Posted on 07/16/2004 3:01:21 PM PDT by Preacher777
LANCASTER COUNTY, PA - President Bush met privately with a group of Old Order Amish during his visit to Lancaster County last Friday. He discussed their farms and their hats and his religion. He asked them to vote for him in November.
The Amish told the president that not all members of the church vote but they would pray for him.
Bush had tears in his eyes when he replied. He said the president needs their prayers. He also said that having a strong belief in God is the only way he can do his job.
This story has not been reported before. You might think an observant press follows the president everywhere, especially during a re-election campaign, but no reporter attended this meeting.
Sam Stoltzfus, an Old Order historian and writer who lives in Gordonville, spoke with a number of people present at the session with the president.
He related what happened to the Scribbler, saying the Amish “caught Bush’s heart.’’
The 20-minute meeting with Bush occurred immediately after the president addressed a select audience at Lapp Electric Service in Smoketown Friday afternoon.
An Amish woman who lives on a farm across Witmer Road from Lapp Electric that morning had presented a quilt to the president with a card thanking him for his leadership of the country.
Bush said he would like to talk to the quilter and her family.
So the Secret Service invited the family to meet the president. Friends wanted to come along, and the entire assembly eventually numbered about 60. They were evenly divided between adults and children of all ages.
The group walked together across the road to Lapp Electric.
Stoltzfus reports: “It took a while to get them through the metal detectors as these were farmers and shop men, with vice grips, pocket knives, and nuts and bolts in their pockets. Some ladies had baby gear. All pockets had to be emptied.’’
When the Amish were “found not to be a serious threat to national security,’’ they were allowed inside the office area of Lapp Electric and waited about 30 minutes for the president to appear.
“Babies got restless. Children squirmed,’’ Stoltzfus reports. “Suddenly the president and five Secret Service men stepped into the room. One housewife said, ‘Are you George Bush?’’’
The president replied in the affirmative and shook hands all around, asking the names of all. He especially thanked the “quilt frau,’’ who operates her own business selling quilts and crafts.
“He seemed relaxed and just like an old neighbor,’’ says Stoltzfus.
Bush said he had never met any Amish before and was curious about why the men were wearing straw hats rather than black wool hats. The Amish explained that they wear cooler straw in summer. Bush tried on a hat.
The president commented on the appearance of Amish farms, and an Amish man spoke apologetically about how he and his friends were not expecting to see the president and were wearing soiled work clothes. Bush said he did not mind that.
Another man remarked that he has twin daughters, as does Bush. The man said one of his twins had dreamed the night before that she was shaking hands with the president and now she actually had done that.
“One of the young girls wanted to give Bush a whoopie pie cookie,’’ Stoltzfus says. “Bush declined it. The Secret Service man took it, as presidents aren’t supposed to eat untested food.’’
At the end of the session, Bush reportedly told the group, “I trust God speaks through me. Without that, I couldn’t do my job.’’
As the president left the room, one Amish man wished him good luck in November.
“The Amish group headed back to their farms and shops,’’ reports Stoltzfus. “Mothers took their children home for a nap and went back to their sewing and gardens.’’
Bush moved along to an appearance in York County, leaving behind a group of Old Order admirers who have tales to tell for the rest of their lives.
The Scribbler column runs Tuesdays and Fridays in the New Era.
When my children were little folks, we baked shoo fly pies and sang that song! They learned following recipes, measurements, and fractions in the kitchen with musical backgrounds!
PING!
Just like the way he meets with many families of the fallen, without the press.
Lets see ...Kerry would have considered the location and the crowd and bragged that his dad was an amish electrician and he understood their plight....etc etc ...yada yada
Stay safe !
We live in upstate New York and several years ago Amish folks moved here. I don't know if they actually vote, but they certainly make wonderful neighbors. They all work hard, including their children. They will also paint non-Amish homes and do repair work, but they are so thorough and good, there is a waiting list.
Those Amish people need to go register and vote!!!!!
God bless them.
I am undoubtedly quite ignorant on the subject, but I had always heard that the Amish tend to keep to themselves rather than having daily dealings with those outside their ordnung...?
"Those Amish people need to go register and vote!!!!!
God bless them."
You are asking them to do something entirely antithetical to their principles.
These are "Old Order Amish" -- the sect goes back to the 17th century Separatist movement. They believe literally in separating themselves from "the world." It is how they have maintained their folkways all these years. Any compromise, they believe, would undercut their way of life. That is why they do not register or vote. Somebody should have briefed Bush before the meeting on this -- it was not the smartest or most tactful thing in the world to ask Old Order Amish to vote for him. I used to work with Amish in construction; I visited often with them, was at meals in their homes and attended barn raisings and such. I know how sensitive they are (although they will never let you know openly that you have committed a gaffe until you get to know them very well).
I note that an earlier post congratulated the Amish for "supporting " Bush. But you notice in the story that these Amish did not exactly say that. They said they would "pray" for him. A world of difference. They are wonderful people, very unworldly. When you are around them you really feel you are in another century entirely.
Unlike the huge majority of articles and essays that find their way here, this one made my day! (Not that I’m complaining about all of the others, mind you. That’s the purpose of this forum – to bring to light all of the depressing truth-based information that the media chooses to keep under wraps.) Yet this story is a priceless gem, on several levels, and the thread comments are wonderful, too.
First: Just the seemingly insignificant fact that the President requested to meet with the family of the ‘quilt Frau’ who had presented him a handmade quilt speaks volumes about the stark difference between him and his opponent (a related aside: an appliqué, small-stitch quilt made by Amish women is every bit as much a work of art as a fine painting or sculpture).
