My Society is Better than Your Society ~ Assimilate or Die

I very much agree with this physician's point of view, as expressed in this opinion piece published in the San Angelo Standard-Times: "Viewpoint: FLDS has legal right to its beliefs, practices".

I would ask everyone to consider the following. American society has a lot of evil in it. There are serial killers, rapists, child abusers, drug dealers, to name a few, and then there are the social problems such as addiction, alcoholism, homelessness, poverty, teen runaways, prostitution, etc.

All societies have strata, or sociodemographic layers. This means that the upper layers include people who enjoy affluence, political power and expanded influence. The bottom layers include people who fail to thrive financially, experience the breakdown of family, experience extreme powerlessness, with some perpetrating crimes.

Like all societies, the FLDS society experiences both successes and failures, good and bad outcomes. There are those for whom the social structure, value system, mores and economic vision work well. There are also those for whom it has not worked; some who rejected the principles, values, faith, or system upon which it is based, others who violated the standards of the community and rules of the society. Again, there are successes and there are failures. The simple fact that there are some failures in the FLDS system (or in its implementation) in no way excuses greater society's paternalistic intervention and invasion, and dismantling of the community and its infrastructure. (See Associated Press: "Warrants served on polygamous towns in Utah, Ariz"; also recent threats have been made by Arizona AG Terry Goddard and in a letter by Utah AG Mark Shurtleff to "disincorporate" the city governments of Hildale and Colorado City)

Is this a religious crusade, political jealousy, or financial plunder? What are the reasons for this wholesale assault upon the FLDS as a collective?

Have we reached the point where, as a society, we have become allergic to the very existence of an insular culture within our borders? Are our modern fashions and debt-based financial systems so noble that we must eradicate a society which chooses a different, and in some ways more healthy, path?

I do NOT see that we have the right to declare OUR WAY the ONLY RIGHT WAY and impose our value system and mores and all that goes with it (including both the good AND the BAD, btw), and the FLDS way wholesale wrong and unworthy of any respect.

WHY IS IT OKAY for outsiders, or even former insiders, to call for the restructuring and radical social re-engineering of the FLDS community?