We're pillsbury doughboy white of course.

;-)

Seriously.

If someone were to threaten my child, and such behavior was encouraged by the neighborhood or secretly supported - I would consider moving.

I've seen several neighborhoods go downhill for one reason or another - and one is happier when one leaves. If one stays too long and the aggravation becomes a regular fixture of one's life - it simply isn't worth it. Having a bunch of "neighbor Jones" around you isn't my idea of a community. Just one of these "Jones" types is enough to give folks a headache - but if your community is littered with them, sometimes it IS best to live among more like-minded folks that share your values, manners, economic position, etc.

It's not a game with winners and losers. They don't win when you leave - in fact, they lose.

If your neighbors hassle you everyday with their religious bigotry - to the point of threatening your children - well then that community is Losersville, USA and is fit only for folks who like to live like Mrs. Kravitzor Ozzie & Harriet. There are plenty of communities in America where there are still good jobs and decent neighborhoods - where the last thing they do is hassle kids or adults based on their religious beliefs. I would be uncomfortable living in Vatican City or even Salt Lake City, or anyplace where religion seems to have undue control and sway the town's residents and their actions. I dislike those archaic practices still pursued in Europe which conform to religious doctrines and which conflict entirely with the reality of 21st century progress and science.

There are some towns on the Arizona-Utah border where polygamy is regularly practiced and where father-daughter relations or even marriages are not unusual. The rest of the nation would be horrified at the demeaning of women which occurs there - and even more horrified at the women who remain in such a town voluntarily and seem to think this is normal and even desirable!

I wouldn't remain in such a town - or raise my kids in such a town, regardless of the benefits of having someone who disagrees with their views in the community. I would pack up quick and leave with no regrets and leave them to their own beliefs and customs. I wouldn't trust the teachers, law enforcement or anyone else in the town if they had no problems with the community or could "tolerate" it.

Discrimination is good Mary Anne. It is what keep you from picking the poisonous toadstools with the mushrooms. It is what keeps you healthy and capable of progressing. Sometimes one has to discriminate who one mingles with and lives among. You wouldn't live amongst the followers of Jonestown - so why live amongst the threatening religious fanatics of your community?

There are more churches here, by far, than in CA and this region is conservative (though they did just narrowly elect a Democrat governor over a prosecutor who was lenient on polygamists) but none here are as rabidly religious as the folks you have described. With about 10,000 new Calizonians moving in it is becoming more liberal with every passing month.

Soon Arizona will be like California is now - it's conservative base is being diluted and it will probably tilt left of center (solidly) within a decade. On the plus side it tempers both - the ultra-conservatives and the ultra-liberals and makes a nice livable balance where orthodox religion can coexist with new age (think Sedona) views and where state and local politics sway or kowtow to neither. Right now it is like CA was about 25-30 years ago - which is pretty darn good.

Not having lived in California you can't evaluate just how free people can live and so you are in somewhat the same position as the girl who was born and raised in the polygamist town, who knows no real alternative to men controlling her total life and using her body like a sex shop's blow up doll.

But it is your choice. As your children grow up it will be their choices as well.

SDAI-Tech1