Another Great Blog, Post on Plural Life

The "Freedom and Separation" blog has a couple of good articles on Canada, and the Texas CPS trying to turn Merianne away from her FLDS heritage. I like the statement "The audacity of this rogue agency is nauseating," as I think it aptly describes the "Jim Crow" way that CPS has acted.

There is also good press coming from Canada, researching the realities of such things as the Charter of Rights. It is refreshing to see some defense of religious liberty after the initial articles were extremely one-sided.

Here is an edited post I made on the plural life blog about the changing times we now live in. The original topic was an article about a blog post by Bill Medvecky that was being passed around the courtroom. Did it help or hurt the case? Perhaps it doesn't matter, as the long-term implications are more important. Here it goes:

Good generals know there is a difference between a temporary battle and the overall war. The immediate battle right now is over the custody of Merrianne. But, there are two long-term wars: the war between FLDS and anti-FLDS, and the war between CPS/DFPS organizations and parents.

On the FLDS vs. nonFLDS front, the fact that Bill is being quoted is a definite long-term win. Instead of all the lies being spread by the anti-FLDS profiteers, the media is quoting a pro-FLDS site. Main-stream media has finally been lured into pro-FLDS territory. It is a subtle but very important twist, and one that is becoming much more common. Before, new books or congressional hearings would report only the anti-FLDS side of the story -- now they are reporting both. Things that had previously been reported as fact, such as "infant grave yards full of murdered children" and "vast stores of weapons," are now seen by any reasonable person as wildly distorted rumor at best, and more often as as the intentional libel it was.

Now for the second war -- Government vs. parents. The entire FLDS case has focused more energy and complaints on extra-constitutional abuses of various agencies such as CPS - a spotlight they certainly did not want. Using a court room to had around anti-CPS blog posts indicates that CPS has become sensitive to the criticism, and are worried about their reputation. The long term war here is whether voters and elected officials will protect parents rights, as opposed to supporting bureaurocratic abuses. The fact that there is a blog complaining about their abuses, and that it is still actively updated, is a long-term threat to their power and survival.

In the long term, what Bill has done is a victory in both wars. There has been an inflection point, the sands are shifting, and the winds have changed. Bill's post being handed around is more evidence. It is time to write to your state representatives and demand a Parents Bill of Rights.