Whoopie Pies
Posted on 08/06/2004 10:20:54 AM PDT by dukeman
By Jack Brubaker
Lancaster New Era
LANCASTER, Pa. — President Bush met privately with a group of Old Order Amish during a campaign visit to Lancaster County on July 9. He discussed their farms and their hats and his religion, and got a pledge for prayers, if not votes.
A member of the group told Bush that since most Amish do not vote, they would pray for him instead.
Bush had tears in his eyes when he replied, according to an Amishman who was present. Bush reportedly said he needs the prayers of the Amish and that having a strong belief in God is the only way he can do his job.
Sam Stoltzfus of Gordonville, an Old Order historian, writer and curator of the Pequea Bruderschaft Library, recounted the private meeting with the president, saying the Amish “caught Bush’s heart.’’
The 20-minute meeting occurred after the president addressed an audience at Lapp Electric Service in Smoketown.
An Amish woman who lives on a farm across from Lapp Electric had presented a quilt to the president that morning, along with a card thanking him for his leadership of the country.
Bush said he would like to talk to the quilter and her family.
The Secret Service invited the family to meet the president. Friends wanted to come along, too, and the entire assembly eventually numbered about 60, evenly divided between adults and children of all ages.
“It took a while to get them through the metal detectors, as these were farmers and shop men, with vise-grips, pocket knives and nuts and bolts in their pockets,” Stoltzfus said. “Some ladies had baby gear. All pockets had to be emptied.”
When the Amish were “found not to be a serious threat to national security,” Stoltzfus said, they were allowed inside the office area of Lapp Electric and waited about 30 minutes for the president to appear.
“Babies got restless,” Stoltzfus said of the wait. “Children squirmed.”
Then the moment came.
“Suddenly the president and five Secret Service men stepped into the room,” Stoltzfus said. “One housewife said, ‘Are you George Bush?’ ”
The president replied in the affirmative and shook hands all around, asking the names of each person. He especially thanked the “quilt frau,” who operates her own business selling quilts and crafts.
“He seemed relaxed and just like an old neighbor,” said Stoltzfus.
Bush said he had never met any Amish before and was curious about why the men were wearing straw hats instead of black wool hats. The Amish explained that they wear cooler straw in summer.
Bush tried one on.
The president also commented on the appearance of Amish farms, and an Amishman spoke apologetically about how he and his friends were not expecting to see the president and were wearing soiled work clothes. Bush said he did not mind that, according to Stoltzfus.
Another man remarked that he has twin daughters, as does Bush. The man said one of his twins had dreamed the night before that she was shaking hands with the president and now she actually had done that.
“One of the young girls wanted to give Bush a whoopie pie cookie,” Stoltzfus said. “Bush declined it. The Secret Service man took it, as presidents aren’t supposed to eat untested food.” [I don't know what a whoopie pie cookie is, but I think I'd like to try one.]
At the end of the session, Bush reportedly told the group, “I trust God speaks through me. Without that, I couldn’t do my job.”
As the president left the room, one Amish man wished him good luck in November.
“The Amish group headed back to their farms and shops,” Stoltzfus said. “Mothers took their children home for a nap and went back to their sewing and gardens.”
Bush then moved on to an appearance in York County, leaving behind a group of Old Order admirers who will have tales to tell for the rest of their lives.
__________________________________________
And here's a related story from the AP published on 8/6/04:
BIRD-IN-HAND, Pa. -- The Amish live without electricity, cars, telephones, and usually, without voting. But they are being sought out this year as Republicans try to sign up every possible supporter in presidential battleground states.
Amish almost always side with the Republican Party when they do vote -- making them an attractive, if unlikely, voting bloc in the neck-and-neck campaign between President Bush and Democratic nominee John Kerry. A majority of the nation’s Amish live in key swing states like Pennsylvania and Ohio.
"Pennsylvania and Ohio are just absolute battleground states, and to think that the Amish could weigh in to the tune of thousands of votes that are clearly going to be Republican -- that could be very significant for Bush," said Chet Beiler, a former Amish who has been dropping off voter registration forms at Amish businesses and farms in hopes of signing up as many as 3,000 new voters.
As pacifists, most Amish avoid political activity that they believe would link them even indirectly with government-sponsored violence. But hot-button social issues, coupled with gentle prompting from people like Beiler, are galvanizing some Amish to register to vote.
"We hate that abortion issue," said Sam Stolztfus, 60, an Amish farmer and gazebo maker in Pennsylvania’s Lancaster County, where an estimated 27,000 Amish live. "We’re totally against it. And as far as gay issues, that’s completely contrary to the Bible."
The bearded Stolztfus proudly says the Amish are "sort of swept up with Bush fever."
