This weekend Josh and I are going our separate ways. Don't worry! Not like that. Nope, we're doing something we've never done before. We're taking separate trips. He's heading of to St. Louis to get his baseball fix while Im heading to beautiful Lancaster, PA for some good ol fashion fun with my great friend Jesica! I can't wait. She's even arranged for us to have a buggy ride with one of her friends. Maya is very excited about the prospect of that. Im very excited about getting to spend some time with my friend seeing as she's practically my twin. Ohhhhhhh the trouble we're going to cause. It will be a short trip but well worth it as I love Lancaster.
Lancaster is a very different place to go to that has this almost schizophrenic way of doing things. The Amish are very private people and generally keep to themselves. That's not to say they aren't nice...just private. And yet the big draw there is, of course, "Come see the Amish!" I wonder if they get annoyed at people coming there just to try to get a glimpse of them. To them, they're just, well, themselves. They work hard, keep their beliefs close to their hearts, and make some darn good food. To the rest of the world they are an oddity, something to be looked at almost like a zoo animal. I have great respect for them. They've kept their ways for hundreds of years and few have given into the temptation of modernity. It will certainly be interesting to get to go around the area with a local. Jesica LOVES to explain Dutch country to me and I love to hear about it. It's like traveling to another country that's only 3 hours away. Maybe I'll learn some Pennsylvania Dutch while Im there. That counts as another language right?
2 comments:
You are only seeing the good in Lancaster County and the Amish. I would like for there to be a tourism boycott on this county (by the way, I'm a lifelong resident), due to it being, shamefully, the "Puppy Mill Capital" of the U.S. The Amish are the main perpetrators of this travesty and if you saw any of the Oprah show last Friday, you would have seen the horrors that reside here. Just wanted to make you aware that this is going on here and it's not the terrific place it purports itself to be. Here is a Web site you may want to check out: www.awarenessday.org/
Tracey
I am indeed aware of the puppy mill problem in Lancaster and like everyone else I think it's horrible. At the same time, I feel it's unfair to blanket throwing all Amish into the same boat giving them all a bad name because some families choose to do something bad.
The fact is that Lancaster County is a beautiful area with or without the Amish and a tourism ban would probably devastate the area. Recently it was discovered that the actions of a few people in DC's government misappropriated $9 millon in tax payers money. Does that mean that no one should go to DC because the government will misuse the money it gets from tourism? No because that would be unfair to the many, many honest business owners who make their livings from tourism.
In my view, the right course of action would not be to punish an entire community of people for the actions of a few. The best way to stop puppy mills in Lancaster County would be to put those few out of business by buying puppies from a local breeder whom you can inspect for yourself prior to buying or, even better, adopting a pet through your local animal shelter or through one of the many rescue operations throughout the country as I have done with all three of my pets.
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