Posted on 10/11/2011 5:57:37 PM PDT by smokingfrog
GRAVES COUNTY, Ky. — Local Amish men say they aren't budging when it comes to state law.
Four of the men appeared in a Graves County courtroom Monday for refusing to pay fines for not displaying a reflective triangle on their buggies.
State law requires slow-moving vehicles to display the bright orange-red symbol.
In August, eight men, including the four in court Monday, spent time in jail for refusing to pay the fines.
The men said they're refusing to pay because the triangle is in direct violation of their religious
(Excerpt) Read more at wpsdlocal6.com ...
If they want to make a dirt road between their farms, and drive their carts along their private roads; I’d agree with them.
However, they are riding on PUBLIC roads, where cars are going substancially faster than any horse can gallop. Those reflective signs are warnings to other people that the cart they have is a slow moving vehicle - this triangle saves lives, theirs and ours.
The reflective triangle is an international symbol - people driving on our roads from Europe, Asia or any other continent will recognize this symbol. If they don’t like it; I suggest they either make their own roads; or stay home.
I think they get that it places them at risk... they are making a stand, drawing a line on the asphalt as it were, that used to be gravel and before that was dirt.
They are non-violent, pacifist Believers who work hard and care for their own. Their interpretations of various passages may be more legalistic than your own but they are willing to stand for their beliefs..
Someday soon, all “Christians” will be under attack, starting with the most radical and evangelical, and our beliefs will be mocked and our customs, and our traditional family and gender issues will be mocked and ridiculed.
They did this to the Amish and Mennonites and we did nothing...food for thought.
I once saw an interview with an Amish pastor or whatever they call them.
As near as I could tell, he said they do not believe the Bible requires them to live like they do. They just think it is suggested and think it is a good idea.
Who pays for those roads? Who pays for maintainence, snow removal? That would be the Public at large.
The signs are there to warn a car that the vehicle ahead is a slow moving vehicle - well below the typical minimum truck speed of 40 mph. That symbol is international, and saves lives; theirs and ours.
Now, if they want to build their own road, on private land - I’d agree with you.
They’re on the roads with their junk, then they put the triangles on the buggies. If not, give ‘em max sentences and pinch them again when they get out and try it again.
Sometimes, some principles are just stupid and these goobers aren’t winning in the court of intelligent looks, either.
Amen. The Amish do not bother anybody. They have as much right to the roads as anybody else. There is nothing in the Bible, or the Constitution, which says that people in motorized vehicles have more rights than those in horse-drawn ones, or bicycles, or pedestrians. If everyone in this country lived by Amish values, we would not have Baraq 0bama as President, or Warren Buffett telling us to pay more taxes, or “compassionate conservatives” forcing us to pay for gummint skools, or swarms of lawyers “eating out our substance,” or....
Yeah, damn them and their freedom. Who cares about their principles. They need for us to judge their principles and the ones we don’t like...hell yeah we need to beat them down.
We need to judge them by their looks like the liberals do just because we can.
EXactly! We came within inches of being in just that situation.
It was a dark, foggy morning and we were heading out on vacation. Bam, a buggy swerved from the side of the road right in front of us!
My husband locked em’ up and the camper kind of fish tailed and the female “driving” never even turned to look. Maybe she was deaf and blind that she couldn’t hear the car coming over the clip-clop or blind that she couldn’t see the headlights shinning on the fog.
Even worse, in these parts anyway, the young guys have been known to go out violating deer and send the buggys home sans driver.
You know you are right! There is not a darn thing in the Bible to cover this. The Constitution is silent on this issue also. So I guess those people can just chug along in their black horse and carriage as they will. Oh, but when that car comes around that bend in the road at 35-40 MPH and can't see that black carriage going about 5 MPH and rams into the back of it and kills all the people in the carriage and perhaps the horse too, well that is just too bad eh?
Some might say you are the superstitious one, ignoring the evdience of Creation to support certain selfish, nihilistic beliefs.
It’s Captain Ahab!
“Some might say you are the superstitious one, ignoring the evdience of Creation to support certain selfish, nihilistic beliefs.”
True. But I would wager those “some” have tail lights on their cars.
a pennslyvanian road, at night, in the summer... rainy.... doing 40-50 mph...
no shiny piece of plastic is going to prevent the accident
The Amish believe in living “plain,” and that means no “fancy” bright colored accoutrements such as luminous reflectors, clothes, curtains etc.
Of course there is nothing about reflectors in the Bible, but there is plenty about living humble and piously.
OK, it’s their freedom to look goofy. I’ll admit that. However, the roads their slow moving buggies travel on belong to all of us. If they can’t abide with simple safety regulations, then they need to stay home and shovel out the barn.
Judge is not the sharpest knife in the drawer. Is he going to put them in jail for life? Even a half witted judge would figure out a way to make them work out their fine and make the work such that they would not desire to come back again.
All our local Amish do indeed display the orange SMV signs.
Seems there is quite a difference in beliefs/customs between various settlements.
I travel thru Amish Country on occasion, Mennonite as well.
I live in the country. I drive like there could be a herd of black angus cattle escaped on the road in the dark in the fog, or a combine over the hill, old an old dude on a tractor around the curve I can’t see, or someone’s kid on a bicycle.
How do you interact with your neighbors?
If you really think that the Amish are a problem, you are probably on the wrong forum. You should move over to DU or Daily Kos.
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