Thursday, June 30, 2005
Progress Against Polygamy
There appears to be some genuine law enforcement progress against the polygamist Mormon cult located on the Utah/Arizona border. The NYTimes is reporting on even more ugliness, and the fact that authorties are using cult excapees as weapons against the community.
"Women in the polygamist culture are looked at as property, as a piece of meat," said Ms. Jessop, formerly one of seven wives of a motel owner, whom she was forced to marry when she was 18 and he was 50. "We're not looked upon as human beings with rights. The women are basically baby-producers. It's a difficult thing to break away from. You don't contest it."Go get 'em ladies! I'm behind you all the way.
But in a twist that might have seemed inconceivable when she ran away two years ago, Ms. Jessop and another escapee, Margaret Cooke, stand poised to join the board of a sect trust that owns almost all the property here and in adjoining Colorado City, Ariz. The board, like everything else, has always been run exclusively by men.
