LF: No Exceptions

There’s a kerfuffle in Wisconsin over threatened application of The Law to the Amish.

Up to now, they’ve successfully dodged Uncle – been exempted on religious grounds from a great many busybody-isms, including laws requiring the presence and use of seat belts and child safety seats in all motor vehicles.

Their horse-drawn buggies lack motors, of course – as well as seatbelts and child seats.

They don’t have air bags or back-up cameras or tire pressure monitors, either. The Amish don’t believe such things are necessary and therefore do without.

They also believe it’s their decision, their business – and just want to go about their business, leave others alone and be left alone in turn. After all, they’re not harming anyone else. And if they harm themselves, the Amish take care of themselves.

It seems reasonable enough.

That doesn’t wash for the rest of us, though.

Why should it work for the Amish?Portrait of an armed busybody . . .

Such is the entirely logical argument of a busybody with a gun – i.e., a government worker – by the name of Bill Winch. He is a member of the Wisconsin Rapids Board of Supervisors and doesn’t think the Amish ought to be exempted from anything – including other laws requiring driver’s licenses and mandatory insurance.

He has proposed a new law precisely to that effect.

Amen.

Winch goes further. The buggies of the Amish should also be fitted with automotive safety glass, windshield and side glass – no matter what it costs the Amish and how impractical it is to install such things in a horse-drawn buggy.

For their saaaaaaaaaaaaafety, of course.

Their horse-drawn buggies should also be required to have headlights and turn signals – just like everyone else’s car. If this requires expense, so be it. And new buggies manufactured after a certain date surely ought to be required to have at least driver and front seat passenger air bags and comply with some sort of government crash test regime.

Amish teenagers must not be allowed to “operate” a buggy until they have attained a certain Uncle-prescribed age – and then only when accompanied by an adult – and never accompanied by other teens, unsupervised.

It might cause some eyes to open.

Logically – as a matter of principle – either all of us and not just the Amish should be left in peace to go about our business or no one should be left in peace.

Why should the claim of the Amish that seatbelts and insurance and all the rest are meddling twaddle contrary to their beliefs carry any more weight than the belief – just as ardent and probably better-articulated – of the Libertarian who also believes that it’s no one else’s proper business whether he has or wears a seatbelt?

Winch is absolutely correct.

Or at least, he is a consistent authoritarian control freak.

The arguments used to justify everything imposed on the non-Amish apply just as much to the Amish. If these justifications are morally valid then the laws based upon them should brook no exceptions.

The Amish, no matter how pious, are not immune to the forces of nature. If an Amish buggy driver wrecks his buggy, he might be injured – just like anyone else. And if he is not buckled up – if his buggy lacks shatterproof automotive safety glass – his injuries could be more severe than would otherwise have been the case.

Undeniable facts of physics.

So why should the Amish – but not the rest of us – get a pass?

Why should they get to live a simple, unencumbered, exempted life? One free of not just government busybodyism but also the financial pressure of having to constantly earn money in order to pay for all that busybodyism? The Amish man can farm his land, raise his crops and not have to worry about coming up with thousands of dollars every year to pay for mandatory this and tax that – including Social Security and Obamacare taxes. Or air bags and seat belts and back-up cameras and shatterproof safety glass. He has no dealings with the DMV.

This makes him a very free man.

Which is very unfair to the rest of us.

An outrage!

So perhaps this new law applying the law to the Amish is just the medicine needed.

Sympathy for the Amish might transfer to the rest of us. It might occur to some that it is unjust – tyrannical – to molest people who just want to be left alone and who aren’t causing harm to anyone else. It might get people to thinking about whether the justifications elaborated to push, promote and impose all the aforesaid busybody-ism are in fact legitimate.

And if they’re not . . . well, we might be able to roll some of this back. And for everyone.

The Amish are, indeed, throwbacks.

And not just because of their buggies and beards. They are living fossils of a species almost extinct: The Free Man. They’re not interested in your goods and don’t want to control your life. If you’re interested in their lifestyle, you’re free to emulate it and even to become Amish, if that is your desire.

In return, the Amish only ask that you leave them free to be Amish.

But that is too much to ask for people like Bill Winch.

No, beware. The author is trying to lead you down a prime rose path with his “such is the entirely logical argument.” It HIS argument alone and he wants you to buy into his bullshit.

There is a bluntly obvious intent by the author to use this proposed action by Bill Winch for the sole purpose of bashing government. His biased agenda is strongly evidenced throughout the article but no more so than when he mislabels a member of a Board od Supervisors as a “government worker” while intentionally and erroneously....he creates a “non-existent government entity” to arouse hatred and inflame reader sentiments.

Bill Winch is no government worker. He is an elected official representing all the citizens of Wood County Wisconsin. And there is no such thing as the “Wisconsin Rapids Board of Supervisors. Wisconsin Rapids is a “city” located in Wood County Wisconsin and is not governed by a “Board of Supervisors.” The City of Wisconsin Rapids is governed by a ”Common Council” which is comprised of eight members who are elected by the voters in Wisconsin Rapids to represent them over a two- year term. William (Bill) Winch is a duly elected member of the Wood County Board of Supervisors. He represents District 9 and lives in the City of Wisconsin Rapids.

As unusual as it may sound in this day and time....at places across America, an ancient Amish horse and buggy accident with a modern-day motor vehicle is not uncommon....where horses and covered black buggies are an every day sight and a severe challenge for traffic officials to safely manage. Eventually, if you live close by one of these Amish community, it is only a matter of time before you are going to have a close call with a horse and buggy.

Bill Winch is not a bad guy crusader who has set out to simply go after the Amish for no particular reason at all. He is rightly concerned about safety and that is one of the jobs the citizens of Wood County elected to do....watch out for their safety and protect the. And Bill Winch is not alone in his efforts. He is joined by many across the country in a common effort. One such concerned person is Jason McClune, Mattern’s brother and the transportation director for the Solanco School District in Quarryville, Pennsylvania.

But that is not enough and more must be done since in Ohio and Pennsylvania there has been an average of 60 major crashes involving horses and buggies a year over the past decade.

Deckard not too infrequently posts articles from this source and almost all are strongly anti-government biased as worded so they are not fare and balanced and only present partial facts in order to raise the sentiment. That of course sways some....while others see though the bullshit and ferret out the facts.

I leave you with this: Carefully consider what you read and definitely be extremely cautions of the source.