What About the Children?

"What about the children?" is perhaps the ultimate piece of propaganda, propaganda's utility being measured by how irrefutable its premise is. Who could argue against "what about the children?" Who could argue against "we fight for freedom?" Who could argue against "Germany for the Germans?"

"What about the children?" was the rationale proffered by the federal government regarding its most recent raid on a religious "cult". You have to give it to the feds, they managed to kill dozens of fewer women and children in this raid than in others.

The government held that young girls were being forced to marry and bear children against their will. So what did the government do? Did it arrest the men in question and charge them with statutory rape? No, it kidnapped the women and committed the greatest act of tyranny, other than murder, than one can commit; it separated the women from their children.

The government decided that it knew better than these mothers how to raise their own children. This raises the quintessential question, to which far too many Americans give the quintessential response of, "well, if they weren't doing anything wrong, the government wouldn't have gone after them."

Where does this assumption of authority from the government lead? It leads to a place where, for example, the federal government makes home schooling a crime. The government will raid the homes of parents who do not send their children to government schools. They will imprison the parents and take custody of the children, with the firm belief that they aren't "being cared for properly."

The crime of this sect was that it behaved in a way that the government deemed unhealthy to the point of being criminal. I will acknowledge that there were probably things going on there that I would consider unhealthy. But to then allow the government to kidnap the children and ship them off to God knows where? That is a bridge I will never cross.

What of the inverse of the government's contention that the children were being subjected to criminally inappropriate behavior? What about the cult's contention that children growing up in American pop culture are being subjected to criminally inappropriate behavior? Isn't that why they isolated themselves?

Look, I don't like the idea of 13-year old girls having sex. But every time I walk out my front door onto the front lines of 21st century America, I see 13-year old girls with children. Why isn't the government raiding my neighborhood?

I find aspects of the cult's lifestyle unappealing. However, I also empathize with their desire to isolate themselves from the insidious and profane "culture" that our government protects and endorses. These cultists didn't let their little girls eat at McDonalds or watch MTV or listen to 50 Cent. We need waaaaaaay more parents just like that.

The people in the cult considered the culture outside their wall to be utterly depraved. So they lived by their own rules. Is that not an American story? If you want to charge the fathers with statutory rape, go ahead, but to arrest mothers and kidnap their children? Isn't that a bit like in parts of the Muslim world, where the raped woman is punished for the rape?

When people are violated like this, we must defend them even if, no, especially if we don't relate to them. When someone gets wiretapped, or arrested without cause, or tortured, or has their children pried from their arms, the first words of onlookers is far too often, "well, I'm not one of them, so I'm safe." Those are the first words. And they are famous last words.