Escaping the Amish, Returning to Meat
Two happenings we brought to our attention today involving Columbia students past and present on the internet.
First up, by way of tipster “um… anonymous”, Torah Bontrager, GS ’07, has told the Four Hour Workweek blog the story of her escape from the Amish.
In the Q&A, Bontrager spells out some “common misconceptions” about the Amish. For instance, according to Bontrager, it’s untrue that “the Amish are ‘peaceful gentle folk.” Amish also speak Amish, which is different from English and actually more closely related to German. Who knew? She also describes community-wide child abuse, including her own experiences with her parents. (The blog is careful to note that this is one person’s experience and is not intended to stereotype all Amish.) At 15, after a near-suicide attempt, she picked up in the middle of the night, leaving her parents and eleven siblings behind.
Over at the New York Times food blog Bitten, famous (ex?)-vegetarian Laura Anderson, CC ’09, has written about going back to her old meat-eating ways while abroad in Paris. “I love food. I would have regretted spending a year in France without ever fully experiencing the animal-based glory of French cuisine.” But it turned out that eating meat makes her think of the moral implications of eating meat, which she finds troubling. Moral of the story: she’s looking forward being a vegetarian again, now “fully aware of what [she's] given up.”
Tags: escaping the amish, laura anderson, new york times, paris, study abroad, torah bontrager, vegetarians
23 July 2008 @ 10:53 AM · 14 comments
on 
For every animal Laura Anderson doesn’t eat, I’m going to eat three.
For every animal Laura Anderson doesn’t eat, I’m going to eat three Amish.
For every animal Laura Anderson doesn’t eat, I’m going to euthanize three terminally ill Amish.
beat ya to it! AND I’m running for election in Michigan.
For every Maddox reference someone makes, I’m going to make sure there are three references to IT.
“But that wouldst be idleness!”
pinky and the brain!
I’m not the only one who immediately thought back to the barn raising episode!
The escape from Amish link was very interesting. Thanks Bwog ^_^
Do people still use anime emoticons? Didn’t that stop after 8th grade, when the shame of such painfully introverted activities quit as the interest did? No?
t(*.*t)
love the Amish. Laughed when I turned over the “genuine Amish handicrafts” only to find a made in China sign. Not to mention their ‘contempt’ for all things electric, only to see normal appliances running in their homes on gas.
holla.
mark bittman is the best!
Good for her!