of child abuse/neglect and underage brides were raised way back in 1953 when Arizona authorities took over 250 women and children out of Short Creek, the community now known as Hildale, Utah, and Colorado City, Ariz.
They're being raised again now.
In 1953, Arizona authorities monitored the people for a few days in the community, feeding them in a chow line set up in a field, and then loaded them on buses for a long drive to Phoenix.
Women were allowed to stay with their children, but the men were separated out.
The women and children were kept in state custody for two years.
Can't say ''ditto'' yet, but it appears no one is going home any time soon. A spokeswoman said today that Child Protection Services has 30 days to finish its investigation.
And the state has already taken legal custody of 18 girls -- exactly why, no one is saying. Are the teens in danger of being married off? Are they pregnant? Have they been abused, neglect, deprived of an education?
The media corps, me included, are getting restless for specifics -- particularly from law enforcement.
Some people are describing this as a kinder, gentler action than happened in 1953.
I don't think that description works when you're talking about young children -- and there are hundreds of them involved here -- who've been taken from their homes and made to stay in a church hall or civic center and then military outpost, all in the space of three days. And they face the prospect of other moves to strange locales, too.
Trent's photos of the joy and sadness a group of women showed earlier this evening when reunited at Fort Concho in San Angelo show the stress these people are under.
We were told Friday there would be a court hearing Monday. Now no one seems to know whether there will be a court hearing at all.
We have heard nothing about what may happen to the men at the ranch, but you have to wonder if they will need to hold them, too, while they figure out whether any one has been abused or neglected.
So, the news from Texas? No end in sight yet.
1 Comments:
Great post, Brooke. My take is that this is more about the uneasiness of having a polygamist community in Baptist country than child abuse.
Having the government raid an entire community and abduct children and women based on the report of one abuse is something our Founding Fathers might not completely agree with. Abuse is wrong and should be dealt with--no doubt. But I'm not sure whether history will look favorably on that one.
Thanks again for keeping us updated.
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