So my mom was in town over the weekend. While she was here, we went to this little town north of Fort Wayne called Shipshewana. My mom wanted to go because it purportedly has a lot of Amish heritage, and you can buy a lot of authentic Amish stuff. I didn�t really want to go, but she�s my mom and she made the trip up from Florida so I of course humored her. When we got to Shipshewana, there were indeed a lot of Amish there. In fact, right before we got into town, we saw four young women riding their bikes along the side of the road. My mom pulled her camera out and was getting ready to take a picture of them and I explained to her that the Amish really don�t like having their pictures taken. We then got into an argument over it. She said, �They won�t even see me taking the picture- their backs are to us.�
I replied, �That really isn�t the point, mom. They don�t like it and I think you should respect their wishes.�
�Well, I�m sure they�re used to it living around here with all the tourism in this town.�
�Just because everyone else does it doesn�t make it any less offensive to them.� She eventually relented and put her camera away. The incident with my mom was just the tip of the iceberg of complete exploitation I witnessed. I was really sickened being in that town. Contrary to what we had heard, all we really saw was a bunch of stores run by everyday people like you and me, selling buckets upon buckets of useless shit and knick knacks. We only found one Amish furniture store in town. The entire town was crawling with overweight, blue haired old ladies dragging their bald, complacent husbands behind them. Every once in a while, you would see an Amish boy of girl ride by on their bike, or a horse-drawn carriage heading down the street, but most of what we saw was pure capitalistic greed. The worst was when we ate lunch in this �Amish� restaurant. The place was almost like a banquet hall. There were two huge dining rooms and they were ferrying people though that place like an assembly line. The waitresses were dressed as though they were Amish, but the pierced ears and tattoo on the back of the neck or our waitress indicated otherwise. My mom asked her if the green beans were fresh, and from a very curt response we learned that no, they were canned.
I really don�t like touristy destinations anyway, but I was particularly disgusted in that this whole town was built around the notion of exploiting a group of people who have devoted their lives to avoiding the very thing they are being surrounded with. There is just something nauseating in turning the Amish into some sort of tourist attraction. These are people just trying to live their lives in the best way they see fit. We should respect them, not ogle them. Instead of exploiting, we should be emulating.
I�m sure everyone has heard of the school shooting in Pennsylvania a couple of weeks ago. After it happened, all the Amish in that community got together to figure out how best to help the families of those involved. I am not just talking about victims, but also the family of the shooter. They wanted to help the family of the man who committed this horrible act of violence against their town. THAT is the definition of selflessness, and THAT is what it means to be true Christian.

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