Maybe we will, Maybe we won't

It's all about power. A representative of Utah's AG announced yesterday that, despite its policy of not prosecuting religious polygabigamists, it has no control over whether the pretty, great City of Lehi and Utah County will proceed with a prosecution.

A couple of weeks ago, Iran released the female hiker it had detained for almost a year. There was much rejoicing. Her two male companions are still in an Iranian prison. Maybe Iran will free them, maybe it won't. Who has the power? - the hikers or Ahmedinejad? If you have power, you can flex it; and Iran has power, so it flexes it. Meanwhile the boys sit shivering in a dark Persian dungeon and wonder if they can ever be safe or happy again.

Utah's bigamy statute serves a salutary government purpose - it permits bullies like Ahmedinejad and the LDS Church to wield and flex power over those whom they consider to be beneath them. When LDS/government officials menace and bully otherwise innocent polygamists by saying, "Maybe we will prosecute, maybe we won't," then polygamists have to run and hire attorneys. They have to think about relocating to a non-bullying state like Wyoming or Mexico(?). They bite their fingernails down to their elbows. Their children cry themselves to sleep and ask their moms, "Mommy, is daddy going to jail?". That much power must feel really good, mustn't it?

One of the core principles of the original states of America is that we would not have "Titles of Nobility". Likewise, there was no provision for "second-class citizens". Today we have approximately 38,000 second-class citizens within the borders of the American Corporation. These people are left to sit and wonder if they will or won't be prosecuted by a statute that will or won't be enforced by law enforcement officials who will or won't admit that they like the statute, if only because it lets them look down their noses at the polygamists and threaten them when it looks like they might start winning a hint of public sympathy.

Maybe it's time to pray for some intervention from the Biggest Bully. Maybe He'll flex His power - Maybe He won't . . . .