By The Way
 
By Alice Gilroy
Floyd County Hesperian-Beacon - Floydada, Texas
 
The press was of course at the Community Center in Lockney on Friday to hear Mr. Fischer talk about his plans for his company.

I was joined by media from Lubbock, Plainview, Eldorado, and Salt Lake City.

Salt Lake City paid a lot of money to send a reporter--Brooke Adam. I think she enjoyed her visit.

She has been covering the polygamy issue for her newspaper for over a year. They thought this rare public appearance and question and answer session by an FLDS member was so startling that they had to send a reporter.

The Eldorado newspaper editors, Randy Mankin and his wife, Kathy, are like me. Their paper is them. They paid their own way. There was no way the Mankins were going to miss the meeting. They have been covering Warren Jeffs and the YFZ Ranch in their county for 3 years--and covering it very thoroughly. They also thought of this meeting as a historical event.

I enjoyed all their visits and their invaluable information on FLDS. What great resources they have been for me and will continue to be. I consider them all to be experts in their field.

It was impressed over and over to me that a FLDS member facing the press and public scrutiny is "never" done.

Obviously there is no love loss (as was evident by Samuel Fischer's remarks) by FLDS towards the press.

So--to his credit, I want to thank Mr. Fischer for speaking to the community.

For anyone that was there you know it could not have been easy to stand up there and take questions.

According to Fischer the deal is done. He will be opening his cabinet shop. He said he will be hiring outside people.

Knowing much of the background, many of Fischer's answers were vague and misleading. But it really doesn't matter. The truth will bear out. If he gives jobs to our current residents then we are better off. If he doesn't, then it will be one more "news report" that follows the history of FLDS migration.

Mr. Fischer didn't surprise me, but the Lockney citizens who came to the meeting did surprise me--and I'm ashamed to admit that.

After all the angry phone calls I've received the past week from citizens worried about this secretive religion moving to town--I was afraid some of that anger might spill over into the community center.

But obviously there was a lot of prayers being lifted up in that area. In fact, I saw two couples praying in front before the meeting started.

I was so very proud of the Lockney citizens. Your questions were excellent. They were informed and well thought out. You stuck to your guns and recognized obfuscation when you saw it. You held Mr. Fischer's feet to the fire--but also gave him respect.

Mr. Fischer returned that respect.

I thought the meeting went very well.

The questions were very tough. Not tough for any one of us--but for someone who has been raised and still lives in FLDS the questions were very tough.

Except for the anger displayed by one woman (who doesn't even live here) towards those asking questions, the citizens usually did not argue over religion or anything else. Questions were raised, but when answered the matter was usually dropped.

I was also impressed with the young adults who showed up and listened. Alexis Hall asked a very astute question. She is going to make a great journalist someday.

I hope everyone will take the time to read Mr. Mankin's guest column. It covers a lot of territory but he writes about what he knows. He has lots of eyes and ears out there that help him with information and I know he does not repeat any of it lightly.

As for me I know things will work out fine in the area with our new neighbors. I wish it was different, but it appears that this is a done deal. I know Lockney people will be kind and respectful. But they also won't be push-overs or naive.
 
HesperianBeacon.com
Originally published May 17, 2007
 
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