If terrorism has made us feel unsafe and insecure, the latest shootings in a
one-room Amish school in Lancaster County, Pa., can only multiply our fears.
Anyone who has ever visited Lancaster County, as I have on many occasions,
experiences it as a base of tranquility in a turbulent world. Many tourists
go there because they want to experience the lost virtues of their
childhoods. Many doors are unlocked. It appears someone has pushed the pause
button on the History Channel.
This embrace of more innocent times is particularly noticeable among the
Amish, who separate themselves from "the world" and lead mostly insulated
and isolated lives. The more dedicated among them eschew electricity and
ride in horse-drawn buggies, all of it designed to shun the influence of
evil and outside pressures to conform to behavior and attitudes the Amish
believe are harmful to themselves and to their children.
Shunning evil, though, does not mean evil will shun you. In this case, evil
made a house call in the person of 32-year-old Charles Carl Roberts IV, a
milk truck driver who admitted molesting young relatives of his and,
according to police, "dreamed of molesting again."
Amish historian Sam Stoltzfus, told the New Era newspaper in Lancaster,
"School children came home terrified. They have no concept of violence. They
don't understand guns. They don't watch TV. They wanted to know why this guy
did what he did."
As one who watches some, but less and less TV, I observe a growing
acceptance and promotion of violence in network "entertainment" programs.
The "CSI" series, which enjoys high ratings on CBS, as well as other crime
shows on other networks, depicts graphic violence, blood and smashed brains.
In an apparent effort to capture the necrophilia demographic, autopsies
present naked bodies for the medical examiner (and the camera) to go over.
In fact, murders appear to be rivaling situation comedies in the competition
for our attention. One is banal, the other brutal. Local TV news is drenched
in crime and blood.
Roberts did not have a profile that might have caused merchants who sold him
the weapons and ammunition, or the police, to become suspicious. He had no
criminal record, no documented history of mental illness and police say he
methodically purchased his weapons and ammunition at local stores over a
period of time, so as not to draw attention.
The 2006 school year is barely a month old and already there have been three
fatal shootings, all within the last week.