Maybe I am just an old hillbilly....and yes this is about the Polygamy case, if you are tired of reading about it, go read a good book!

My ancestors, my great grandparents, were mostly all from the hills of Kentucky. When you hear people talk about "hill billys' "hill folk" etc...these are the kind of people I come from. Granted long gone are the moonshine stills and the shanty shacks down in the hollar, but the banjo picking, whiskey sluggin, good timin', barefoot and pregnant mentality still runs deep and strong in our blood. Much like many other people whose roots are sewn deep into the Kentucky hills. It's nothing for you to find me on my front porch in my nightgown sneaking a cigarette before my kids wake up...I'd probably hollar 'mornin'! and invite you in for breakfast. It's just the kind of people we are.

My great great grandfather was rumored to have two wives living and one deceased. He had a total of 21 children in his lifetime. He was not Mormon, or in any way affiliated with organized religion. But the practice of plural family was apparently not unheard of in these parts.

Since the YFZ raid I have been educating myself more and more on the actual FACTS of this case rather than the drama that the media seems to be reporting as facts. Listening to people who know these families, reading their own words and their accounts of what happened the day their children were ripped away from them. (were tanks and machine guns really necessary?) And the ages of the few child brides they have found are being listed here there and everywhere.....

Now I understand that times have changed, now that we are more 'civilized'...(whatever) and as I have stated numerous times I am not condoning a forced marriage between a child and man old enough to be her grandpa. But my grandmother was wed at the age of 15, gave birth to 9 Children, Had 21+ Grandchildren and had about 15 great grandchildren and even got to hold a few great-great grandbabies. Her life was hard, their early years were spent as farm hands living in a shack, but she was a devout Baptist, God Fearin' woman and she was proud of her family. And what an honor to look back on this life you created!

My other grandmother, not of this Kentucky clan, but actually from an upper middle class family with roots in England, married weeks after she turned 16. She graduated high school as a Mrs. This was not shot gun wedding, babies didn't come along for a few more years, and she was certainly not the only "Mrs." to wear a cap and gown at Graduation. This family lived a more normal white bread type of existence, no whiskey still, or even a whiskey jug would ever be found on their property, but they married young.

Back to my point. When I tell people the story of my Kentucky kin, they tend to listen, wide eyed because it seems so shocking that my great grandpa had 2 wives and 21 kids. And that my grandma married so young seems 'tragic'. No, there was nothing tragic about it, that was the marryin' age back then. Grandma would tell you that. She didn't think twice about. Hell look at Loretta Lynn, she married Dolittle Lynn when she was 14. They were Kentucky hill folk too...

The men were hard workin', hard drinkin', hard lovin' God fearin' men. The women were devoted to their families and made a good life for their kids on next to nothing. Life was hard and people from the hills weren't looked on too kindly by the towns folk. They were different...backward...ignorant...

Are we not doing the same thing to these people? Maybe I am just making too much out of this, but these people are living how they choose to live. Based on their faith. And my grandmother willingly married a man older than her at the age of 15 and gave him 9 children. Willingly.....And they celebrated their 60th wedding anniversary before Grandpa passed away. Grandma is gone now too and I miss her terribly. The funny thing is she was a fiercely devout Baptist and I know exactly what she'd say about all this....we would definitely have a heated debate. Sometimes I can hear her in my ear when I am posting my liberal views online. "You mean you are gonna actually say that!! Jada...shame on you, that just ain't right!" LOL!

Ok my point, my simple little point to this extremely long blog. Personally I feel like 14 and 15 is a little too young. But if a 16 year old girl, whose whole life is centered around her faith and her destiny to enter into a plural marriage, receives an offer of marriage, believed to be divined by God, what business is it of ours if she wants to do it. I know times are different....but for these people times are not different. They are suspended in time, a time more like my Grandma's era where you earned your supper by the sweat of your brow and bowed your head and thanked God every night for giving you the strength to do it. This whole 'Raid' issue is looking more and more like a hoax called into CPS to validate a religious witch hunt.

That's just my opinion on the matter...I don't expect the closed minded area I live in to agree with me, but I'll tell anyone who will listen, we have done a serious mis-justice to these people. They have been proven guilty before innocent, have had no chance to defend themselves against the mounting misinformation, and the public seems to be lapping it up like the latest celebrity scandal. Why do we like to watch people suffer for being different.......