The FLDS aren’t so different from you and me

As Texas battles the Fundamentalist Mormons in Eldorado, the courts are cleaning up the mess in the Arizona Strip towns of Hildale and Colorado City. The Arizona Strip struggle isn’t about children and families. It’s about property … houses. In Eldorado, they’re trying to figure out who the parents of the kids are. An administrator appointed by the 3rd District Court is simply trying to figure out who lives in those houses and collect enough money from them to keep the place going. People still need basics like a water system and streets.

People across the country are trying to comprehend how this could have happened. What would make people act this way? The FLDS themselves argue that they’re being persecuted for their beliefs and they have a right to live life in their own way.

Extreme cases like this have a way of shining a spotlight on things that are not as obvious otherwise. One of the things that stands out in bold contrast is what “community” really is.

The FLDS would say that all they want is to be “left alone”. That philosophy runs strong through Color Country. But the FLDS case shows that it’s really not that these people want to be left alone. It’s that they reject “your” community in favor of a different one. The FLDS in the Arizona Strip, for example, say that they don’t want to pay taxes or a court-ordered assessment for city maintenance. But they happily gave money to Warren Jeffs and the FLDS-run United Effort Plan. The first is not their community. The second is.

The earliest civilizations happened because people discovered that with community values and effort, far more could be accomplished. Crops could be cultivated. Houses could be built. Rivers could be diverted. But “community values” took on dimensions far greater than just the common agreement to build a dam. Soon, you had to dress the same way, raise your family the same way, even eat and drink the same way.

I recently took issue with a decision by the Town Council here in Color Country to not allow folks in the Earth Day celebration to enjoy a beer. In my view, that’s mainly “your” community riding roughshod over “my” community.

If we want to continue to enjoy the benefits of a strong and united community, we’ve got to pay attention to whether we’re just fixing the streets or trying to fix each other’s community.

The Mojave yucca seems to be the kind that grows near me. This one complements the West Temple and Mount Kinesava nicely.

The Zion nature centers tend to focus on how the indians used the yucca. They ate the fruits green, dried and stored over winter. They ate them baked, mixed with berries, and made into little cakes that could be dried for winter use. Young flower stalks were dished up like asparagus.

And then they were just getting started …

They also processed yucca leaves to get the fibers in them and made ropes out of them for belts, rope ladders, sandal toe straps, cradle board ties, fishnets and sandals, mats, and baskets.

Poor plant! This makes it sound like the yucca supported the whole indian population.

I think the more amazing thing about the yucca is how little yuccas are made.

It seems that they have a unique way of being pollinated. Each type of yucca has to be pollinated by a specific type of moth. For example, the Mojave yucca needs a specific white moth named T. yuccasella to do the job. When they grow yuccas in other parts of the world where this moth doesn’t exist, they don’t get little yuccas. (Well … unless some gardener with a little paintbrush does the deed by hand.)

It gets better.

The reason a specific moth needs to do it is that the moth knows how to roll the yucca pollen into a little ball and stuff it into the cup-shaped stigma of the yucca flower. It’s not something that your average bee can handle. The moth even has mouth parts shaped just right to do it. (The moth gets something out of the deal too. After playing yucca cupid, the moth then lays eggs in the flowers which hatch out into little moths … well, actually, larvae … and eat some of the yucca seeds.)

This doesn’t answer the burning question, why would God make the poor yucca go through such a process? Why can’t yucca pistils pick up yucca stamens in bars, the way people reproduce.

As it turns out, the blackbrush was just getting started!

The previous post about blackbrush seems to have attracted quite a few fans! Who knew blackbrush was that popular?

At the end of the post, I wrote, “The blackbrush has been blooming pretty nice this year in Color Country, however. But only in isolated patches.”

As it turns out, the blackbrush was just getting started. It’s all over the hill now.

Slight variations in rainfall and temperature will make one plant the star of the spring flower show one year and another plant the standout next year. I remember the indigo plants, ordinarily one that never gets a second look, was especially pretty last year. Two years ago, sego lillies (the Utah state flower) were springing up like grass but this year I can only count half a dozen at most.

This year, I guess the humble blackbrush is having a turn.

(Click on the image for a larger version.)