The Lamb and the Lynx

There may be nothing more distressing than the abuse of children. It’s particularly insidious when the abuse is at the hands a child’s parent because that constitutes a betrayal of trust at the deepest level. Parental abuse is usually something that occurs behind closed doors and shuttered windows. But it occasionally happens in plain view where everyone can see it. When this kind of brazen abuse happens in the public eye, ironically, the public is paralyzed. The police aren’t on the scene investigating. No one from Child Protective Services comes to the aid of the children. No one goes to court to file charges or seek protective orders. Nothing really happens. We’re left to write letters to the editor or make blog entries like this one.

Why? Because the children and the parents involved in this kind of abuse are all smiling. They’re happy with their state of affairs, almost giddy with the attention they get. All is well, all is right, in their twisted minds. The rest of us can all go to hell as far as they’re concerned. Indeed, most of us are well on the way to hell, in their opinion.

A case of brazen parental abuse of this nature is unfolding in my hometown. It’s a case that has drawn national attention. It involves 13-year old twin girls named Lamb and Lynx. Yes, that’s an oh-so-clever reference to the lamb and the lion of Christian lore. Yes, this is one of those cases in which the child abuse is being carried out in the name of the Great White God. Unfortunately, this lamb and lynx are not likely to lie down together in peace.

This Lamb and Lynx are being raised by a mother who is an avowed white supremacist of the highest order. This woman is a frequent stain on the editorial pages of our local newspaper. Each letter to the editor from her gnarled mind addresses the subject of race relations in America; each one is filled with sickness, hate and bigotry. She thumps the Bible on a regular basis.

Her twin daughters are beautiful young women; they’re classic California blondes who undoubtedly already turn the heads of teenage boys around them. Sadly, they also turn the stomachs of those around them. You see, these girls are talented – they sing; they play several instruments. They’ve been performing in public since they were nine. They have a CD out, and another one is coming; they have a music video and a cadre of loyal fans. They call themselves Prussian Blue, a nod to their Germanic heritage.

Their music is blatantly racist, filled with lyrics that bring heart-felt tears to the eyes of white supremacists everywhere. They’re fond of Heir Adolph and are often pictured wearing their “Happy Hitler” t-shirts. They’re fond of other Nazis like Rudolph Hess, whom they praise in song as “a man of peace who wouldn’t give up”.

These girls have been brainwashed by a sick woman who they call “mommy”. They’re home-schooled. They also live with a grandfather who has registered the Nazi swastika as his official cattle brand. The girls have swallowed their poison as instructed. "We're proud of being white; we want to keep being white," said Lynx. "We want our people to stay white … we don't want to just be, you know, a big muddle. We just want to preserve our race." I’d like someone to try to preserve their sanity.

These girls made national news when the board that oversees the Kern County Fair removed this duet from the lineup of performers scheduled to appear on stage at the County Fair last year. Several people had lodged protests against their scheduled appearance and the board suddenly realized it had a problem. These girls had performed at the fair previously, without any apparent reaction, which is troubling on another level.

Like many other kids, Lamb and Lynx decided to help the victims of Hurricane Katrina. Unlike others, they only wanted to help the white victims. Their donations were handed out by a White Nationalist organization along with a pamphlet promoting their beliefs. There were few takers; so their donations were left behind at a store that sells Confederate memorabilia.

Now these girls are the subject of a custody battle. Their uber-mom wants to move them to an all-white town in Montana because “Bakersfield isn’t white enough”. I’d bet their destination in Big Sky Country involves the word “compound”, or some other cloister of likeminded ignorant idiots. Their dad, who lives elsewhere in California, wants to have full custody in order to protect them. He might be undertaking that effort a little too late. I suspect Montana is about to become a little more white.

Cases like this make me sick. It’s like seeing a child in some rural location in the South wearing a white sheet and pointed hat at a cross burning; or seeing a young Muslim boy shouting and jumping for joy at the scene of a suicide car bombing in Baghdad. These are kids who’ve been robbed of their innocence as surely as if they’d been repeatedly raped. When I think about the contrast between a mother like my wife, who gave every ounce of energy she had to try to protect her son from cancer, and another mother like this woman in Bakersfield, who gives every ounce of energy she has to injecting a racist, hateful cancer into her daughters, I get enraged. But I don’t know what to do with that rage.

These are kids who came into this life created in the image of God and were then recast, day after day, in the image of one or both of their parents. I think that enrages God, and I trust that s/he knows what to do with that rage. If there is a day of judgment before the bar of God, then I hope these people find that they’re invited to the head of the judgment line. It would not surprise me to hear God say, “Adolph, step aside for a minute. I want to deal with this so-called mother from Bakersfield first.”

The word “evil” fits a woman like her as snuggly as it fits the leader of the Third Reich.