Evil at the door

IF ANYTHING IS MORE UNIMAGINABLE than the execution-style killings of five Amish girls in their one-room schoolhouse, it is the Amish community’s reaction to the tragedy. Mourning without anger. Lack of interest in the news media -- and a lack of resentment of them too. And an unwillingness, at least so far, to allow this brush with one of modern society’s worst horrors to force it into defensiveness.

Charles Carl Roberts IV held no special animosity toward the Amish, investigators say. They believe that he attacked the Amish school simply because it was a vulnerable target -- small, secluded, unguarded and, in accordance with the practice of most Amish, without phones.

Those few Amish who would talk to the media refused to vent anger toward Roberts or whatever demons propelled him to violence. The Amish generally said they could not see giving up their small country schoolhouses, or placing guards or other security in the buildings, even if that made them vulnerable. It would mean giving up their peaceful, pastoral way of life, with its insistence on keeping intrusions at bay.

And yet the most horrific of modern intrusions came. Monday’s shootings show that even the Amish, for all their insular unworldliness, face the same 21st century predicament as the rest of us: How much to retain the old ways -- the cherished, unfettered rituals of daily life -- and how much to adapt to new realities and adopt new habits? Americans consider this dilemma every time they board an airplane, check out a library book or use a cellphone. To the Amish, many of whom eschew even electricity, these issues are utterly foreign. Most do not even drive, much less fly. Many of us dream about how wonderful it would be to live a simpler life, free from the tyranny of our BlackBerrys. The Amish live that life.

Yet even before Monday’s tragedy, it was clear that the Amish, too, must balance the pressures (and benefits) of modernity against the comforts (and drawbacks) of tradition. Many Amish have set up shared phone booths outside their homes in case of emergency. On Tuesday, there was talk that although Amish schools were unlikely to employ guards or locks, there might be cellphones on hand, just in case. We all make our concessions -- to modernity or to tradition -- when we must.