There is another America, beside the world of Donald Trump, the self righteous billionaire who questions Obama’s citizenship, Sara Palin, yesterday’s Republican contender, Wall Street and the Beltway, an America beyond think tanks, invasions and wars. We find it in the serene landscapes where a group of people live much as they did a century or more ago, bothering no one and tending to their very ordinary lives, refusing to use expensive gas by riding their carriages, playing with their families outdoors (without TV and internet), and producing organic food. This is the world of the Amish in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania. It is a rural world, not far from modern “civilization” in distance, yet utterly removed from it in spirit. It is good to get away to this world and see how its people live—the long bearded men, the women and young girls in their traditional outfits, the kids with their straw hats. The landscape and the serenity speak of a tranquil life—one that seems oddly out of synch with the modern world and that seems threatened on all sides.
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