Yesterday

I haven't turned on the TV much since yesterday. I hear the news reports on the radio about what is going on regarding the school shooting. It is so very sad. In the past, anything that happens regarding the Amish makes me uncomfortable.......or rather, sad. Our local stations do a pretty good job of not turning things into a spectacle, but once the bigger metro stations come and the cable news stations....well then it just turns into this huge media circus. Its just constant leering at the strange people in the horse and buggies. Hopefully through this situation, the Amish community is being treated with some respect, but I doubt it.

Last Thursday I was on my way to southern Chester County and decided to go via Route 896 to get there. Having no pumpkins, I knew that there were multiple Amish farms along there that just might have the pumpkins that I wanted. I stopped at a farm in Georgetown. Nickel Mines is less than a quarter mile to the north and the school is just outside of Georgetown. I picked a few pumpkins and looked around for someone to pay as I needed change and there was only an honor box. Laundry was hanging on long lines strung from the second floor porch and one of the barns. There were lots of little childrens clothes, and purple and blue dresses fluttered in the wind. Finally the farmer came out and I complimented him on his pumpkins and we had a short conversation about different varieties and the best way to combat squash bugs (he suggested a fermented tobacco mixture, since he also grew tobacco) and I thanked him and went on my way. His children would have gone to that school. I feel sorrow for the people involved and also shame, that something from our community so grossly infringed on their community.

It's a weird situation here. A large portion of Lancaster County is Amish and our second biggest industry, after agriculture, is tourism. People come because of the Amish. Yet they are many times treated like second class citizens and much is allowed to happen that is essentially driving them out of the county. Property values have skyrocketed and young Amish cannot afford to buy farms when competing with developers. They are frequently hit on the roads, yet speed limits are not decreased and any talk of a small lane to the sideof the road for their travel is met with fierce opposition. Just last week, in an area near the school shooting, a small boy on a scooter was hit and killed and the driver left the scene. Even on the radio this morning, two morning peronalities that I have heard complain about the Amish and their ways were simply gushing with sympathy, naming every Amish person they've ever had contact with. Strange.

So it's really sad. And I hope the coverage that I'm not watching is focusing on them just as people. People that have experienced a terrible tragedy and lost too many innocents from their community. Not coverage where they are being pestered to go on camera, not having their entire way of life splayed out for the country to get a good look at, just not being made spectacles. Of all the communities in which this could happen, they have the most tight knit and will deal with this their way, and they really don't need the rest of the country driving by and staring.