Is the purse fight over?
Good.
Here is the 2nd part to this load of hog crap.
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Compound of Concern: Pt. 2
ELDORADO, TEXAS - They're afraid a polygamous church group will take over their town. Many people who live in Eldorado and Schleicher County are worried. The Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (FLDS) has a huge compound just outside of town. The church's leader, Warren Jeffs, is wanted by Arizona authorities, who say he arranged for children to marry men.
Jeffs is known to have made racist remarks. Here's a tape of his teachings obtained by the Eldorado Success newspaper ... "You see, some classes of the human family that are black, uncouth, or rude and filthy, uncomely, disagreeable and low in their habits, wild and seemingly deprived of nearly all the blessings of the intelligence that is generally bestowed upon humankind."
It's comments like that that have many in the town concerned.
Another reason they're worried is that they don't know who these people are or what they do. Some residents fear the members of this secretive polygamous church will blend in and become part of their community ... perhaps a leading part.
"We don't ever see them," resident Teresa Baker-Shirley said. "If they ever came into town, the majority of us wouldn't have a clue. They could walk up to us, and we wouldn't know who they were."
"The women stay, pretty much, at the compound," Michael Redwine, who lives near the FLDS compound, pointed out. "The men dress pretty much like the rest of us do. So, I wouldn't know them if I saw them."
Schleicher County Sheriff David Doran believes it's that fear of the unknown that has taken over Eldorado.
"Of course, everybody wants to compare it to Waco," he acknowledged. "Because that's the only thing that they can compare it to. Because it's a religious group living together."
"They're more the type of group that wants to keep a low profile. They want to remain under the radar. They do not want to make waves or cause problems."
Publisher Randy Mankin first reported the compound's existence nearly two years ago in Eldorado's small weekly newspaper. He says the community's attitudes haven't changed much since then.
"People are very suspicious, I think, still," he observed. "As in any community, there's many opinions. Some folks say, 'leave them alone ... they're not bothering me.' Others want to go in and kick the doors in, and drag them out and run them back to Utah."
Baker-Shirley knows why many want the group to get out.
"People are afraid that, one day, they'll infiltrate the politics, the courthouse, and the schools," she explained. "And, for people who have been here for generations, that is unnerving."
She believes some people are trying to leave town now, before the group rises to power.
"We don't want to be known for that," she said. "We're just a small, rural town. We're trying to raise our kids the best we can, and be successful."
Eldorado's population is shrinking. State roadsigns show the population used to be more than 2,000. The new signs being set up show the latest census at just 1,950. That declining population, residents worry, would make it easier for the fundamentalist Mormons to become the majority in Eldorado and Schleicher County.
"If they get enough registered voters, and take over the city government, it could be like Utah," Wilson suggested.
But the sheriff doesn't see that happening.
"What I do believe is, we'll see some of the higher church officials living out here, and maybe some more residential structures going up," he predicted. "But, I don't see the population getting up in the thousands."
Doran also doesn't think people need to worry about the group sending students into the county's schools.
"They have no plans to send their children to our schools," he pointed out. "They want to home-teach, and they understand that they have to get under a Texas home school curriculum to be in compliance."
But, on Main Street and at the tables of an Eldorado restaurant, people are still talking ... it's difficult for them to forget about their newest neighbors.
"It's monstrous ... it's huge," said Redwine, referring to the temple that is the center of the FLDS compound. "It pretty much sticks up as high as the water tower."
Redwine sees that new temple every time he steps out his back door.
"They're just like that neighbor that lives next door, that you don't like," he commented. "But, what can you do about it?"
Like so many other longtime residents of this small West Texas town, the FLDS and their compound are almost always in the back of his mind. He fears it will forever keep his quiet community in a spotlight they never wanted.
"Something bad will happen out there," he predicted. "I don't know what ... I don't know if it'll be like Waco or Ruby Ridge, but, someday, something bad is going to happen."
The Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints never gives media interviews. So, NewsWest 9 has been unable to get their side of the story.
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I wonder a couple of things about this story.
#1 I wonder who "pointed the way" to this story and how it was to be presented.
#2 I wonder if this guy has any idea what he said in this quote, in what context if he said it.
"Something bad will happen out there," he predicted. "I don't know what ... I don't know if it'll be like Waco or Ruby Ridge, but, someday, something bad is going to happen."
