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Iowa Steel Wheel Update....
The controversy in an Iowa Old Order Mennonite settlement over the use of steel wheels continues to grind along through the court system. The attorney for a 13-year-old Mennonite boy cited under the new anti-steel wheel ordinance in Mitchell County, Iowa is appealing his fine claiming religious rights violations. The Old Order Amish and their Mennonite brethren typically are not a litigious people, but they will use the courts to challenge issues of religious freedom. The Old Order Mennonites in Mitchell County use steel-wheeled tractors on small stretches of county roads. I've said before - and I'll continue to say - that this issue is one screaming for a "compromise", it should never have made it into the court system. A neighboring Iowa County has a fund that "plain people" pay into to compensate the county for any road damage inflicted by buggies, but Mitchell County supervisors have rejected such a plan. It just seems like something could have been worked out, but instead this will probably grind it's way all the way to the Iowa Supreme Court. Click here to read the latest.
Raising The Roof In Philly....
As the Amish have trended away from being an agrarian people (more so in some areas than others) to a service and shop culture, they have butted up against non-Amish workers. This has caused a bit of a culture clash at times. The Amish are often able to undercut competitors because they don't have to pay into social security when they are self-employed and some take religious exemptions from workers comp...sooo, this allows the Amish to greatly undercut non-Amish competitors. I definitely understand the gripe from the non-Amish workers, but I'm not sure what to do about it...Level the playing field and if the Amish win on quality, speed and efficiency, so be it....Click here to read more.
Amish in the Holy Land, But Why? (Among other questions)
An interesting Amish-related article ran in the Jerusalem Post yesterday, but, wow, it is not a very good one. The piece really leaves a gazillion unanswered questions. The article is about a delegation of Amish that visited the Holy Land recently to express support for Israel and seek forgiveness from the Jewish people. But the article doesn't say how many Amish, where the Amish were from, how long they stayed, and even what they were seeking forgiveness for. Journalism 101. Sheesh. And there is a reference to "Amish from Switzerland"....there are no Old Order Amish in Switzerland, so were there also some Mennonites from Switzerland in on the trip? My quibble isn't with the trip the Amish took, it's with the poor article. I think it could have been a fascinating piece. If the Amish were expressing forgiveness for their silence during World War II, for not speaking out against the Holocaust....then...well, that is touching and poignant...but I think MANY groups were complicit in their silence and the Amish are typically an apolitical people so them not speaking out doesn't seem unusual. So either I'm missing something or it was just a potentially great article that turned into a flop. Click here to read and let me know your thoughts! I will say that many people were suspicious of the Amish during World War II because of their German language and reclusive nature. Of course, they are pacifists and generally apolitical so they didn't support Hitler in the least.....
A Neat Birthing Alternative In Wisconsin
We've discussed on this website numerous times about how the Old Order Amish and Mennonites prefer to give birth in a home setting instead of a hospital. But with many Amish not having ready access to telephones to summon help in the event of a medical emergency, sometimes coming up with a "compromise" between home and hospital works well. "Birthing centers" outside of hospitals have been successfully established in some larger Amish communities in Ohio, Indiana and Pennsylvania, but I've not heard of anything like what exists in southwest Wisconsin's rapidly expanding Amish population. Outside of Lancaster (NOT Pennsylvania), Wisconsin in the middle of pastoral, bucolic fields an old farmhouse serves as a birthing center for the Amish. There's plenty of parking for buggies and horses and the outside of the center looks like it could pass for any Amish home. This provides about as close to a home-setting as possible, while still being staffed by medical professionals. It's a neat article...click here to read, As an aside, if you do read the article, what the heck is the reference to New Mexico for? Did that strike anyone else as out of place? Perhaps this reporter was using material that had been prior published in New Mexico? It's not a major issue, but it just struck me as out of place, I couldn't find any other references in the article to New Mexico? The article would also have benefitted from a bit more information about what is in the farmhouse: electricity? What type of medical equipment - if any - is on site? Kind of some sloppy reporting here..
Tragedy in Pennsylvania; Rising From the Ashes in Michigan
This happened a couple of days ago but I just didn't want to post it because it was such a downer to ponder over the Thanksgiving holiday.Some Amish on their way to a funeral were killed when their non-Amish driver swerved left-of-center and plowed into an oncoming pick-up truck. Just an all round tragedy. I am sure the Amish in Central Pennsylvania will handle it stoically, but events like these just serve to illustrate the fragility and fleeting nature of our existence. Click here to read more.
