Free the Children - Action

Texas Supreme Court rules in favor of FLDS!

2008-05-29T14:22:00.000-07:00

http://www.sltrib.com/ci_9417661

Please thank all those involved in the most appropriate way!

(see sidebar for links)

Texas Supreme Court

2008-05-24T12:53:00.000-07:00

(see sidebar for "where to write")

http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/news/texassouthwest/stories/052408dntexfldsappeals.1faec58d.html

Texas Supreme Courts e-mail: webmaster@courts.state.tx.us
http://www.supreme.courts.state.tx.us/court/clerksofc.asp
(including your name and adress, helps to show you are a real person)

update

2008-05-24T12:24:00.001-07:00

(see sidebar for "where to write")

http://www.charlotte.com/nation/story/637651.html

"This case is ... about the need for the department to take action under difficult, time-sensitive and unprecedented circumstances," the state agency said in its appeal.

TRLA
http://trla.wordpress.com/2008/05/23/flds-mothers-continue-legal-battle-against-cps/
Say thankyou by helping TRLA http://www.trla.org/

(including your name and adress, helps to show you are a real person)

Free

2008-05-22T12:48:00.001-07:00

(see sidebar for "where to write")
Document: http://i.cdn.turner.com/cnn/2008/images/05/22/texas.court.pdf

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080522/ap_on_re_us/polygamist_retreat

"The existence of the FLDS belief system as described by the department's witnesses, by itself, does not put children of FLDS parents in physical danger," the court said in its ruling, overturning the order to keep the children by state District Judge Barbara Walther

She said Walther has 10 days to comply with the appeals court ruling.

Please thank TRLA http://www.trla.org/

(including your name and adress, helps to show you are a real person)

Give me liberty or give me death

2008-05-21T08:11:00.000-07:00

(see sidebar for "where to write")

http://www.ksl.com/index.php?nid=481&sid=3348643

In one hearing, CPS officials acknowledged taking copies of the Book of Mormon from FLDS children. "And CPS is now going through those Books of Mormon, looking for marginal notes and censoring anything that they, quote, ‘disapprove of or find inappropriate.' And I think that that is wrong," Parker said.
CPS spokesman Patrick Crimmins says it may only be one case where authorities removed pictures and teachings of Warren Jeffs from some scriptures, then gave the books back. He says, "We obviously don't have any quarrel with the Book of Mormon, or the Bible, or the Koran." He says the problem is when children are reading the words of a convicted sex offender like Warren Jeffs.

This is seriously the most offensive thing I have ever heard in my life.

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Service plan hearings start today

2008-05-19T16:17:00.000-07:00

(see sidebar for "where to write")

http://www.star-telegram.com/state_news/story/641425.html

"The next round of hearings for the children will begin Monday in San Angelo with officials using five courtrooms at once.
The hearings, which must be held 60 days after the seizure of a child, will not address custody issues but will focus on service plans -- essentially a contract between CPS and parents that lists priorities, Meisner said. Each child and parent will receive one.
Parents must follow CPS guidelines if they want to eventually retain custody of their children. But Parker said the service plans require the parents "to sign off on CPS' version of events" and essentially renounce their religion."

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Thankyou Texas RioGrande Legal Aid (TRLA)

2008-05-17T05:28:00.001-07:00

(I also meant to post this a while ago.)
http://www.sltrib.com/ci_9207759
Please let Texas RioGrande Legal Aid (TRLA) know we apreciate them helping the FLDS parents.
http://www.trla.org/
(including your address helps show you are a real person.)

Mental health workers

2008-05-17T04:42:00.000-07:00

see "where to write" in sidebar
http://www.sltrib.com/ci_9238520
To tell these people thankyou for publisizing this: http://www.dshs.state.tx.us/contact.shtm

(If you include your name and adress when you contact them, it helps show authorities you are a real person.)

