Augusta Chronicle Editorial Staff
One thing is certain in the case of the 416 children seized at a polygamist ranch in Texas: No one will win.
It will be nearly impossible for a judge to dispose of that many alleged abuse/neglect cases in any acceptable way, even -- or perhaps especially -- dealing with them as one single case.
Moreover, how can any government official bridge the cultural gorge between mainstream America, and its laws, and a commune that has been secretive, secluded and sequestered for generations? Many of the "Yearning for Zion" ranch women, who appear almost robotic even when wailing about the seizure of their children, may never have spoken to outsiders before. Watching them being interviewed by television news crews was akin to viewing the arrival of a flying saucer's inhabitants. There was a shared language, certainly, but little else in common.
It might as well be the court case of State v. Mars .
This is what you get when laws are flouted in the bright Texas sun for years. When prohibitions against polygamy and child marriage are openly ignored, and governments look the other way for decades. When the definition of marriage isn't even certain anymore.
You get a huge mess, a traumatic and sudden clash of cultures that's triggered when some alarm -- in this case a call from a mysterious alleged 16-year-old abuse victim -- shakes authorities awake to go do something about it all.
That "something" is a highly delicate matter, particularly in the Land of the Free. People have a right to be cloistered, eccentric, oddly religious, left alone. They have a right to raise their children as they see fit, as long as no crimes are committed. And the government had better be doggone careful, pretty certain in their suspicions of imminent peril to the children, before taking them away from their mothers thusly.
On the other hand, the right to be left alone does not include the right to abuse children, to violate marriage laws and to make underage girls unwilling and perhaps unwitting brides and child-bearing vessels to dirty old men.
Yet, taking even one child out of a home is one of the toughest things a social worker will ever do. Imagine taking 416 at one time.
There's an inherent danger in Texas' "Sam's Club" approach to this case. Does the cry for help from one alleged 16-year-old girl give the state legal cover to seize 415 others?
Some of those tears on TV seemed awfully scripted, even manipulative. And when reporters asked legitimate questions about underage marriages and such, the mothers sure clammed up or tried to change the subject.
But they're still mothers. And the state has taken their children.
The state had better hope it has the goods. Otherwise, it might do more harm than good.
Nobody will win in this case. But there's a whole lot of folks on all sides who stand to lose.
