The shooting at the Amish schoolhouse took place a few miles from here in a sparsely populated part of the county. A neighbor at the kids' bus stop yesterday said his friend got turned back by police on Mine Road and pulled over and saw the whole thing do down. The police arrived quickly and prevented a disaster from becoming even worse.
In just about any other community, a deadly school shooting would have brought demands from civic leaders for tighter gun laws and better security, and the victims' loved ones would have lashed out at the gunman's family or threatened to sue. But that's not the Amish way.
No it's not. The Amish are organized around community, family, faith, simplicity and hard work. The day after the tradedy, my Amish neighbors were out harvesting the corn crop by horsepower. The corn must come in regardless of circumstances, and harvesting tens of acres by hand requires a lot of hands. Watching this operation made me feel soft and harried and somewhat isolated. Who in my life is helping me harvest my crop? Have I made community, family, faith, simplicity or hard work a priority in my life? In their situation, would I fret, or would I get up and go harvest the corn?
The first order of business was a community prayer service at a large church here in Leola. Nancy met a friend there and called me from the parking lot to report a media circus. During the silent periods during the service you could hear cameras clicking. Media correspondents grabbed people on their way out for on-location interviews.
The Amish responded by requesting privacy and going about their business in a dignified manner. The media does not know quite what to make of something happening in a dignified manner. They are used to covering (and fueling, even creating) Cindy Sheehan types. What do you do with survivors who comfort the perpetrator's family and refuse to have their picture taken?
In the aftermath of Monday's violence, the Amish have reached out to the family of the gunman, Charles Carl Roberts IV, 32, who committed suicide during the attack in a one-room schoolhouse.
Dwight Lefever, a Roberts family spokesman, said an Amish neighbor comforted the Roberts family hours after the shooting and extended forgiveness to them. Among Roberts' survivors are his wife and three children.
"I hope they stay around here and they'll have a lot of friends and a lot of support," said Daniel Esh, a 57-year-old Amish artist and woodworker whose three grandnephews were inside the school during the attack.
Roberts' relatives may even receive money from a fund established to help victims and their families, said Kevin King, executive director of Mennonite Disaster services, an agency managing the donations.
The MSM doesn't have anything to hype here and won't understand the non-reaction to this story locally. The Amish understand that life is not fair, that sometimes it is hard, that there is evil in the world, that they were cursed after Adam's fall to work the land, that there is an afterlife, that the victims are better off than their survivors, and that the only response consistent with their faith is to forgive and to keep on keeping on. There is much to admire in that, but not much to report.
2 comments:
Beautifully told, E. The world the media cannot crack.
MSM always pretends that they would report the good stuff if only it would happen. Here it is and the cameras are already there but they are being packed away so they can be sent to the next blood spill.
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