Jason says we can't concern ourselves with adults that wrote in journals how pleased they were that they made the trek.
That is not what I said.
I think the problem with both of these statements is that there were children involved. It is appropriate to pity any child that was taken on such an arduous journey and quite possibly suffered extreme hardship, or death, because of their parents' religious fanaticism. It is appropriate to concern ourselves with any little person that does not have the ability to fiend for themselves and rely upon their parents to make informed, reasonable decisions as it regards to their care.
I have pity for these kids. Not so much the parents. If the parents were completely unaware of the treacherous journey ahead of them my sympathy extends to them as well. Yet, really it's hard to pity any parent that would place their child in such a position.
This from the 21st century of your chair in front of a PC. Look, life wast really hard back then. Many children died at young ages. Many US immigrants left Europe, not just LDS ones, in hopes of a better life. From your present day 160 years later who the heck are you to question what was good and not good for their children? Keep in minds more did this then so called religious fanatics, which in and of itself is once again a rather nasty slam when you really don't know that was up. I am sure glad our ancestors weren't afraid an cowardly to tackle the unkown like many of you seem to be.