The Resurrection

Six months after the devastating attack on an Amish school in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, a new school -- aptly named New Hope -- opened its doors for the first time. The Inquirer, A new chapter begins for Amish, reports:

"In a dreamlike setting yesterday morning, with gray silos silhouetted in the milky fog and fields sparkling with dew, the Amish children who survived October's massacre were escorted by their fathers and state police to the first day of classes in their new school."

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"It's a bittersweet day, I think," said Herman Bontrager, spokesman for the nine-member Nickel Mines Accountability Committee, a group of community leaders appointed by the Amish to administer the school victims' fund. "It's a day where there's the excitement of a brand-new place, finally a real school. It's also a stark reminder of what happened, and who's not there." To help correct the gender imbalance, two girls were transferred from another school.

The Amish community chose the name New Hope Amish School as a symbol of the future, he said. "It's a symbol they're hanging onto, to help focus on the future and not only the past. But the past is keenly in front of them every day, when they wake up without their daughters or with their injured daughters."

Every fall for the past 30 years, my extended family has gathered for a long week-end in Lancaster County for a family reunion. Of course, I am not able to make it every year, but over a hundred of my extended family members, from young children to elder relatives, attend annually. I'm sure there are a number who have never missed a reunion. The family is scattered over the east coast, with a few coming from such outposts as California, so I enjoy the week-end as a time to catch up with family. I also enjoy my chance to spend some time in Amish country, as it's called. While it has certainly gotten more congested over the years, there are still stretches of beautiful countryside. Peace permeates the area.

School violence is always horrible to contemplate, but somehow it was even worse when it intruded on the Amish way of life. See Troubles in Paradise. They, of all people, didn't deserve it. The Amish intentionally maintain a quiet, private way of life, without any of the "modern conveniences." No TV, phones, electricity. They drive horse drawn carriages, not cars. They eschew "the English" as the rest of us are called, preferring to live separately; as a peaceable people, whose religious and cultural dedication to non-violence is absolute. Crime is rare, murder an abomination.

A week after the tragedy, the original one room schoolhouse was razed in the early dawn. The new school is on a different piece of land, down the road from the old school. Although it is a one room schoolhouse, it is built of a studier brick, rather than wood. New Hope for Amish children. And even though they considered adding additional security measures, in the end they did not do so. As the Inky noted:

Leaning on a shovel, a pen clipped to the pocket of his hand-sewn shirt, one of the other members of the Nickel Mines Accountability Committee said, "We were throwing around ideas about electrical devices for the new school. Some kind of alarm system. But they all just kind of decided we're going to do as we did before. Rely on God's protection for safety."

We can learn from these "plain people" in so many ways.

Afterward, they showed us what the true meaning of "Christian" is. They forgave the man, and his family, who shattered their peaceful existence and the lives of so many in this small community. See Gone, but Not Forgotten.

Remarking on the new school, mnpACT observed, in The Amish: Faith in Action:

It is a symbol of hope and resilience and determination.

Our country could learn a lot from these simple, Amish people. Their instinct was not to lash back. Compare this to the saber rattling of evangelicals like Pat Robertson, Tony Perkins, James Dobson and Jerry Falwell. Bush, with the full support of these "Christians," has drawn Iraqi blood for five years, and what has it accomplished?

Calm diplomacy trumps visceral reaction. After five years of carnage, we're less secure, we've depleted our national treasury, and we've become an international pariah. Like the Nickel Mines' tragedy, Bush's war will haunt our collective conscience.

And today is a good day to recollect these thoughts.

Tags: News, Religion, Amish