 |
|
.POLYGAMY UNDER ATTACK – FROM TOM GREEN TO BRIAN DAVID MITCHELL
Back to Main Page
Page 2 Page 3
LINDA KUNZ GREEN 28
I was born in Salt Lake City, Utah. I am a very proud, doting mother of six
beautiful, well behaved, well adjusted children with morals and values. We
divide up all of the responsibilities and housework between the ladies. Each
lady has something that she is in charge of and it is her responsibility to make
sure it gets done.
My responsibilities are Finances, Managing and organizing
what everyone in the family will be doing, home schooling, and of course helping
to clean the house and care for the children. Management , communication,
cooperation, coordination, compromise—working together towards common beliefs
and goals, and striving to do what is good for all involved as a whole—is the
key to our successful relationships together.
I love teaching and working with children. I worked as a
teacher's aide and substitute teacher. Learning is my passion. I love books,
Shakespeare, Tolkien, Thoreau, Kipling and many more classics. I love music and
movies. I love nature, backpacking, river rafting, trips to the ocean. We take
our children to do these things with us. We've traveled back East several times,
taking them to the arch in St. Louis, Lincoln's home in Springfield, MO.,
Kennedy space center, Florida Keys, Disney world, Plymouth Rock. We've been to
Mesa Verde national Park, hiked through the Grand Canyon, camped in Yellowstone
National Park many times. We've taken our children to Disneyland several
times.
We want to help our children to have educational and fun
experiences in life. We want them to believe in themselves and know that
whatever they want in life they can have if they work hard enough for it. We
teach our children to follow the Golden Rule and have respect, love, and
compassion for their fellow man. We teach each of our children to develop a
personal relationship with God, and that he and no other person should be the
one to tell them what is right for them and how they should live their lives. We
teach our children that free agency is the most important principle. All people
should have the right to choose for themselves the life they will lead and
pursue.
My oldest son has been tested with an IQ of 168. He is home
schooled and in recent tests at the public school scored several grade levels
ahead of his age group (13). He wants to be a Jet pilot and we encourage him to
pursue his dreams. We moved to Snake Valley to get away from the prejudice and
persecutions of our neighbors in Salt Lake City and to have a place where our
children were free to be children and not be restricted by city walls and
fences. Most of our fellow ranchers here are friendly and congenial and even
invite us to participate and be a part of the community.
The other polygamists out here do not approve of us because
we do not follow their "Prophet." We choose to be independent
from a polygamist group and take our direction and guidance from God and we are
looked down upon for it. We have plans to develop our property with trees,
grass, landscaping, build a playground for the children with a shade roof to
protect them from the sun and rain. We plan to have a courtyard in the center of
all of our homes that is fenced so that our toddlers will be free to play and
enjoy themselves. We are going to grow vegetables and herbs.
Our 25 children range in age from thirteen down to one year.
Our thirteen- and twelve-year-olds are interested in and participate in high
school sports such as basketball and tennis. We have computers available for our
children. They are big into computer games such as Flying jets and Strategic war
games.( Risk, Age of the Empires, Oregon Trail.) We take our children to see
oldies concerts. They are big fans of the Beatles impersonators.
All of our boys are actively involved in Boy Scouts. My
religious beliefs are very sacred and important to me. I believe men and women
should have the right to choose for themselves to live whatever lifestyle that
they want and to believe whatever religion they want. I chose to live my
lifestyle and it has been a very happy fulfilling experience for me and I will
fight to the end for my right to stay where I am and have my family
together.
I would fight for that right to be upheld for anyone, no
matter their religion, their race, or their sex. I would oppose and object to
any person trying to tell another person what is right for them and how they
should live. I just want to be able to live my life the way I believe it will
make me the happiest regardless of society, and its opinions about my choice.
After all this is America isn't it? We should be free to live the way we believe
and not be persecuted for it.
Linda Kunz Green
Top 
by Greg Burton, The Salt Lake Tribune, May 23, 2000
Juab County prosecutor David O. Leavitt apparently violated state law last month
when he failed to notify one of the "wives" of embattled polygamist
Thomas Arthur Green that he believed she was the victim of a sex crime and that
he had charged Green with rape of a child based on that belief.
Under Utah's victims' rights statute, prosecutors must inform victims of a crime
within seven days of filing criminal charges. Leavitt did not officially inform
Linda Kunz until last Friday that he had charged Green on April 17 with
allegedly having sex with her in 1986, when she was 13.
. . . .During the hearing, Leavitt will argue his motion to compel Judge Donald
J. Eyre Jr. to rule Green and Kunz have been legally married since 1986, despite
obtaining a Nevada divorce in 1989. If Eyre does not rule the marriage is legal,
Leavitt says he may have to drop the bigamy charges. Because Eyre's ruling is
crucial to the prosecution's case, his relationship with Leavitt has been called
into question by Green's supporters. Eyre was appointed to the bench by Gov.
