DECEPTION

What kind of vapid drivel is this?

I've sometimes wondered what the Amish would think of a female veep or even president, but have thus far failed to get a reading on that.

Oh yeah, sure! let's pretend that this is a deep thought! One of the great unfathomable mysteries one might encounter while studying the Amish! You're such a total pile of a shit Eric! If Sen. Clinton were the candidate you wouldn't have any trouble eliciting a response. Come to think of it, you quoted an Amish guy here Who said "Old HIllary...I just can't find myself clapping for anything Hillary does."

the 14-year old brother of my friend Abe sort of had a general impression of what was going on in the election and could say that he didn't really like Obama. What he was basing that upon, I'm not really sure.

So the whole post you're going on and on how the Amish are apolitical. Yet the 14 year old kid manages to get a partisan dig in. What the fuck? Do you just naturally come up with this bizarre twisted shit or do you have to work at it?

But again, Amish tend to keep their noses far from the political sphere. In truth, most would probably take the 'you guys pick him, we'll pray for him' approach

As cousin Vinny  said "don't forget about these guys" not to mention your own words

it seems to me that there are some closet political junkies among the Amish out there. I've been listening to interviews with Amish business owners I did in September for an upcoming book, and on more than one occasion our conversational digressions led into the political sphere.

FOOLS ERRAND

In at least one curious instance, however, an Amish churchmember reacted quite the contrary to heavenly will. In a historical piece in Family Life, David Luthy describes a now-defunct Amish settlement in Somerset County, Pennsylvania, which had already been experiencing church difficulties:

"The story has been related of one ordination where the lot fell on a young man with little ability. When the truth of the situation seemed to dawn on him, he jumped up in a frenzy and started to run for the door with several men in pursuit. One man grabbed him while he clung to the door kicking at his pursuers. He would not submit to ordination."

Typical reaction? Not likely. Although, even though it may seem comical, this man acted out what some Amishmen must feel when faced with the heavy burden of leading their congregation of souls.

So if it's not typical, why put it in a post on ministry? Is this some twisted attempt at "fair and balanced"? You do have sources that can enlighten you on what it's like.

The position of bishop is probably the most demanding. I was recently on the phone with an Amish friend in Ohio, already a minister. His church had divided earlier in the year, and an ordination had taken place a couple weeks earlier. Among other things, he expressed relief at being passed over for bishop. He describes dealing with church issues as more taxing than anything else he has to handle, including running a business with a dozen employees.

(nice name dropping there, Eric. I'll bet your fellow Amish writer wanna bees are green with envy! Aren't you just hot shit? You're on the phone with an Amish minister and he's a business owner to boot! Toot! Toot!) and "among other things"?, sounds like he poured out his heart and soul over that phone line! Har har, ya really got the inside track on that one. What the hell is he spilling his guts to some English lacky for? Could it be that you're sucking up to him just a wee bit?


Nah, it couldn't be that.

And yet, with all that bull shit you just fed us about your fucking personal relationship with this minister, you couldn't give us one little snippet of personal narrative from his ordination? Not some "parting of the sea" moment, but just a little tid bit that would reveal a fellow human being. It would've been very easy to come up with something better than the cartoon caricature Luthy peddled. But you failed to deliver. You're a fucking embarrassment!

Lovin the Amish, (culture war edition)

And sometimes with certain people it even seems animal life becomes more valuable than human life. In my opinion that is unfortunate.

The under lying message here is that it's wrong to care about puppies, it's okay to care, "just don't care so much that you might actually do something that might help the ones that are being neglected." He loves puppies, but I'm not hearing his plan on how to show some love to the ones that ain't gettin it.

This commenter gets more specific just in case you might miss his point.

Makes no sense to me. Society gets all up in arms over these "puppy mills" - yet thousands of unborn HUMAN BEINGS are slaughtered every day without a second thought.

I'll worry about shutting a "puppy mill" down just as soon as the abortion clinic down the road gets shut down.

Regardless - we recently considered getting our daughter a puppy and drove around to a lot of the local breeders in my area. We probably visited a dozen Amish farms in the process - and we saw no sign of abuse whatsoever. In fact the only difference between the Amish breeders and the non-Amish breeders were that the Amish dressed funny and didn't have electricity. They were no different than the "English" families we visited who had a single litter of pups for sale. The Amish were the only folks that would guarantee their dogs and give a refund and pay any vet costs if their was a problem with the pups.

After looking at all those dogs I'm thoroughly convinced the Amish have got a bad rap with this whole puppy mill thing.

