The Amish Cook from Oasis Newsfeatures

I am "sighing" because it just seems like there are a slew of cases lately of "plain people" religious rules butting up against the government.   And in all of these cases whether they be steel wheels on Mennonite farm equipment in Iowa,  livestock tagging in Wisconsin, improper sewage disposal at an Amish school in Pennsylvania,  or building code cases in Upstate New York, nothing - after months of mediation, hearings, etc -  seems even remotely close to being solved.  Democracy is sometimes messy and the push-pull of opposing sides sometimes leads to creative compromises.  Other times these things just wind their way through the courts and someday come to a resolution.  For instance the 1950s and 60s were full of cases where local governments came down hard on Amish parents who were pulling their children out of public schools during the 9th grade.  The constant litigation eventually wound its way to the US Supreme Court in the landmark case, Yoder. vs. Wisconsin.   The courts sided with the Amish and that was that. The courts seem to have traditionally been kind to the Amish.  One of the attorneys who paved the way for an Amish court victory excluding Old Orders from having to wear "yellow hard hats" at construction sites is a fan and regular reader of the column.   Hopefully things will get settled in these cases.  It just seems like an awful exhaustion of money, resources, courts, etc on issues where simple compromising might yield results.  Today's "impasse in the news" concerns Canadian Hutterites and drivers license photos.  Members of a couple of Hutterite colonies are now vowing to defy the law and drive without a photo ID.  It'll be interesting to see where their civil disobedience gets them.