I just got the news today that my friends' world came to an end yesterday. The state of Texas made a final determination that they could not have their three children returned to them.

This case began after the father decided to stop working full time. He was not receiving government aid (an important point in this discussion). They decided they didn't need "public" utilities, and allowed them to be disconnected. Every day, they would haul the water they needed from the local park.

While that doesn't represent a lifestyle I would choose, it's not supposed to be illegal to not have public utilities. They were paying their rent and feeding and clothing their children.

The county social workers felt otherwise. They removed the children and stipulated that the father go to work full time and that they have all utilities turned on to regain custody of their children.

They did this, and the father has been working for over a year with the state road crews, but the county decided it wasn't going to return their children anyway, even though the family FULLY COMPLIED with the requests of the county.

This is TOO MUCH; do the statistics on children who die or are abused in foster care, and you find appalling numbers; made even MORE APPALLING by the fact that these children were under the
"protection" of the state. I don't NEED to look at statistics personally; all I have to do is look at my own experiences and those of my siblings; further research supports the fact that our experiences were more common than not.

But we live in a society where people insist on our dependence on the state. Where the state is regarded as a better parent than the two who gave birth to the child. And where the state can, at its own discretion, remove your children or those of any "citizen" of the United States, without due process, without the parents' right to legal representation, and without recourse.

What makes me even sicker is that we stand for it.