There will be many survivors of American polygamy present, hoping to meet Texans and explain the realities of the abuses they experienced, in person.
In 1953, the State of Arizona raided the polygamous community of Shortcreek, in what is now Colorado City Arizona, home of the Fundamentalist Church of Latter Day Saints, currently led by Warren Jeffs, alleging abuse of underage girls, forced to engage in sexual relationships with much older men, under the guise of, “celestial marriage”.
After the Arizona raid, the FLDS leadership responded with a concerted public relations campaign to show America how normal polygamy is.
A cover story in LIFE Magazine was the turning point in the public relations war, winning sympathy from across America, and calls for the FLDS to be left alone to practice their quaint religion, which apparently harmed no one.
The man on the front page of LIFE, shucking corn with his concubines, who won the PR war for the FLDS, was Clyde Mackert.
Over 50 years later, we will recreate that scene, at our Friends & Survivors picnic, with smiling corn shucking survivors, backed by Texans around a sign that reads, “Texans Know a Load of Corn When They See it, Oprah”!
Although, this time Kathleen and Rena Mackert, daughters of Clyde Mackert, still unborn at the time of the photos, will be there among the survivors, front, and center. Both escaped polygamy, and both were sexually molested their entire childhoods, by the same smiling, corn shucking man who won the last national PR war for the FLDS.
We will send the photo from LIFE Magazine with ours, to Oprah Winfrey; because we think she is playing the modern role of LIFE Magazine for the FLDS. Her exclusive interviews inside the YFZ Ranch, a year after the Texas raid, were full of softball questions and concentrated on bread baking and the family nature of the FLDS. She went on to ad her opinion that the U.S. prohibition against the cultural practice of polygamy should be re-examined.
For more information, please contact executive director, k. Dee Ignatin by email at TripleAP@gmail.com, or by phone at 928-897-9335.
www.TripleAP.org