Mike Leavitt, David Leavitt's brother, and was the Juab County Attorney prior to
David Leavitt, who took over when Eyre joined the bench. "Isn't there a
conflict of interest here?" Green friend Randall Larsen wrote Monday in a
letter to Gov. Leavitt. While Leavitt has cast Green's five current
"wives" and many of his 29 children as victims, all resisted Leavitt's
investigation.
"I am not a victim — I am here willingly," Kunz told The Tribune.
"No one has ever shown us where getting married that young has hurt
us." . . . . Kunz' attorney Bill Morrison, however, says Leavitt is
recklessly trying to protect a woman who never believed she needed protection.
"It victimizes the poor victim," Morrison said. "This supposed
crime was 14 years ago and she's had a bunch of other children with Tom Green.
Now she stands to have her entire family destroyed on the actions of the
state."
Top
An Interview with Linda Kunz Green and her mother Beth Cook
© by John R. Llewellyn
Linda Kunz Green, age 28, the mother of six, hasn't changed in 14 years—she's
still adorable, the picture of natural health and unafraid to speak her mind.
Since Prosecutor David Leavitt filed criminal charges against Tom Green, she has
defended her right to do her own thinking and speak for herself. Opponents of
plural marriage, many of whom are delighted with the prosecution of Tom Green,
have alleged that Linda was immature and too young at age 14 to consent to a
marriage with Tom. And if she did give consent, then she must have been
brainwashed or a victim of the Stockholm Syndrome.
Linda has taken every
opportunity to dispute the assumptions of opponents who would love to make her
an unwilling victim. But no matter how many times she passionately informs
television and newspaper reporters that she was not, and is not now a victim,
her vindication is ignored by those who would like to see Tom behind bars.
Linda's oldest son, Mel, dreams of being a pilot. This goal resulted from
watching the F-16s from Hill Field practicing aerial maneuvers over Snake
Valley, Mel's desert home on the Utah-Nevada border. And according to Linda, Mel
has the acumen to become a jet pilot. Mostly educated at home, intelligent tests
indicate that Mel is academically two years ahead of his age group. In the last
two years, Linda has been a teachers aid and substitute teacher at the West
Desert School in Snake Valley. This fact tends to discard the notion that she
and her sister-wives are illiterate and inadequately educated—an assumption
that is further dispelled by the articulation of their television interviews.
Linda has traveled the breadth and length of the United States. She has stood at
Plymouth Rock, scanned Seattle from the Space Needle and lounged at the Florida
Keys. Her children are no strangers to Disney Land. In other words, Linda has
had opportunity upon opportunity to view and visit our great county outside of
Snake Valley. She is not a victim of coercion or delusions. She has chosen the
life of a Mormon fundamentalist. From studying her religion Linda knows who she
is, where she came from, where she is going and is happy with her lot in life,
except for the familial interference of government. Although young and pretty, a
virtual effervescent fountain of charm, her ambitions are old fashioned but
honorable. Linda wants to be a wife, mother and homemaker, a most noble
occupation, and from this journalist's point of view, she's made an excellent
start.
Top
Beth
Cook. As any mother would be expected to do, Beth Cook is protective of
her daughter, Linda—as well as proud. Beth is willing to do whatever is
necessary to see that Linda is not hurt. Beth was born into the polygamist cult
of Short Creek, now known as Colorado City. At age 12 she was given as wife by
the prophet Roy Johnson to an old man. Her little sister was a wife at age 9.
This was not the rule, but the exception, she said. Giving children as wives, to
her knowledge, no longer occurs. Nevertheless, her morbid experiences as a child
bride have seriously impacted her life. Needless to say, Beth has led a tough
stringent life, not by choice but by birth. In spite of the abuse she has
received as a result of a child plural marriage, she still believes plural marriage is
sanctioned by God. Beth stated that when Linda was 14, she was mature for her
age and set in her mind. She wanted to marry Tom Green. Nothing could talk her
out of it. So Beth consented and from her perspective it has been a successful
marriage. At least Linda had a choice, Beth didn't.
Like June, the mother of
LeeAnn and Shirley, Beth is not happy with the prosecution of Tom Green because
of what it is doing to her daughter and grandchildren. Beth knows they are not
victims. Beth also knows that the state is no substitute for a father or a
mother. Tom Green, she asserts, is no threat to society and it is unfair to
compare him with a burglar or car thief. She said Tom is a good father, he
spends time with his children, he takes them places and they love him. It would
be a disaster to the family and a tragedy for the children if he were put in
jail.
Beth said, "I thought the state was suppose to protect families, not
tear them apart. Whose egos are being satisfied by prosecuting Tom Green?"
Top
|
|