Thankyou ACLU

2008-05-17T04:41:00.000-07:00

Sorry, I meant to post this earlier.
http://www.aclu.org/religion/gen/35123res20080502.html
Please let ACLU know we appreciate them recognizing the FLDS Texas case.
http://www.aclutx.org/contact.php
thankyou.

Letter to President Bush

2008-05-12T07:02:00.000-07:00

The FLDS people have written a letter to President Bush.
http://www.captivefldschildren.org/Pres%20Bush%20Letter%205-10-08.pdf
Please let him know we support this letter.
President George W. Bush president@whitehouse.gov
http://www.whitehouse.gov/contact/

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Immunizing the FLDS children

2008-05-11T11:00:00.000-07:00

(see sidebar for adresses to write to)
http://www.sltrib.com/news/ci_9209950
Patrick Crimmins, department spokesman. "We're the legal parents of the children and we would like for them to be immunized."
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Rejecting a very reasonable appeal

2008-05-11T10:10:00.000-07:00

(see sidebar for addresses to write to)

The appeal http://religionclause.blogspot.com/2008/05/new-appeal-filed-by-flds-mothers-in.html
http://deseretnews.com/pdf/mandamus.pdf
the answer (no)
http://www.sltrib.com/ci_9207759

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Address the unjust FLDS hearing

2008-05-11T08:59:00.000-07:00

(please see sidebar for where to write)

Please address the injustice of the April 17 and 18, FLDS custody hearing. I commend CPS in their righteous desire to discover whether any of the 400+ flds children have suffered real or threatened physical force or abuse. If this had been declared as the original purpose in taking the flds children away from their parents, I would not now be ashamed to be called a citizen of The United States of America. As a voting citizen of a democrocy, I am personally accountable for any injustices committed in the name of the govt. that represents me - unless I make every legal effort to address these injustices!
THE NUMBER OF CONFIRMED CASES OF ABUSE, (IF ANY), WILL NOT CHANGE MY OUTRAGE AT THE APRIL 17 AND 18, FLDS CUSTODY HEARING AND THE WRONGS AGAINST FREEDOM THEREIN COMMITTED BY IT!It is my understanding that the April 17 and 18, FLDS custody hearing ruled that teaching unconditional obedience (regardless of the method used) accompanied by spedific beliefs (whether these beliefs were acted upon or not), constituted abuse. Further, the specific belief that I hold sacred, that the pinnacle of my existence is to bear children, was used as evidence that people (whether children or not) were incapable of making their own decisions. The April 17 and 18, FLDS custody hearing has infringed on my most sacred human rights. It has infringed on my human right to believe whatever I want (even if acting on that belief is against the law.)It has infringed on the most basic and sacred form of free speach, my freedom to teach my own children regardless of whether public opinion, or the law, agree with what I am teaching!It has infringed on my most sacred role of MOTHERHOOD, claiming that motherhood is so unfit to be the pinnacle of ones existance, that only those incapable of making decisions themselves would choose it as such! Thankyou for your time. Please address these significant grievances.

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Breastfeeding (Thankyou)

2008-05-11T08:51:00.000-07:00

Please send thankyou notes to Judge Barbara Walthers for keeping breastfeeding infants under a year with their mothers. It is hard for many of us to change our minds and admit our first reactions were wrong. She deserves to be recognized for her courage in admitting her mistake!
(scroll down on this page for her address)
http://www.tjpc.state.tx.us/publications/other/searchjuvprobdirectory_results.asp?page=16&SelectedCountyNumber=000&SelectedPosition=JUDG&SelectedSearchText=&SelectedSortBy=NAME&RowsPerPage=50&SelectedOutput=T

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Genocide

2008-05-11T08:47:00.000-07:00

Pastor Martin Neimoller supported the Nazis until he realized, too late, what they were really about and was sent to Dachau concentration camp.

