Can the State Be Trusted with Our Children?

In the midst of this week's joyous celebrations over the reunion of thirty-three trapped Chilean miners with their families, the news media gave very little attention to the reunion of an infant named Cheyenne Irish with her parents.

"Baby Cheyenne," as she has come to be known during the highly emotional ordeal, was confiscated by the state of New Hampshire almost immediately after birth. The state social services agency offered nebulous reasoning for this action, but specifically mentioned that the baby's father, John Irish, affiliated himself with a group called the "Oath Keepers," a so-called "militia".

The Oath Keepers immediately denied the charges of being a "militia," and even a cursory perusal of their website reveals a decidedly non-violent, non-controversial group of active and former servicemen, firefighters, and emergency responders who take seriously their oaths to uphold and defend the US Constitution. Yet, the very fact that the father's political beliefs played any role at all in the government's decision to take away the Irish family's daughter has sent chills down the collective spine of those paying attention to the story. The notion of the State snatching people away for political motives seems like something to be expected of Hitler or Stalin's regimes, but not of the republic founded by Jefferson and Madison.

While the social services agency eventually returned Baby Cheyenne to her family with a sheepish and mumbled apology about confusing her father with a different "John Irish", unconfirmed reports are surfacing that would have terrifying implications if indeed they are true. The infant girl seems to have been returned in rather poor health, with evidence of possible sexual abuse while in state custody, as the parents have revealed in a recent radio interview. This could add a whole new layer of horror to this scandal, which threatens to rock the nation to its core.

As a result of Cheyennegate and other similar incidents, many Americans have begun to seriously rethink the government's self-appointed role of national caretaker. This rising doubt comes not only from chilling tales of government social worker misconduct, but also from the questionable results that the increasingly expensive public education system has produced. Many attribute the breakdown of the family structure in America to the State's encroachments upon the traditional parenting roles of mothers and fathers. At the very least, this country is long overdue for a healthy inquiry into whether an institution comprised of notoriously disreputable politicians and infamously inefficient bureaucrats should have so much say in what happens to society's most vulnerable members.

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Published at RightOSphere.com.