"You could hold up a dead mouse with a sign ‘I love Bush’ and we’d still probably think twice about stomping that mouse underfoot." [Oooookay, I think I follow]
An estimated 180,000 Amish live in 28 states and Ontario. They are a reserved, Christian subculture in rural areas who descend from Swiss Germans and settled in Lancaster County in the early 1700s as part of William Penn’s "holy experiment" in religious tolerance. The Amish do not drive cars, watch TV or use telephones in their homes, and are instantly recognizable by their horse-driven buggies and plain garb, bonnets and straw hats.
Physically casting a ballot will not be a problem for Amish in Lancaster County, where mechanical lever voting machines are still used. [Thank God!]
"Their basic political inclinations are traditional and conservative," said Don Kraybill, a sociologist of Anabaptist studies at Elizabethtown College in Lancaster. "Although the Amish are not politically active, they make an enticing target for Republicans, politically, because they are likely going to vote Republican."
But experts believe fewer than 10 percent of Amish ever vote, and the prospect of them turning out in great numbers in November is "not going to happen," Kraybill said. "These things occur gradually, over 30 to 40 years -- not quickly."
Neither presidential campaign is targeting the Amish, although Bush privately met with about 30 Amish during a July 9 campaign trip through Lancaster County. Earlier this year, the Bush administration relaxed federal labor laws to let Amish teenagers work near dangerous woodworking machines. The Amish had lobbied for the changes for years.
Democrats have all but ceded the Amish vote to Republicans.
"If I know Republicans and their grass-roots operations, they’ll spend most of their time trying to phone bank the Amish," said Kerry spokesman Mark Nevins. [Uh, how do you phone bank someone who doesn't own a phone?]
Not all Amish are comfortable with the Bush administration -- particularly the president’s decision to invade Iraq. But John Fisher, who welds iron products in Lancaster and is father of seven children, said Bush’s "focus on the family" will win his vote.
Of the war, "something needed to be done," said Fisher, a member of Lancaster’s Amish community. "I don’t agree with war at all. But he had to do what he had to do."
In Ohio, Amish have begun reaching out to the state Republican Party to learn more about Bush, said party spokesman Jason Mauk. An estimated 55,000 Amish live in Ohio -- more than in any other state.
"A lot of Amish Ohioans respect the president as a man of faith and someone who leads with conviction," Mauk said.
The truth is that these folks do not vote. I live among them, work polls and never see them. We do not even see them when tax issues are on the ballot. They do go to township meetings when zoning changes affect their way of life. They do like to have commercial ventures on agricultural land. They ask for little. You can actually stop and buy a dozen fresh corn and leave the $1.50 in a plastic container with a slit in the top. My one complaint is the dog breeding they do. The dogs are usually inferior
quality and overbred. They make money doing whatever they can do to make a living. They do have a hand in ruining certain breeds of dogs. That is a shame.
Wouldn't it be cool if these kind folks make the difference in Pennsylvania and Ohio!
Even better would be if G W Bush won and it was because of their votes that made the difference. I have a lot of respect for the Amish and hope they will vote this November.
I live in PA and received an e-mail this morning from a Bush campaign worker, saying that the Amish are starting to register to vote. Apparently there is a table set up at a shopping center in Lancaster, that has registered numbers of them. We would have to get great numbers of them to vote, but you can bet that evey Amish vote would go for Bush. Worth the effort to get them registered. Of course, be ready to offer them transportation to the polls.
“One housewife said, ‘Are you George Bush?’ ”
Great article. I thought it was interesting that she didn't recognize him until I remembered that they don't have TV's.
It must have been a wonderful experience for everyone. I hope that as many as possible get out and vote.
A whoopie pie is two cookies with a whipped filling between them, kind of a lighter, bigger version of an Oreo.
You're probably correct about the prospect of their voting. Say, if you live near them: What's a whoopie cookie and would I like it? BTW, I like your screen name.
Sounds great! Put me down for a dozen.
I liked the part about how long it took the Amish men to unload all their metal before going through the detector.
However, I still do like a couple of Amish Jokes now and agin'.
Q: What goes "clop, clop, clop, boom!", "clop, clop, clop, boom! boom!" ?
A: Amish drive-by shooting
pack up a hex sign or two with that order, will you?
Either Clinton would have said: "My grandfather was Amish."
LOL! That difference says alot, doesn't it?
Every time I hear someone going on about the alleged power of American cultural imperialism to overwhelm a helpless world, unable to say no to the deceptive marketing techniques of a Nike or McDonald's, I think about the ability of the Amish to continue to be what they have always been, living in the very heart of the United States.
No, it would be divine.
Yeah, that's a good one! Say, one of our more creative Freepers might like to write up a parody of how a meeting might go between Teresa Heinz and the Amish (how do you say "shove it" in German?).
Whoopie Pies
GOOD ONE
Wow! I think having a photo of whoopie pie cookies on hand is even more obscure than finding The Mennonite Weekly Review! :-) Too bad I'm on the South Beach Diet right now. :-(
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.