I know I've told you in a previous blog that I have a tendency towards paranoia. But a lot of it stems from a time when I wasn't paranoid enough.

I can't be specific, but suffice it to say, we were blindsided by a radical doctor who disapproved of our personal practices (all of which are legal) and attempted to place us on a de facto probation by requiring weekly home visits from the public health nurse and a county social worker. She also demanded that my wife breastfeed our 16 month old daughter no more than twice a day, with the explicit threat of removal of the child for noncompliance (this was actually a compromise; her initial demand was that my wife stop breastfeeding altogether; when we threatened her with legal action, she offered the "compromise", which we took in order to secure our child's release from the hospital without having to remove her AMA). This was all done without due process, and based on ONE doctor's OPINION, not on a consensus or any proven legal grounds.

Well, we HAD tried working with the system for about six months prior. So, because we were placed in an impossible position, we left. We had no charges pending against us, so our move wasn't illegal or anything. We simply left because the doctor had pretty much assured us that she would do anything and everything she could to remove our children from our home one by one.

Anyone who knows me well knows my kids are my life. I would never harm them, heck, I barely even SPANK them. Anyone who knows us well also knows (and several people were willing to testify in court...the problem was, this was in a county where the caseworkers routinely ignored court orders without consequence) that we were 100% innocent of the allegations against us. But because of the aggressive actions of a militant doctor, we have had to become ever vigilant and suspicious, and we have been made to feel as if we're living in a prison.

I would love to know what it is to be free. I would love to be able to plant whatever produce I could manage on my own land, would love to speak openly about my beliefs...but we live in a world where such beliefs are more intensely scrutinized and where freedom is greatly sacrificed. I STRONGLY encourage everyone who holds to the platform of either the Democrat or Republican parties to closely evaluate their parties' platforms and seriously question whether there isn't GREAT potential for abuse within those platforms...and further question whether those laws make sense in a country where the Bill of Rights is SUPPOSED to be of prime importance. The freedom they take next could be your own.