You are here: home   Issues   The Hardest Climb   Spiritual Superfund sites
Topic: Culture & Communities     Department: Letters

Spiritual Superfund sites

Document Actions
Letter - From the July 23, 2012 issue by Greg Kern

I have read many stories about villains without redeeming values, but never have I read one that made me want to wash my hands -- no, endure a thorough toxic-chemical decontamination procedure -- until slogging through the FLDS article. I often had to stop and shake my head to cast out the demons of the cult. The photos of Warren Jeffs with that poor girl are as disturbing as images of warfare, and the tale of the rape tape only amplified my disgust. And that was just on the first page.

I'm a live-and-let-live kind of guy, but this is in no way a matter of freedom of religion. The failure to act by state and local officials equals conspiracy in my book. The malignant FLDS tumors in Utah, Arizona and Texas are spiritual Superfund sites that will take too many years and too much money to clean up. And the damage will never be completely undone.

Greg Kern
Silver Spring, Maryland

Email Newsletter

The West in your Inbox

Follow Us

Follow us on Facebook! Follow us on Twitter! Follow our RSS feeds!
  1. Hard choices for an uncertain future | After seeing a talk by climate activist Tim DeChri...
  2. Two blocks from the Mexican border | The author watches migrants run across the border ...
  3. New Mexico on fire | From wildfire to starving wildlife, the effects of...
  4. The power grid may determine whether we can kick our carbon habit | How the huge and fragile network of wires intertwi...
  5. Wild, free and out of control | Calling out an NBC-TV program for romanticizing wi...
  1. The power grid may determine whether we can kick our carbon habit | How the huge and fragile network of wires intertwi...
  2. The latest: Channel Island foxes rebound | A massive restoration effort has helped the tiny f...
  3. The latest: A worrying amphibian decline | A new study finds frogs and toads are disappearing...
  4. Is the Violence Against Women Act a chance for tribes to reinforce their sovereignty? | A new provision lets tribes prosecute non-tribal m...
  5. Two blocks from the Mexican border | The author watches migrants run across the border ...
Subscriber Alert
HCN Classifieds
More from Culture & Communities
Death in the desert Thoughts on a lost hiker in Mesa Verde National Park.
The blue window Of face paint, nunataks and Alaska's Harding Icefield
Shooting yourself in the foot--literally And more oddities from Heard Around the West
All Culture & Communities
 
© 2013 High Country News, all rights reserved. | privacy policy | terms of use | powered by Plone | site by Groundwire | design by Ryan Foster

HCN Logo High Country News in your inbox!


Sign up now to receive our weekly email newsletter!

• The best weekly collection of Western environmental news

• An at-a-glance look at our latest news and analysis


This box was designed to only appear once. It uses a "cookie" (a small file stored on your computer) to remember that it has shown the box to you.

If you are seeing this box appear multiple times, then something is not allowing the cookie to be stored properly. Browsers can be set to not allow cookies, and some people choose to disallow cookies for security reasons. If your browser is setup this way, please consider adding "www.hcn.org" as an exception to your no-cookies rule. For information about how to do this, just search the Web for "browser cookie exceptions."

If you're sure this isn't the problem, then it could be related to how your browser has stored information from our site in previous visits. Browsers often "cache" images, text and other website content in order to make them appear faster if you ever go back. Sometimes the browser's cache can be corrupted or become outdated. The simplest fix for this is to try reloading the page. If that doesn't fix the problem, it may be necessary to clear your temporary items from your browser. Again, a web search will provide you with lots of options and instructions.

Either way, we're sorry to hear that this box is getting in the way of your enjoyment of the HCN website. If you continue to have trouble, please contact our Subscriber Services team.