My contacts with the Amish come from annual visits to Amish country in Minnesota and Wisconsin. My wife and I visit their farms (the ones that have little white signs) and puchase baked goods and other things from them. It is a fascinating lifestyle, and it borders on being a community that is self-sufficient.

No one in the US can escape modern technology: when an Amish person gets sick, they go to a modern hospital on modern roads and get high tech meds. They ride busses and cars when they must, and have modern dental procedures and lenses for their glasses. They benefit from the sheriff's modern transportation and communication equipment, and the county's road plows. They just try to keep it all at a distance to minimize the influences.

That said, I admire their attempts to live and worship in a quieter and friendlier community reminiscient of earlier times.