[SEL] OT-Amish Restraint Laws

[Judge Tommy Turner]

Rich,

Not all Amish build the high quality work you mention. We have 2 sects 
or clans of Amish in our area. One group is very neat and orderly. They 
live in the nice white houses with the neat barns out back. What ever 
they tell you, bank on it as it will be that way. They are expert 
craftsmen who build cabinets, homes, barns, install windows and doors, 
etc. You couldn't ask for a better group to call neighbors or part of 
the community. The other group is quite the opposite. If you take logs 
to them to be sawed, you may get the lumber from the log you took, maybe 
not. I've also seen rather large logs produce rather small piles of 
lumber. They're not beyond puchasing a piece of antique equipment, only 
to "forget" to ever pay for it. We've even had some incarcerated in 
jail. If you've never had to lock up an Amish, you're missing an 
experience. I'm making these comments as we tend to view ALL Amish as 
expert craftsmen seeking a simpler way of life who are . Most are and 
are assets to a community. However, they mirror the rest of society in 
that some aren't. From Steve's initial post, it sounds like the Amish he 
mentions fall into the former rather than latter group that I talk about 
and are a plus to his area. But, there may be some in his area that 
aren't. Here in KY we have a Workmans Comp law that requires all 
contractors to be covered under a workers comp insurance policy. Before 
the law, the home/property owner assumed all liability for any worker's 
injuries suffered on his premises in the absence of workers comp 
coverage. For example, if a worker fell off of a roof and broke his leg 
and didn't have workers comp, the homeowners policy covered the incident 
up to its limits, then the homeowner's pocket book kicked in from that 
point forward. If a permanent injury was suffered by the individual, the 
homeowner could be looking a ongoing costs for many years. We've had 
discussion at great length on the SEL about the need for insurance. No 
one, Amish or otherwise, is working on my home or property without it. 
The inferior materials issue that Steve mentions probably go back to 
building codes. For example, only treated wood can be used where it 
comes in contact with the ground. Also, many homes must be constructed 
with materials meeting certain grades as required by mortgage lenders, 
to receive home owner warranties, etc. I would suspect most of the Amish 
materials are ungraded. Most are good people and a plus. Some aren't 
though and sadly the laws that keep them straight apply to the good 
folks as well.

Tommy Turner
Magnolia, KY




>Boy, that is a new one on me! I don’t know too much about the Amish,
>but from what I do know and from what other people have told me, they
>are a rather admirable bunch of folks and normally not a detriment to
>the community, except when they don’t hang lamps on the backs of their
>buggies at night and cause traffic accidents by being rear-ended. 
>
>About the anti-Amish work laws, personally, I think it is a disgrace!
>It is clearly an infringement of their Constitutional rights to be free
>of persecution based on religion. I know that the laws get around that
>by using the excuse of “inferior materials and construction methods”,
>but as has been quite adequately explained already, the “proof is in
>the pudding”! There are plenty of 150-year-old Amish structures around
>as examples of their “inferior craft”. Unscrupulous people do take
>advantage of the Amish all the time because they take quite seriously
>the Biblical admonition of “turning the other cheek” and they will not
>defend themselves, and it looks like the anti-Amish laws will go
>unchallenged from the Amish quarter and it will take a non-Amish
>advocate to challenge the laws on their behalf.
>
>In the 1994 Northridge Quake here in Southern California, there were
>tens of thousands of badly damaged and destroyed homes throughout the
>area. The Amish came here as fast they could by whatever antiquated
>means they found acceptable for the long distances they had to travel.
>Then they went through the quake-ravaged neighborhoods performing the
>antiquated but time-honored activity of house-raising bees rebuilding
>and repairing the homes of low income and elderly folks for free. Under
>those circumstances, if anyone had complained about the Amish being
>here, the complainers would have stood a very good chance of getting
>treated to another time-honored antiquated activity - - - they would
>have been tarred, feathered, and ridden out of town on a rail!
>
>Work and play safely,
>
>Rich Allen 
>  
>