Reader Responses

Responding to the (commentary) by Roy Maynard and Patrick Butler (Sunday, April 27), I take issue with their conclusion.

It reads: "Questions remain about the legitimacy of the original 'outcry' or call to the crisis center. It may turn out that the call was a fake. But there's little question the raid was justified."

Sirs, the end does not justify the means. Most thinking people will not argue the point that justice should be served if the children of the YFZ compound were being abused and forced into polygamous relationships. Only on society's fringes will you hear arguments making comparisons to child brides of years past with some sort of justification for taking a preteen bride in our culture.

However, to base the seizure of hundreds of children on a fabricated call to CPS is a slippery slope which I do not want to go. Basing one's suspicions on false pretext already has a place in our nation's history. I believe it was called the Red Scare.

Again, that is not to exonerate those in the FLDS. If such allegations are true, the perpetrators should be prosecuted and the children placed into new homes. But giving a state agency carte blanche with little, if any, evidence of wrongdoing is something I find quite uncomfortable.

One further thought - minds like mine wonder how this would play out if the children in question were in a Muslim community (who also view polygamy quite favorably). I dare say we would see a double standard.

David Maples
Flint