Looking for Love in all the wrong places

Warren Jeffs, polygamist leader, prophet, pedophile, was found guilty, in Texas, of sex with underage people and of arranging marriages between other horny older Fundamentalists men and underage girls. Next, according to the Salt Lake Tribune, he may be tried in Utah, presumably for many of the same things. Texas gave him life in prison. All pedophiles should be given life. Statistically they do not respond well to "rehabilitation" and most, soon after release from the poky, start molesting children again. So, why release them if there is a high risk of "relapse" and recidivism? Why spend the money, especially given today's economy, to try them again and again? Every time they get out many just hurt more kids. Keep-em I say!!  And who knows, maybe Jeffs will find love in the Texas prison system!

I grew up around polygamists in southwestern Colorado. They farmed and ranched just north of the New Mexico/Colorado border along the La Plata River. I didn't know they were poligs until after I got out of the army. My grandfather and I were at a horse sale at the local livestock sale ring south of Durango. One of my high school friends from the small town of poligs  introduced me to his wife. A few weeks later, as I opened the door to go into the bank, he came out of the other door, with another woman! What do you say?
"Hey, A.J." he said. "How you been? Did you guys buy that grulla dun horse? Let me introduce you to my wife Pauline."
I fumbled through the introduction trying hard to keep my poker face on. That face had made me money over time playing poker in the back room at the aforementioned livestock ring but it failed me this day.
Pauline put her hand on my arm (to comfort me? reduce my anxiety?) and looked at her husband and said: "I thought you said he knew we practiced plural marriage?"
Both laughed. He said "I thought you (me) knew we were polygamists? My dad had three wives."
I could remember the clusters of trailers and small frame houses in the small town, where  I had spent many overnights with this friend and others when I was in high school. I just thought that the other women were aunts and all of the kids running around were cousins. After all, in our economy at the time, it wasn't unusual for the men to travel away from home for weeks at a time to make money. My own family practiced this, as did I,  usually working in the hard rock mines or following construction projects across the west.

Since moving to Utah I've met even more polygamists. I don't know how many poygamist men I know.
But I can count the number of polygamist women I know on the span of two hands. They're invisible.The women I've met are absent emotionally and physically. I know polygamists who are county commissioners, a couple of legislators, and others from all professions: attorneys, farmers, construction workers, IT specialists, cops, etc. One older rancher I knew, a member of a militant polygamist sect--Kingstons--which owns  land and businesses in Utah and five other states, told me: "I'm trying to beat Brother Brigham's record before I die! I'm marrying my 29th wife next Friday." He didn't live to beat the record because BY had dozens of wives. The girl, that Merlin Kingston the rancher I knew married,  was fourteen. The old guy died the afternoon of his "wedding", hopefully before he had ruined her life. The Kingstons own many businesses that many of us have unwittingly patronized, adding to the Kingston's wealth--conservatively put at 170 million!
Some figures suggest that there are up to 20,000 practicing polygamists in Utah alone. Who really knows. The Utah border is haven for colonies. The most famous town being Hillsdale in south-central Utah--home of Warren Jeffs before he started living in jail--on the Arizona line. But polygamists are every where in Utah and in the surrounding states. They tend to keep to themselves so few people realize that the oddly dressed women who live in a cluster of houses at the end of a cul de sac in many Salt Lake County neighborhoods are sister wives.

Love seems to come in strange ways. I'm OK with polygamy (no, I'm not advertising to become one!) as long as the children aren't hurt. But how can a secluded life and strict fundamentalism not hurt a child not even counting the many alleged victims of child marriage that occur?
For Warren Jeffs love will be in the form of a "room mate" who shares his cell in a Texas prison. The only advice I have for Jeffs is: if you relax. . . . . . . .! May you live long, may you become a plural prison wife yourself.