[all4one]

Photo credit Bill Coleman - Amish photograph collection

Prayers for the Amish community and all the families affected. Such a sad horrible crime for any community, but somehow even more horrible to have happened to such innocents.

[TAdams8591]

"Prayers for the Amish community and all the families affected. Such a sad horrible crime for any community, but somehow even more horrible to have happened to such innocents."

Very much agreed. I so love the Amish and their peaceful and simplistic way of life. There is much to admire about them.

Thanks for the picture of the adorable little girl.

[ohioWfan]

That photograph just made me cry.....

The depth of evil in this is incomprehensible.

[dirtboy]

That photo does not even begin to capture the innocence lost here. I drove through Bart Township on a long commute for a year. It is where I first realized the Amish will use a weed-whacker when I saw an old Amish man with a long silver beard and black hat using one to trim his front yard (I almost went into a bar ditch when I saw that). It is IMO the most typical and beautiful Amish township in Lancaster County because it has escaped the tourism just to its north. I saw kids walking to school every day as well as pushing scooters along (I guess they can have scooters but not bikes). The boys had straw hats and variously colored shirts, the girls had bonnets and dresses. Thye all carried small Igloo coolers with their lunches that their mothers had prepared for them.

All the kids exuded the kind of glow so often missing from the kids I see moping around suburbs. It was the glow of children allowed to be children - they worked hard but also got to play hard in an environment that doesn't exist any longer in the sophisticated world.

And now that has been shattered by a hammer blow of evil that is beyond human comprehension. I am physically sick seeing all this. It is a reminder that sometimes evil comes forth and thumbs its nose at us just to tell us that it still exists under the surface in places you least expect it.

[trisham]

Yes. What wonderful photos. Thanks.