Kenneth Burkholder is perplexed.
His business, Good’s Store Inc., is one of hundreds of Amish and Mennonite stores that do not sell American flags.
Nobody’s singling out the other places.
But Good’s is under fire. Again.
The sender of a recent mass e-mailing claimed that a young, unnamed Good’s sales clerk “wrinkled her nose” in disdain when quizzed about flag sales.”We don’t sell those here,” the clerk supposedly said, “and we never will.”
It’s true that flags aren’t in the Good’s inventory, said Burkholder, the company president. The families that own the stores are Anabaptists, who view the banner primarily as a symbol of military might.
But, he said, it’s false to imply that this faith group, which includes Amish and Mennonites, is anti-American.
Nor could Good’s find proof that the supposed testy exchange with an employee ever took place, Burkholder added.
“We researched it. That was my main concern,” Burkholder emphasized, that the company not appear arrogant.
[…]
Burkholder said the brouhaha is not going to affect the store’s Amish and Mennonite customers.
Nor is it going to compel the 51-year-old business to start stocking American flags.
All the same, he added, he would prefer that people just stop talking — and writing — about what’s for sale at Good’s.
“We’ve been through this a number of years.”
My Child
O Lord my God, shed the light of Your love on my child. Keep him safe from all illness and all injury…. I do not ask that he be wealthy, powerful or famous. Rather I ask that he be poor in spirit, humble in action, and devout in worship. Dear Lord, smile upon him.
— Johann Starck
“Humble yourselves therefore under the mighty hand of God, that he may exalt you in due time: Casting all your care upon him; for he careth for you” (1 Peter 5:6,7).
This Is Urgent!
Have you ever felt that way about responding to something or someone electronically?
Blog, Twitter, email, Facebook, forum, IM, text message, chat — having the option and capability to hit Reply right away seems to impose an urgency to do just that.
Most times, such urgency is an illusion untethered from reality. “Most times” — not in a 51% sort of way, but more like a 92% sort of way, if you get my drift. Yes, at the risk of overstating my case, I suggest to you that the urgency of most digital communication is a pseudo-urgency.
I suspect that most of the time, succumbing to such false urgency has little consequence beyond social pressure, inner tension, and time consumption. (That all sounds like something far more than “little consequence”!)
That aside, giving in to such imaginary urgency has far weightier consequences when responding in circumstances that roil personal relationships, easily impacting them negatively.
So I urge you to grant significant weight to my five essential guidelines for digital communication:
- If you think your attitude will be milder in five minutes or five hours, wait.
- If you think your wording will be more careful after an hour’s worth (or a day’s worth) of thoughtful editing and review, wait.
- If you think your present circumstances are affecting you even though they don’t pertain to the message in question, wait.
- If you think your choice of expression would moderate significantly face-to-face, wait.
- If you think thinking about your response will change it, wait.
Otherwise, figure on falling short of constructive dialogue.
Unless, of course, you’re just engaging in weightless, inconsequential back-and-forth techno-babbling because you can and because you don’t know what else to do and because you want to.
Then you need a different set of guidelines. 🙂
Jason Daniel Mullet
Luke and LaVay’s fourth child. And our fourth grandchild.
He was born at the hospital in Madras (Oregon) in the wee hours of the morning. On October 1. At 2:36 am.
After I dropped Ruby off at the emergency entrance at 2:24 — after leaving home at 11:45 (or was it 11:54?).
So here’s Ruby holding him at 2:56 in the hall outside the room in which he was born — a scant 20 minutes earlier!
Late the next afternoon, we stopped by the hospital before heading for home.
I was impressed again by the well-crafted little hands of a newborn. Here are four pictures I took: Read it all
Northern Youth Programs
Hey! I know these people!
WORLD Magazine | Northern light
One reason they are talking is the influence of Northern Youth Programs (NYP) and its founders Clair and Clara Schnupp, who have been married and flying all over the Arctic and North America in ministry for 50 years. Beyond the novelty of their given names and Mennonite dress, they are both licensed pilots. They met as counselors at a summer Bible camp in Ontario and married in 1959. They began Northern Youth Programs ministering to at-risk children on the streets of Thunder Bay, Ontario, in 1967.
According to Clair, sexual abuse and absentee fathers are the leading causes of suicide—six times greater in aboriginal populations than among others—and over time this is where NYP has focused much of its effort. Northern Youth’s programs include summer camps and prison ministries, but its soul is in its counseling seminars and family life training to help native people heal from the trauma of sexual abuse and become better parents.
Years ago, Clair graciously and generously gave me permission to translate into Spanish their Family Life Seminar. Thank you!!! My project eventually turned into a Mexican-ized “production” of my own and not really a translation of their work. Publicadora La Merced in Costa Rica happily took my finished work for final editing and publishing…over 15 years ago.
And even more years ago, Ruby and I (we weren’t married yet) attended one of the Schnupp seminars at Fairview Mennonite Church (near Albany, Oregon).
If I may, I’ll play the so-called Mennonite Name Game by saying that one of my first cousins married one of the Schnupp daughters. 🙂
“Than Expected” — Before
What you may expect for tomorrow:
- US national unemployment rate: 7.9%
- A peace treaty between Israel and Iran
- Price of crude oil per barrel: $45
- Average global temperature: 30 degrees Fahrenheit
- US national murder rate for the day: 5
- New H1N1 infections in the US: 6
- US consumer confidence: up 14%
- US Supreme Court overturns Roe v Wade
- War on Terror: Osama bin Laden surrenders
- Your net worth: up 7%
Ten things suffice for that list.
Ten things you may expect for tomorrow. If you wish.
Now to eagerly await the arrival of the foreseeable future….
September 29
1227 -– Holy Roman Emperor Frederick II is excommunicated by Pope Gregory IX for his failure to participate in the Crusades. (That must have been back when Popes knew how to keep the politicians in line!)
1650 — Londoner Henry Robinson opens his Office of Addresses and Encounters — the first historically documented dating service. (eHarmony is still green behind the ears!)
1789 — The first US Congress adjourns. (Were they a “do nothing” Congress?)
1938 — In an effort to appease Adolf Hitler, British, French, German and Italian leaders signed the Munich Agreement, allowing
German annexation of Czechoslovakia’s Sudetenland. (Will there be a similar agreement signed regarding…Jerusalem, for instance?)
1966 — General Motors (yeah, that GM) introduces the Chevrolet Camaro, originally named Panther.
1982 — The Chicago Tylenol murders begin when the first of seven individuals die. (Can you believe we used to buy pills in relatively-unsealed bottles??!!)
2008 — The Dow Jones Industrial Average falls 777.68 points, the largest single-day point loss in its history. (And that, my friend, was just last year.)