Got that? The Amish don't mistreat puppies and even if they do you're not allowed to care because abortion is much worse, (i guess, or something) any way the Amish are good and wonderful just because I said so and don't you dare make them look bad!,,..and....and

...and..THERE IS A CULTURE WAR TO BE FOUGHT AND IF I HAVE TO USE THESE PACIFIST PEOPLE TO , TO , TO , FIGHT IT, THAT'S JUST TO DAMN BAD!

unfair labor practices

So there's this story

Dan Grinols, a contractor with a business based in Hornellsville, is in the early stages of organizing a meeting to object to Amish workers bidding on state jobs and taking on local work. He claims they are stealing work from contractors that are required by law to pay for insurance and prevailing wage on state jobs. He says this is unjust and he is tired of watching it happen.

and then there's this one

The Amish population continues to explode, growing 84 percent from 1992 to 2008,

Stay tuned

Lame

It's no secret that a puppy breeder is out to make a profit. Which is why it is stupefying when protesters attempt to portray all pup breeders, or at least all Amish or Mennonite ones, as operated in the same manner as the few shoddy ones that have been caught and pilloried (rightly) in the media.

It's overplaying one's hand and there's also a good bit of prejudice or profiling or whatever you want to call it, involved. The Amish are plainly conspicuous, and are loathe to get involved, say, by responding through the media.

He's carrying a lot of water for the Amish here, with a lot accusations and no substance. Sounds a little like me, Ha Ha!

I do like to crack myself up! HA HA HA!

And as the Amish are something of an in-joke in many quarters, and one that seems largely unprotected by the PC-umbrella, it works a lot better than if they belonged to another, more 'sensitive' ethnic or religious group.

I agree, western culture does treat the Amish as if they were a joke, and yeah, they do it with impunity, but on the puppy mill issue the Amish don't need defending!

Also quite a few comments (in the comment section of the post) lamenting about the innocent Amish getting blamed along side the guilty Amish. The suggestion that this is important implies that the writers are projecting their values onto the Amish. The communal values of the Amish have more of a sink or swim together emphasis. If Amish leadership condones puppy mills and the public sees them as a negative, it is inherent in Amish values that they universally share the blame. Were there a good faith effort made by leadership, to make peace with the public expectation over conditions and care, this dynamic would change.

But there is also the issue of, "so if they aren't all abusing their dogs, does that mean we can't talk about the ones that are?" and "isn't the way to remedy this to set standards?" and "doesn't the current circumstance imply that the good guys haven't been doing their job?"

Scared of the Amish

Seems pretty straight forward

Ronald E. Piester, director of the state division of code enforcement, said the requirements are clear: one- or two-family homes must have smoke detectors under the New York state building code.

He said state officials appreciate that code enforcement might be a sensitive issue, particularly where religion is involved, but added that local officers are expected "to rigidly enforce the code."

Except to the guy who has to do something about it

In Jefferson County, where officials estimate some 100 Amish reside, there has been a greater reluctance on the part of local code enforcement officers to prosecute them.

Instead, local officers say they are waiting to see both how the Morristown case concludes and whether state officials will step in to resolve the issue.

"It's a state problem," said Michael L. Kieff, Jefferson County senior code enforcement officer. "It should be addressed in Albany and applied everywhere in the state."

Mr. Kieff, like other local enforcement officers, said he has no desire to put Amish residents in jail or take them to court over code enforcement issues like smoke detectors.

These guys are scared shit less of the Amish! Just fucking, throw them the hell in jail if they violate the law! Ya know, we're not bashful about throwing our other fellow citizens behind bars, when they get ver hutzt mit dee ordnung. What the fuck, why be prejudiced against the Amish? Let's let them in on this great American privilege!

Changing Storyline?

What happened to all the hoopla of forgiveness transcending tragedy? It's two years later and were now using phrases like "pain that lingers", "emotional scars that won't heal", and "working hard on forgiving"?

And there's more;

physical and psychological distress, (snip) still has vision problems, (snip) still recuperating. Each has had additional surgery and therapy.

(snip) Many of the 15 boys Roberts ordered out of the classroom feel responsible for leaving their friends behind. Some have suffered profound psychological pain.

"In the long term, some of the boys have had serious medical issues,'' says the health care worker. "Other boys, who weren't even in the school but live in the neighborhood, have had trouble.''

Acknowledges the parent of a school child, "Some of the boys are emotional. I don't know that the pain will ever go completely away. These children will carry scars for a lifetime.''

And last but not least;

They were at ground zero when the unbelievable occurred. They constantly support each other as unexpected aftershocks hit home.

"The journey is a long one -- to work on how to deal with a loss like this and the ongoing pain,'' says Bontrager. "It means working on forgiveness over and over, among other things.''

Would it make any difference if I said "I told you so"?

But what of the implications of why it took two years for their humanity to get a decent portrayal? Are they like dolls which we play act with for a moment before putting them back on the shelf?