First they came for the Communists, and I didn’t speak up, because I wasn’t a Communist.
Then they came for the Social Democrats, and I didn’t speak up, because I wasn’t a Social Democrat.
Then they came for the Trade Unionists, and I didn’t speak up, because I wasn’t a Trade Unionist.
Then they came for the Jews,and I didn't speak up, because I wasn't a Jew,
Then they came for me, and by that time there was no one left to speak up for me.

- Pastor Martin Neimoller

The flds people may do many things others find horrifying. In the minds of many, this seems to justify what has happened. The actual reasons officially given for taking the children away, and the ruling of the judge to put them into foster care, are that they teach unconditional obedience, and believe that underage marriage is not wrong. There was no mention of specific cases of abusive actions, only the belief that underage marriage was not wrong. There was no mention of abusive methods of teaching, only that the children were taught to be obedient.
The official paper stating why the children were removed: http://web.gosanangelo.com/pdf/affidavit.pdf (the first part just goes over the alleged phone call of abuse - the reason for taking the children starts on page 5 with, "While searching for the teenage mother..."
The court proceedings (must be read from the bottom up, by times): http://www.gosanangelo.com/news/2008/apr/17/live-from-the-courthouse-updates-ON-FLDS-CUSTODY/
Scond day (read the same way) warning, might make you cry if you have children : http://www.gosanangelo.com/news/2008/apr/18/live-from-the-courthouse-day-2-of-updates-from/

Definition of genocide
...any of the following acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group, as such:
(a) Killing members of the group;
(b) Causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group;
(c) Deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part;
(d) Imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group;
(e) Forcibly transferring children of the group to another group.
– Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide, Article 2[1]
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Convention_on_the_Prevention_and_Punishment_of_the_Crime_of_Genocide

United Nations contact list : http://www.seerecon.org/contacts/un.htm

"The trouble with fighting for human freedom is that one spends most of one's time defending scoundrels. For it is against scoundrels that oppressive laws are first aimed, and oppression must be stopped at the beginning if it is to be stopped at all. "
- Henry Louis Mencken

My definition of a free society is a society where it is safe to be unpopular. ~Adlai Stevenson, speech, Detroit, 1952

He that would make his own liberty secure, must guard even his enemy from opposition; for if he violates this duty he establishes a precedent that will reach himself. ~Thomas Paine

Those who would give up essential liberty to purchase a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty not safety.
-Benjamin Franklin

Defining "indoctrination"

2008-05-11T08:40:00.000-07:00

(see where to write, in the right column, for addresses)
I commiserate with you at the difficulty laid before those seemingly forced to define what is a belief and what is brainwashing. When one follows something because of the threat of, or use of physical force, removing the threat and helping one to feel safe and secure enough to make ones own decisions will foster freedom and enable happiness. When one follows something because it is ingrained in them, or they believe it, removing the source or this belief, or any other physical action to relieve them of this, is ultimately useless. Once a person believes something, only they can choose to change that belief. Whether the belief can or should be labelled under "brainwashing" does not change this. Thus, the ardious task of having to make such a difficult decision about whether a belief can or is brainwashing, is not essential to forwarding freedom and happiness. To enable a person to change their beliefs, regardless of whether those beliefs can or should fall under "brainwashing", one must first earn that persons respect and love. Only then can they offer different beliefs, which that person can choose freely to take or not. One can only choose their own beliefs. Force may result in compliance, but not in the changing of an inner belief. Thus force cannot give another happiness. As Ghandi said, one may even kill another to try to force an idea, but then all they will have is a dead body, not that persons will.
Given that force is useless against beliefs, the horrendous decision laid before you of judging between what is a belief and what is brainwashing, is an unneaded delima. The actions that will benifit those involve, will be the same, regardless of whether their beliefs could be or are brainwashing.
I beg of you to take into account that the requirement for each case involved to have an individual trial within the time period alloted, was not met. Thus by law, all the children involved should legally be returned immeadiately to their families, without having to wait for an appeal.
Thankyou for your continued effort to bring justice and freedom as well as safety and happiness to those involved in this case.
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