[ExI] flds raid, was general repudiation...

[Amara Graps]

spike:
>What if [...] the state could come in and take one's children at any
>time on a rumor?

They broke so many bounds on this action, that I think that it is much
bigger than the 'what if' questions you posed. How is a group of people
who think that they have a bright future living long lives, healthily,
augmented with endless augmentations, any different from a religious
cult in the eyes of conservative people ?

What if you're considered unfit parents and the State takes your child
because you practice calorie restriction and teach your son mathematics
at age 3? 'Teaching mathematics at age 3 is abuse!' the State Child
Protection Services might say, and 'more than ample grounds to put your
child with _normal_ kids in a State foster home'.  Certainly I would be
considered an 'unfit mother' because my pregnancy doesn't follow my
chronological age, I don't have a two-partner household with a white
picket fence and don't belong to a church, and I have a strong opinion
for my child's education that doesn't follow the mainstream.

Now spin any number of scenarios with all of the people that we know
here. Each has their own off-beat approach to their lives and to their
children's lives, any one of which could be spun into a story about an
'unfit parent' with grounds for removal from your care by the State. I
think that _this_ is the large picture of what the State of Texas is
demonstrating, and I think it is scary as hell that a State office can
do what they did, and I think that every one of us here should be
concerned.

Amara


-- 

Amara Graps, PhD      www.amara.com
Research Scientist, Southwest Research Institute (SwRI), Boulder, Colorado