Plain in the city

A plain Quaker folk singer with a Juris Doctorate in his back pocket, salt in his blood, and a set of currach oars in the closet, Ulleann Pipes under his arm, guitar on his back, Anglo Irish baggage, wandering through New York City ... in constant amaze. Statement of Faithfulness. As a member of the Quaker Bloggers Ad Hoc Committee I affirm that I will be faithful to the Book of Discipline of my Meeting 15th Street Monthly Meeting of the Religious Society of Friends.

Sunday, February 08, 2009

Anti-amish hatered on Facebook

Amish buggy on my favorite Lancaster road.
Photo Lorcan Otway all rights reserved



There are several anti-Amish groups on Facebook. I've drafted this response to post when I get to a faster computer, hopefully this morning before Meeting.

Dear Friends:

I have been reading the postings of this group, and feel called on to offer a response. Prejudice is often a result of a lack of self reflection and has little place in the United States, in light of the goals upon which this nation was founded. Part of those goals grew from the events leading to my Amish friends coming to this continent. We Quakers, like the Amish, were a people who were killed in large numbers in our European home nations because of our faith. We were killed because we would not conform to the idea that part of citizenship was to break the commandment against killing and to conform to the slavery of class.
By luck, we Quakers were given the charter for a colony, Pennsylvania, wherein we promised the religious freedom we did not know in England and Ireland. Anna-Baptists from Germany and Holland and Switzerland came, as did French Huguenots, European Jews, and other nonconformists. In this colony we set a standard for fair treatment which is remembered in the American Indian community of nations today, as we did not break a single treaty with Indian nations in Pennsylvania. We also became a destination for Africans, brought to this continent to be slaves, in their escape north, away from that stain on this nations soul.
Some of the objections to the Amish, voiced here have been that their children sometimes die in farming accidents. This is true. In the world outside the Amish community, some children also die. They die, in this land of wealth, from the effects of poverty, neglect, and prejudice as well as the happenstance of living in a world where accidental death is always a possibility. Worse, they die in wars, seldom fought for the reasons given by political leaders. Some Mennonites (the root community of the Amish) as well as Quakers die in these wars, but they die as we do, trying to mitigate the horror of war by being medics or other workers for peace. In this world of uncertainty, it is not so much a matter of avoiding death, but how we face unreasonable, unexpected death, and the response to the deaths of the children at Nickel Mines, in Lancaster spoke volumes about how Amish people face such death.
It has been said that Amish people do not smell good. I have not found this to be the case. I dress plain, as do my Amish friends. I live in a city, so I do not do farm labor. As such, I suppose I smell the way most urban working people smell - of soap. I have found that Amish who labor in the fields smell as do farmers I have known in rural Ireland, England and France, Upstate New York, and other places where the food you eat is grown. I suggest if the smell of a farmer offends you, you might try working a farm someday. After all, I expect you live off that labor. If you find it objectionable to be around farmers, stop buying up farmland and turning it into suburban sprawl. There is plenty of room in the city, where folks do "clean" work.
There are statements here about the Amish being backward, or not intelligent in the choice of how they live. Well, as I write this, we are in the middle of a world wide recession which resulted from the simple basic greed of the other world, Amish have chosen not to live within.
The idea that making fun of people is harmless because they cannot hear you is simply wrong. Each of you that harbors prejudice hurts yourself deeply. You are hurt by a lack of self reflection. Self awareness comes from reaching out to those things you hate or fear. Germany was not made stronger by nazism, or the United States made stronger by the klan. England was not made stronger by the national front, nor was France made stronger by collaborating with the nazis. Nations become stronger, when as Daniel Webster reminded us, we pull together. No community can afford the luxury of ignorant prejudice, and no individual is fully complete without the love of neighbor.
Today this world is being ripped apart by wars rooted in ignorant prejudice - it continues or ends with each of you.

With love, respect and trust in your soul's ability to heal
Lorcan Otway

24 Comments:

At 11:18 AM, Blogger David Carl said...

Thank you, brother Lorcan & Amen.

 
At 10:33 PM, Blogger True said...

Nice blog! You mentioned somewhere on here that you have the address for Flying Cloud Hat Co. I can't find it. Could you please point me in the right direction? Thanks.

 
At 4:26 PM, Blogger Lucy said...

amen!

 
At 12:58 PM, Blogger Sister F said...

How could someone be anti-Amish? What have the Amish ever done to hurt or offend a soul? I'd bet they are the most peaceful and kind people this country has.
Speaking of, I recently read an article about pride in the Amish community - I think it was in Time magazine. Who'd a thought?

Thanks for the post!

 
At 8:23 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

I took the Amtrak today and the amish man almost slammed the seat in front of me into my face, They seem really upset over something, something missing in their lives. I think they are good souls, but the per son I dealt with today was not nice to me. His wife was a very sweet girl and she smiled at me. So I guess she is a nice person :).

 
At 6:04 AM, Blogger Lorcan Otway said...

Hi Anonymous...
I supose the point is that they are also human? Because one guy is having a bad day, there is something missing in their lives? Maybe it was a bad year for crops, had tax trouble, is son is ill, his Bishop got on his case over buggy lights... Give the guy a break... you saw him what, one hour out of his life? Think of your worst moment, and should, say someone from Somalia say, hey, look at that guy, everyone in his community must be a real so and such...?
Ah well,
Thine in the light
Lorcan

 
At 3:44 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

Maybe the "smell" that was mentioned is body odor from lack of deoderant, not soap.

 
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At 12:29 AM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

l. They treat their children like slaves.

2. They cause traffic jams, and tear the roads up with their iron wheels.

3. They let their animals shit all over the place.

4. They smell like animal shit.

 
At 1:43 AM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

Maybe they treat their kids like slaves, but we treat our kids like convicts. Oh, and animal shit stinks. Surprise. What's your point?
I can't defend everything the Amish do. But it seems mean-spirited and unproductive to attack such a small minority. Wouldn't we do much more good by focusing on the ills of mainstream society...and then look at groups like the Amish?
mntnmom

 
At 8:15 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

I HATE the Amish because the majority of them own puppy mills. If you don't know what a puppy mill is, look it up and try to justify it.

Also in my eyes, their "religion" is nothing more than a cult.

 
At 5:00 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

I think they treat their children like dirt. They only have them so they can do all the work for them. And, why is it that now they're on the internet...selling amish sheds. What about all the coke they do? I've heard the amish men love doing coke.

 
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At 4:49 AM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

Have you ever heard of puppy mills? did you know that they fertilize fields with dead dogs?

 
At 12:50 PM, Anonymous Michele Zimmerman said...

A light in the darkness?! Tell that to the puppy we got that was rescued from an AMISH puppy mill. They are not poverty ridden. Read the stats on how many millions of dollars they have made with their sadistic puppy mills. They are evil they dont worship Almighty God they worship the almighty dollar!!!

 
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