My thoughts and reflections on 'American colony'

I guess my title will let you know what this post is about today. With all the hula loop going on about the National Geographic film on the Hutterites from King Colony that is being aired every week, I think it's time I say my piece. :-)

First of all I will say how disappointed I am in the members of King Colony and that they chose to participate in this disgraceful representation of Hutterite life. I understand that they were to a point unaware of how deceitful and cunning NG was about the filming, and that when they did realized just how far NG was willing to go to exploit some sensitive issues and the airing of dirty laundry, and they wanted to pull out, they were threatened by NG that they had signed a contract, and it was no longer an option. Well there is a saying, "nobody held a gun to their heads". It has made we wonder: "How far are we willing to go to compromise what we believe in for any amount of money?" Or as another saying goes, "Selling my birthright" losing our integrity... For the outsiders that see this, please don't lose your faith in us, and we will survive this.

As for NG, I think I can safely say, that they lost a lot of credibility with a great many people. To quote someone who said that this didn't change his view of NG. "Represents nature, but denies it's Creator" Well I must say I am saddened and disgusted with NG. For all that I never liked the evolution pushing that they did, I still enjoyed the magazines and the films. But never again will I read or watch anything by them again where I won't wonder 'how much of this is true and factual and how much has been acted and exploited for their own selfish gain and publicity?' Until now I thought they were admirable and honest when portraying a culture, this film has shattered that illusion. 

Come to think of it, a year or so ago I saw a film called "The devil's playground" this is a film about the Amish youth, where supposedly they go completely wild and party and what not, and their parents can do nothing and don't do anything about it, it's their 'rumpaspringen' before they get baptized and join the church, kinda sowing your wild oats, when I saw this film I was actually upset because I don't believe it is as bad as it was shown. I remember arguing with some of our colony members, that it isn't quite that way, that they are exaggerating, and they were quite adamant that it was exactly that way, I said it was acting and that no true Amish would participate in such a film. This film of the Hutterites finally made them realize that it was acting.

Can this even be called a film of the Hutterites? Absolutely no mention of why we are living in community, can I say that some of those members have no idea as to why they are there? The constant line: "what will the elders say" and never a mention of: "what would Jesus say" The complete disrespect and the swearing, the using of God's name in vain, deliberately knowing they were being filmed is so sad, really, I think they are to be pitied and prayed for. Who and what for are we living our lives? Isn't it for Jesus and not our elders? Who are there to guide and lead us, and not to be feared as shown.

I really don't think this will discolor the worlds view of Hutterites, at least not those that know us, but for those that don't, I think it will. yes, we have faults, yes we may at some point not always agree with our elders decisions, and yes we may grumble about it, but in no way do I lose my disrespect for any of them, and in no way would I go on national television to air my dirty laundry.

Not once did NG want to know why we live our lives in the community, for those of King colony that did try to tell them why, they weren't shown or only a few seconds, obviously NG wasn't interested in the spiritual side, only in the shock value. The lengths they went through to show Hutterites in a bar, Bar age in Montana is 21, so they went to Canada to film those young girls drinking where bar age is 18/19. To be sure, they shouldn't have been in any bar, but just to show the extremes. The Hutterite girls that Wesley is flirting with at the wedding in Canada, are not hutterites, they are actors in hutterite clothes. Obvious to us, but not to outsiders. C'mon!

I think enough has been said by me, but I must say I do feel better, :-) As upset and disgusted as I am with National Geographic, I will continue to watch the shows, and read the magazines, and although I won't cancel my subscription, (after all my money is in it! ) I certainly won't renew it when it does run out.

                          Books and me...


   Books and I have had a very long and happy relationship, ever since I discovered the written word, I have been in love, much to the dismay and concern of my mother, who has always lamented that I will never learn anything useful as long as I (and I quote) "have my nose in a book". I have learned to prioritize, but I still love to read, only now I read when my work is done, (sometimes tho I still take that book in hand when I have more pressing work, but that guilty little feeling is there...) 


   I remember sitting in my desk at school, sneaking peeks in the book I was reading at present, sometimes even putting it in my lap and pretending to do my school work and actually deceiving (or so I thought) my teacher by glancing into my lap, while pretending to do my math, but after being "caught" a couple of times, I saved my reading for recess, where instead of going out to play with the other girls and boys, I stayed inside reading, until I was chased outside to "get some fresh air" where I took my book and headed for the trees just out behind the school and settled in the tall grass, usually right next to the other bookworm in school, Debbie.


   I grew up on Hardy Boys and Nancy Drew, still have some of the old books, :-) I always thought if I ever grew up and got married if I had a little girl I would call her Nancy, I grew up, but as I am still not married, I guess Nancy will remain a memory. :-) But I solved many a mystery with her! 