Maybe ten years ago, I recall reading a story in Reader’s Digest written by a reporter who accompanied Reagan on many of his trips as President. In it he marveled at the number of unscheduled side-trips Reagan would take in order to visit a children’s hospital, or a Salvation Army center, or the like. Reagan would often spend several hours in such a place, conversing with (and sometimes comforting, if it were appropriate) the people whose lives he was touching. And reporters were given strict orders that no photographs were allowed, and no stories were to be written about these unscheduled side-trips.
When I read this short article Clinton was in the White House, and I recall thinking about this (completely expected) illustration of the difference in his and Reagan’s character. Reagan was not a believer in photo-ops, unless they furthered a worthwhile conservative political cause. That they would further his own personal image or legacy would have been unconscionable to him. Reagan was not the least bit concerned with either. And yet, Mr. Clinton built an administration on empty photo ops. Do we all remember him dancing, dreamy-eyed, on the beach with his ‘beloved’ Hillary, or forming a cross in the sand out of strategically pre-placed stones on the beach at Normandy, or reading (just long enough for photographers to record the event, and no longer) to a group of kindergartners in Harlem? …
President Bush was being somewhat Reagan-esque in his visit to the quilter’s Amish farm -- and even moreso since this brief article appears to be the only media mention of it (I live about twenty miles from the Gordonville farm. I read both the morning and evening Lancaster newspapers, and yet this is the only mention that was made of his visit there).
Yet, had John Kerry paid such a visit … I won’t even go there. We all know the coverage it would have received -- so as to paint him as a ‘man of the people’ who can relate to all Americans. And who so graciously took time out of his busy schedule to properly thank an American woman for her generosity and thoughtfulness.
The Amish told the president that not all members of the church vote but they would pray for him … Bush had tears in his eyes when he replied. He said the president needs their prayers. He also said that having a strong belief in God is the only way he can do his job.
This is truly the one and only aspect of Amish belief I would want them to change. They are good people, conservative by definition, and yet their shunning of ‘worldly’ things often includes an aversion to participating in politics – even including choosing not to exercise their right to vote. Although this is slowly changing (as a result of the state and federal governments consistently seeking to infringe on their freedom to live as they choose), still too many of them want no part of politics. They base much of their belief on the scriptural admonition, ‘Therefore come out from them and be ye separate’ … 2 Cor 6:17.
I believe (and I always express this belief to those who come into my office and are receptive to ‘political talk’) that prayer is indeed our most powerful tool … but the Lord also commands us to do all that is within our own power to see to it that righteous causes are advanced and evil ones are buried. In addition to prayer, being a part of the electoral process (no matter its degree of corruption), and speaking out in the face of evil, are the only individual avenues open to us to that end.
It took a while to get them [the Amish] through the metal detectors as these were farmers and shop men, with vice grips, pocket knives, and nuts and bolts in their pockets. Some ladies had baby gear. All pockets had to be emptied.
Too funny! I would say a full ninety percent of the Amish (both men and women) I meet in the course of doing business place very little emphasis on outward appearance and social formality. And I admire them deeply for that. Their focus is on other, more eternal, concerns. I cannot tell you how many times an Amish farmer has come into my office to take care of some business with the tiny creases in his hands and face seemingly permanently soil-filled, wearing a straw hat whose brim is soaked with old sweat, and boots that have walked hundreds of miles behind a horse-drawn plow. Clean people, and yet permanently work-stained. Yet you would be hard pressed to find a more honest, decent, hard-working, faith-filled person.
As I have said before here, these people still cling to their eighteenth-century traditions and beliefs, and the timelessness of scriptural truths. They love and nurture their children in a home in which the mother comprehends the significance of that most-important of all human callings. They teach their children self-discipline and personal responsibility virtually from birth. And they take care of their own – steadfastly refusing government help, and banding together to ride out times of difficulty or sorrow within their families and communities. They revere their elders, and provide for them in their own homes until their time on earth is over. In many ways, they represent what America used to be. And many of the values and beliefs to which they cling (among them honesty, dignified work ethic, personal responsibility, and a God-centered view of the world) represent those to which we must return if we are to survive.
I truly believe that, as honored as the Gordonville Amish appear to have been by the President’s time spent among them, the honor (apparently comprehended by him) must have been perceived as mutual. And rightfully so.
(As you know), I just returned from spending three days in a crowded, crime-filled metropolitan area. After such a trip, I am always (always) grateful to return to Lancaster County. And it is the Amish influence that has played the greatest role in helping to keep this area both ideologically conservative and physically pristine. For that reason, and so many others, my respect for them is without exception.
~ joanie (www.justiceandliberty.com)
You know your stuff!
I didn't mean any insult.
Lapp = very common Amish name, but......... do they really have electricity?!
I tell people I've been there and then I get funny looks.
... especially since, by and large, the Amish don't vote. Doubtful that sKerry would even give these people the time of day.
The fact that they sent him a quilt (which is what started all of this) says they have been thinking and praying for him already. I seriously doubt they were offended.
If someone has quit smoking or drinking last week, and is openly dealing with the difficulties of withdrawing, it would be a gaffe to offer them a smoke or a drink. But if someone has a long standing and comfortable habit of not smoking or drinking, then having a relative stranger offer them such is no problem. Rather it is an easy no, and perhaps a pleasant guesture of friendship.
bump
Bush amazes me. He humbly admits his ignorance and shows interest in simple things. I couldn't picture this genuine and innocent exchange coming from the likes of Kerry.
I truly believe that, as honored as the Gordonville Amish appear to have been by the President’s time spent among them, the honor (apparently comprehended by him) must have been perceived as mutual. And rightfully so.
Spot on! I suspect that this president covets prayers offered up on his behalf no doubt more than he does votes.
WOW .. What a Great Article
Thanks for posting this
I know the Amish don't need to be defended, but if they did they would want you in their corner!
I hope your trip went well. I'd like to hear about it.
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