Group Protests Texas Handling of Eldorado Kids before Game 3 of Rockets series

I wasn't able to attend Thursday's protest rally at Energy Solution's arena, but I was there Saturday night, for several chilly hours. It was so worth it! Some of the ladies brought tee-shirts that said "Go Jazz!" on front and "Shame on Texas!" on the back. I grabbed a sign and joined in. They also made a giant yellow banner with the FLDS website on it: Captive FLDS Children.

I didn't get interviewed; it wasn't a Principle Voices event, but we definitely agree with the sentiments expressed there!

Those little children have been traumatized, no doubt about it; they are suffering from being torn from the arms of parents who love them, from siblings and other family, from the comfort of their own homes and beds and a life they knew and felt safe in, and they are suffering from culture shock, surrounded by strangers in a strange land. It is wholly irresponsible, reckless, and arrogant for Texas and larger society to inflict this upon any child, let alone hundreds.

I do not believe 13-year-olds should be getting married, but if marriage as a teenager is the greatest risk these children were facing, there is no doubt there is no "imminent danger" justifying the removal of all of these children of all ages from this community. These children are at greater risk from the dangers of larger society than they could ever be within the fences of the Eldorado ranch. Just a few weeks ago, a little girl was murdered in the northern Salt Lake valley; she was killed outside her home, and hidden in an apartment next door, in the same apartment complex. Children are abducted, brutalized, sexually and physically abused, neglected, and murdered every day in larger society (and in foster care, too!). I have to be mindful of my children every minute of every day to protect them from the evils that lurk in the real world. I know this is a reality that every parent faces, and about which every parent can relate.

How many of those 460 kids were at risk of those things at the Eldorado Ranch? How many of those kids were hugged to bed at night, fed healthy meals, appropriately clothed, taught good manners, nursed as babes, read to and taught to read?

Shame on Texas. Do the right thing and send those little ones home!

******

April 25, 2008, 1:47AM
Organizers in Salt Lake City displeased over handling of Eldorado kids

By FRAN BLINEBURY
Copyright 2008 Houston Chronicle
Group Protests Before Game 3 of Rockets Series

SALT LAKE CITY — A crowd of roughly 50 protesters held a rally outside EnergySolution Arena before Thursday's NBA playoff game between the Rockets and Jazz in support of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saint families whose retreat in Eldorado was raided this month.

Salt Lake City attorney Bob Breeze sponsored the rally with another planned before Saturday's Game 4, contending that Child Protective Services should return the children in the Texas group to their families.

Breeze also called for the Rockets and Jazz to cancel the remainder of their playoff series and for FLDS supporters to also protest at the hotel rooms of Rockets players.

There were no protestors seen at the hotel, only attendees of a Suburu convention, But Rockets' NBA security representative Butch Grant said that hotel security was alerted about the situation and that they "took extra precautions."

Taking a stand

The protesters, who ranged from white-haired men and women to toddlers, held signs, occasionally chanted and demonstrated peacefully.

"I'm just a common person," Breeze said. "But I felt that I had to do something. We're trying to communicate with the people down in Texas, saying, 'Take good care of those kids for us.' "

Most of the signs were directed toward the state of Texas:

• Texas = Child Abuse.
• Texas, bury your Communist pride and give your people religious freedom.
• A swastika painted on a Texas state flag.

"We're not condoning or condemning anyone's lifestyle," said Colleen Wooten, an accountant who was holding one end of a banner that asked for the game to be cancelled. "We're here because there's a definite violation of someone's constitutional and civil rights.

"It's just wrong and we want to say that we here in Utah, whether we're LDS, I'm Catholic, whether we're Jewish, Baptist, we don't support that."

Though they have an e-mail address returnourkids @yahoo.com the protesters represent no organized group or the FLDS.

"Absolutely not, though I've had clients that were FLDS and I've had people who were into polygamy that I went to school with when I grew up here," Breeze said. "But my wife would never allow me to be a polygamist. I guarantee that.

"That judge in Texas has me kind of worried. I was kind of shocked when she tried to get the official LDS church to preside over the prayers of the FLDS church. It's almost as bad as requiring the Catholics to preside over the prayers of the Lutherans.

"I guess that goes double with the original decision to take the breast-feeding infants away from their mothers. Now apparently she's changed her mind on that one and thank the Lord for that."

Business as usual

Motorists honked their horns in support at the intersection of South Temple and John Stockton Drive.

Fans walking to the arena, nodded their support, but there was no sign of anyone not entering for Game 3.

"I don't know what other people are going to do," Breeze said. "It's a free country. If people want to not attend the game, that's great. If it doesn't stop them from going in, that's great, too.

"At least the people in Texas are going to see that there are people in Utah that aren't happy about the way those kids are being treated.

"But I've got five kids of my own and the other night, I had a nightmare that my kid who is 3 was kidnapped and missing and all night long I tossed and turned. I was so glad to wake up so that the pain and torment of worrying about my kid would be over.

"It was horrible and maybe that was just the Holy Ghost giving me a message of what the parents down in Texas are going through. All I did was have a short dream, and it was one of the most painful experiences of my life."

fran.blinebury@chron.com