My Word for June 5, 2001

I want to talk about that family out in Idaho named McGuckin, and the terrible ordeal they've been through.

The ordeal, by the way, didn't start a few days when the mother was locked up for negligently looking after her six children.

It started years ago when the now deceased father lost his business — a sawmill. Then he got multiple sclerosis, a disease that was on its way to killing him when he died from malnutrition.

All of that was bad, but then a paranoid and suspicious mother decided to hermitize her family. Neighbors wanted to help, but the mother turned away ... afraid of everything.

The worst thing of all had to be the sale of the family's home for back taxes.

It sold to an unidentified bidder for $8,000, but it is worth many thousands more.

When that happened, the mother's paranoia became a reality. The government wasn't just planning to take her home, the government did take it.

The government we're talking about is that of a county in the state of Idaho, not the big nasty Feds.

Regardless of whether this was a big government mistake or a small government mistake, it remains an outrage.

The mother's paranoia peaked when her family became homeless. Can you imagine a shrink trying to tell her the government wasn't after her?

The McGuckin kids are now probably going to have to live apart from their one suriving parent, and from each other, in foster care.

The authorities say they had to do something about the awful conditions in which they were living.

Yes, Mr. and Ms. Idaho Authority, you should have helped.

But why couldn't you have given the McGuckins a waiver on their taxes, or have organized a fund raiser? Now that you have taken their home, you have made matters infinitely worse than they ever were before.

With a track record like that, what help can you offer that anybody would want?

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