On a more upbeat note, a barn was built in a single day in Michigan when hundreds of Amish men arrived in Clare County, Michigan. The barn they were building/replacing was destroyed in a massive fire in October. This story illustrates the heart-warming sense of community and workmanship that is so prevelant in Amish culture.
Amish in Minnesota
Well, while I was visiting the Old Order Amish in Texas a small Minnesota newspaper launched a three-part series this week about the Amish in their area. I think the article is pretty well done. The series explores the Amish settlements around Becker County, Minnesota, which is about an hour east of Fargo, North Dakota. I think the article is pretty well done. Of course, if it had been me writing it I would have asked all sorts of other questions
but I don't think the reporter did a bad job. So if you want you read the article, click here. This Amish settlement definitely sounds less conservative and a little more open than the group in Texas, but that is what makes the church so interesting is all of the variations.
The Ever-Changing Amish....
There was a neat Amish article in today's Pittsburgh Tribune-Review. As an aside, the Tribune-Review is Pittsburgh's scrappy "second paper." It's a real rarity for any city to have two print papers these days. Thirty years ago most cities still had two newspapers but now the number of "two newspaper towns" can be counted on one's fingers and toes. Sad. But times change.
And speaking of changing times, this article describes how the Amish continue to evolve and adapt from agrarian people to an entrepreneurial one. The workmanship ingrained in Amish culture has given rise to some very innovative entrepreneurs, although I continue to think that this evolution from pure agrarianism to unbridled capitalism is going to lead to a split sometime soon with the Amish church. I think within the next 10 - 15 years.
Found: A Mennonite Treasure...
I am a bit of a history buff...so when my interest in the Amish and in history converge, I am always mesmerized. It's just fascinating to me when people discover long-forgotten treasures squirreled away in an attic or a relative's basement. Momentos get passed down from generation to generation and sometimes, if they are not labeled properly, the meaning behind their sentimentality vanishes. Yutzy is a very common name in the Amish and Mennonite religions. A family in Lincoln, Nebraska unearthed a treasure in an attic that connects with that common Anabaptist surname and goes back to the very earliest days of the Mennonite/Anabaptist faith. I've read some of the works of Menno Simons, one of the church's earliest founders, and they are an interesting read. But this is just fascinating...well, enough of my observations, read for yourself here!
Interesting Article...
An Associated Press article about Amish business diversification has been running on the newswires the past couple of days. The article is fascinating. I think the author could have taken the topic a step further, but he didn't, so I will. The premise of the piece is that with farming becoming less and less of a viable way to make a living for the traditionally agrarian Amish they are being forced to branch into other endeavors. This trend has been afoot for generations as Amish men have gone from farming to cabinetry and framing to bulk food stores and produce. But the Amish population doubles every generation, so the math illustrates how Amish men are going to have to adapt in finding occupations What today's featured article doesn't talk much about is how this trend impacts the future of the church. A cornerstone of the Amish church is maintaining a sense of "separateness" from society. And I just think it will be come more and more difficult to maintain such a separateness when running a global manufacturing operation or a potato chip company. I am not making a judgment call....It's up to the Amish to decide their future, not outsiders like me.....But I do think that the church is ripe for a major split within the next 10 - 15 years. The Amish church's history has been full of splits and I just think there will be formal break between a large more progressive bloc while more conservative Amish hew to traditional ways. This is just conjecture on my part, perhaps these more entrepreneurial/global Amish will find ways to stay separate while keeping their businesses running. Time will tell. Click here to read this interesting article.
Updated: Another Accident on Old Philadelphia Pike....
There was a fatal accident last week on Old Philadelphia Pike outside of Lancaster which killed an Amish boy. This week another Amish boy, this one a teenager, critically injured on the same road in the same area when an SUV plowed into his buggy. Really, really sad. This stretch of road between the city of Lancaster and the village of Intercourse is gorgeous and it bisects some of the most pristine Amish farmland in the USA. But it is this same beauty that draws hordes of tourists to the area who might not be as familiar with the ins and outs of sharing roads with horse-drawn buggies. And Old Philadelphia Pike seems to take the brunt of the traffic from buggies to buses. Everything from stopping distance to line of sight has be to adjusted when sharing the road with buggies. Sadly, this clash of cultures can lead to tragedy. It's horrible for all involved: the family of the deceased, of course, but I am sure this husband and wife from Delaware who plowed into the buggy didn't come to Bird-in-Hand to cause a horrible injury, so I am sure their hearts are breaking too. Let's send prayers to all involved. Tragic accident. For more, click here.
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