Polygamy in March/April, standard fare... Seems a Spring Thing

Polygamy is a human rights issue -- it violates the UN Convention on the Elimination of all forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) -- which 182 countries of the world have signed -- including the United States of America.

MooPig asks the hard questions: who gets hurt when things get fouled up? Who remains behind as the scheduled incursions get delayed, strung out and re-scheduled? You know the answer is women and children: life interrupted. Advertise polygamy, and the Senate will pass the buck. It is a story that crops up every Spring... a trend.

This story ran in March 2007, one year ago. Is there any change in the efforts to stamp out polygamy?

"Don’t-ask-don’t-know policies prevail in many agencies that deal with immigrant families in New York, perhaps because there is no framework for addressing polygamy in a city that prides itself on tolerance of religious, cultural and sexual differences — and on support for human rights and equality." says one report. (Published: March 23, 2007; In Secret, Polygamy Follows Africans to N.Y. ) “I know a lady who lives with her husband and another woman in one room, a two-bedroom, with 11 kids,” she said. “I tell her, she has to move — it’s not a life.” And her own husband? His second wife is 23 now, with three children. And recently, Ms. Kante said, he married a third.


Yikes!!

Is this guy just looking around malls shopping for his co-wife?


Previous to that one, is March 2006:
Real Polygamists Look At HBO Polygamists; In Utah, Hollywood Seems Oversexed (March 28, 2006, paraphrased)

...''In reality, there's not a woman out there who's going to share a man without religion being a factor,'' Ms. Prunty said. ''That's what's missing in the show. This seems like some male fantasy, some alternative marriage that is Hollywood.''

<-----Photo left: POSTER CHILD FOR POLYGAMY

While each episode, after discussions between HBO and the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, includes a disclaimer that the Mormons long ago renounced polygamy, thousands of polygamists who call themselves Mormon fundamentalists say they are following the church's original teachings on marriage, called ''the principle.'' Some live in religious communities, others live independently."

Friday, 26 May 2006, 3:22 pm Opinion: Suzan Mazur

Senator John McCain Passes The Buck On Polygamy

"Finding any other comment on polygamy from either of the two US senators from Arizona - both Republicans: John McCain and John Kyl - is an exhausting exercise.

It appears to be a game of "don't ask, don't tell" and "pass the buck".

McCain did just that in a response to Jay Beswick, a tireless child advocate and former resident of Utah, with more files on US polygamy than the FBI it seems. Beswick wrote a letter to McCain about polygamy on his graffiti action organization's stationery when he was living with his family in Hurricane, Utah on the outskirts of the FLDS twin towns of Hildale-Colorado City.

Here's the letter McCain sent back, mysteriously addressed to "Liz Best" (Beswick has no idea who Liz Best is). In the letter McCain redirects "Liz" to Senator Bob Bennett (R--UT) for answers (see Most Wanted In Polygamy Coverup for Bennett profile):

Beswick claims the hands-off policy is a continuation of what was going on during Arizona Governor Bruce Babbitt's time and cites a 1986 Associated Press article in which Babbitt said FLDS residents are "hardworking, God-fearing" people. Hildale attorney Ron Thompson and Babbitt were personal friends at the time, according to Beswick.

Beswick also comments that neither McCain nor Kyl has helped Arizona anti-polygamy activists rescue women in their jurisdictions from the polygamy cult. He cites Flora Jessop pressing the Arizona Attorney General's office and Arizona's US Congressmen J.D. Hayworth and John Shadegg, as well as Senator McCain, to help free Jessop's 13-year old sister from the FLDS after the girl had been raped.

Jessop said she got no assistance.

Mohave County Supervisor Buster Johnson suggests that if federal and state officials are really serious about dismantling FLDS polygamy, they could request Colorado City residents to provide birth certificates for their children and DNA samples to determine who the parents actually are.

But there is no defense for the inaction of McCain, Kyl, J.D. Hayworth and other Arizona leaders regarding the polygamy issue, since there is only one side to the story:

Polygamy is a human rights issue -- it violates the UN Convention on the Elimination of all forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) -- which 182 countries of the world have signed -- including the United States of America.