Has the Constitution just disappeared? FLDS update..

I am watching the FDLS parents finally speaking out to the media about the loss of their children on the today show. I am heartsick once again over this situation. Weren't we told that siblings would be kept together? That every effort would be made to be sure that these children weren't furthered traumatized by being separated from the only people left in their lives that share their common faith, lives and memories? Ummm apparently that was big talk for the media. Fodder to soothe the growing population of 'normal' Americans who are outraged by this event. The two couples on the show today have kids spread out over 900 miles. The mothers are allowed to visit 1 hour per week, and the fathers are not allowed any contact. So they drive for days to see their kids for an hour....then drive for days to see more of their kids. Even though the state has no proof against any of these individual fathers of any kind of misconduct or abuse.

One of the mothers stated that her 23 year old daughter is being held, along with her 2 year old daughter because CPS believes she is a minor. This woman has a driver's license and a birth certificate stating her age...CPS refuses to believe her. (I am aware that these could be forged, but would you go on national television and advertise a forged document when you know the media will investigate it?) She is one of their smoking guns. They believe her to be 16, which would put her at age 14 at the time of her daughter's birth. But if there is legal evidence that the woman is 23 freakin' years old what kind of beast are we dealing with here???? This is the most ridiculous and dangerous turn of events I have heard yet. If the American people allow this to continue, we are putting all American citizens at risk for civil rights violations at the whim of the government. What's next? Arresting all Muslim men for being potential terrorists? Arresting all Catholic priests for being potential pedophiles? Or better yet, sieze their families because we have no grounds to arrest them.... We need to think about the ramifications of all this. Just because we don't agree with their lifestyle does not give our government the right to march in and steal their children.

One father said this morning exactly what I have been saying all along. "This would be just like any average citizen living in a gated community having their children taken away from them because their neighbor abused his kids" (not the exact quote, I can't remember it verbatim)

My prayers are with those mothers right now. I would die without my children.

I have also recently read that the state has taken custody of an unborn child...an FDLS woman who is pregnant has already lost custody of her child before she has even given birth....how is this happening? I understand that there may be abuse occuring in some of these families or households, I do get it, but what I don't get is how we can take an entire popluation of children away from their parents based on a single false phone call. I look at it this way, I run a home day care. What if one of my parents got pissed off at me and called DCFS (Illinois's version of CPS) and claimed I hurt my children. Would they just march in here, remove my kids and take them 900 miles away? NO THEY WOULD NOT! They would investigate. They would go through proper channels to be sure that my kids were safe and that my husband and I were stable and loving parents. At worst they would remove the abuser from the home. They would go to every effort to keep the children and the family unit together until it was proved to be an unsafe situation. Why were these people not granted those same services? If CPS is supposed to be looking out for the family as well as the children, why have they destroyed so many families, and frankly destroyed the futures of these children. Many of them will never recover from this trauma.

Just my humble opinion....

I am glad the FDLS community is finally speaking out. All of us should have the right to live in private if we so choose...it is supposed to be one of our rights granted by the Constitution, but these people have been forced to go public. The fact that they are willing do so proves their dedication to their children.