[TheForge] Amish

[Terry L. Ridder]

hello;

to clear up some misunderstandings concerning amish, old order mennonite,
mennonite, and other similar groups.

commonsense is used concerning the use of telephones, computers, etc.

while i use computers, telephones, etc i have a propane refrigerator
and freezer. i do not read newspapers mainly because i find them too
depressing. i have propane gas lights, and kerosene lanterns in the
house. my friends in arthur, illinois, who have businesses have telphones,
fax machines, copiers, etc. kenneth, who is a cabinet maker, still powers
the shop by line shaft. in the office is a telephone, fax machine, copier,
etc. kenneth, has a web page. you will not find a telephone, fax machine,
copier in the house. their use is viewed as the cost of doing business.

i have propane gas lights in my computer room. it is a joke with
people around here that i type my e-mails by gas light.

a better joke is that i troubleshoot cellular remote sites and wrote
part of the software used to plan where cellular sites should be located
but i do not use a cellular telphone, pager, etc.

as of this wednesday i now have an 11mbps 802.11 wireless ethernet
connection to the internet. i just canceled the 128k isdn circuit
this morning.

the lifestyle is not rigid there is room for variants.

i have tutored for years several mennonite and amish children in
math and computers. the one boy is now 19 years old and doing well
working on computers and building computers. we joke that we are
an amish/mennonite computers users group of five. ( there are others
in the group. ) i do know that there is at least one amish linux
users group.

some groups allow the use of tractors while some have choosen to
use only draft horses. some groups allow the ownership of a car
but not drive it. ( they hire someone to drive it.  very long story. )
some groups do not allow the ownership of a car. it boils down to what
the community is comfortable with.

the issue of "wires", whether they be telephone, electric, etc is not
a black and white issue. to someone looking at the communities from
the outside it looks like 'hair splitting' but it a subject matter that
is difficult to explain. their use is really governed on a case by case
basis.

if anyone has questions i will be happy to try an answer them to the best
of my ability.

On Fri, 15 Mar 2002, schade@acegroup.cc wrote:

bob> 
bob> maybe not stupid but i have to wonder about anyone who would
bob> willingly give up so many personal freedoms. like reading
bob> books that might interest you, listening to radio, recorded
bob> music, tv, newspapers, computers, the list goes on and on....
bob> 
bob> amish around here are able to use cell phones since they don't
bob> use wires...talk about splitting hairs! like somehow all those
bob> towers are less "wordly" than wire!
bob> 
bob> please don't get me started on this...oops too late.
bob> 
bob> bob s.
bob> 

-- 
Terry L. Ridder

digging deep, i feel my conscience burn
i need to know who and what i am
this hunger jolts me from complacency
rocks me, makes me meet myself
----kendall payne---closer to myself---