   One of my favorite books is "The King's Daughter" by Suzanne Martel, To quote someone else: "This is the best pioneer book I have ever read," and it really is, or one of them. It is a story about a young orphaned girl in France who was sent to Canada to marry a widower with two children, whose first wife was scalped and killed by Indians. It is a book that makes me laugh and cry, although I laugh more than cry, the heroine is quite bold and sassy, which gets her in trouble with the nuns at home and later with her husband. She is only fifteen years old which makes her only so much more someone we can relate to...She dreams of someone she met years ago, but she takes her life in stride and deals with what fate hands out to her, the widower is supposed to marry her best friend, but on the ocean voyage from France to Canada her friend falls in love with someone else and she steps in to marry her intended husband. As women are scarce in these early years of Canada, this man doesn't care too much, he is marrying for the sake of his children who need a mother, but as the days and weeks pass, he realizes he didn't marry a weak, meek, and  timid young girl from the orphanage as he thought he was getting. Absolutely one of my favorite books! 


   Going through my bookshelf, I have all the Harry Potter books, seriously I wasn't going to read them, when they first came out, not that I had any compunction about the so called witchcraft issue, but "they were for kids!" I thought, but then a friend of mine got the first book from the library and I glanced through it and just reading the first paragraph got me interested, I read the first one in one night, then I requested the other 2 from the library, the waiting list was over 300 people! By the fourth book I was buying them as soon as they were released. I have never felt guilty about reading them, to me there is nothing as wrong as some reviews were trying to point out, Harry Potter has never claimed to be anything than a great book with great characters with personality's that we can easily relate to, there is the struggle between good and evil, and Harry has always taken the right side when he had the choice between good and evil. What really upsets me about the debate that Harry Potter books are evil and satanic is that they are not! They have never claimed to be a Christian book, but I do not at any time believe that these books will lead children to practise witchcraft or scorcery, but some of the so-called Christian books that are out there and being read by our children and adults, are more harmful to us than Harry Potter. This is taking a bit longer than I thought it would, and I really wasn't going to go into this debate, so I won't at this time. I also want to write more about my favorite books, but I will do so later, please be patient with me, I don't seem to have as much time as I thought I did to blog, but I will as I find time, please feel free to comment! 






   
   

                      On first responding

First of all, I want to say that I love being a First Responder, I have been one now for a long time...
I was 17 when I took my first course and I haven't looked back yet. I have always thought that if I didn't live in a colony, I would be a Paramedic or at least an EMT.


There is nothing that compares to the rush of adrenaline when my radio goes off, if it's in the middle of the night or during the day, those few minutes until we arrive on scene and until it's over, I can hardly find anything to compare, when my brain takes over and I work on the patient until ALS (advanced life support) arrives, are what only fellow trauma junkies know what it feels like. 


I prefer working on the patients, as to staying and comforting the family members, that is one part of  first responding where I have to say, I am not comfortable. It seems to me my mind goes blank, so when I usually land up with family, I try to distract them from what my fellow FR's are doing and talk about mundane things, sometimes, depending on how serious the call, I usually land up holding and comforting the mother, or whoever, and that is hard, all those courses you take, there is really none where it teaches how to deal with the family, we have had calls where the patient is dead or close to, and those are the hardest ones ever, esp. when there is a baby or child involved, those are absolutely the worst calls in the world. No amount of adrenaline can make up for the feeling of utter helplessness when you have done all you can and it wasn't enough. The rewards are great, and yet sometimes, you come home and just cry and cry.


One of our first fatalities came right after we had finished our CPR course, we got a call for an MVA (motor vehicle accident) when we arrived a passing EMT came out to meet us and told us the lady was deceased, well, we were so gung ho we looked at each other and said: "we know CPR" and she said: "not in this case." To this day I believe if she hadn't been there to stop us, we would have done CPR on her, (she had a serious head injury and had died on scene)


One of the worst calls I have responded to was when a 12 year old boy hung himself, when I arrived on scene, the other FR's were already doing CPR. The Ambulance from the city arrived and took him in all the while continuing with CPR. (But they stopped CPR on the way in) The boy's mother was standing there crying and screaming, so we took her inside, and just held her and comforted her, but she was hysterical and after fainting a few times we called an ambulance for her too. What boggles my mind is why a  12 year old boy would reach the point where he no longer wanted to live. If it was an accident or  a deliberate attempt I guess we will never know. And because of patient confidentiality we cannot follow up on calls, but this being a neighbour, we never heard, also we cannot talk about anything regarding any call. Which is kind of hard, because talking about traumatic experiences are healing in itself, but there are awesome programs out, where when we have had a really 'bad" call, we get together in a group and talk about it, they can get pretty emotional sometimes tho, but it's all part of the program.


I have never assisted at a birth, although there have been a number of close calls, I would love to, after seeing death so often, I think watching life come into this world would be awesome.


People ask me how I can stand the blood, actually it has never really affected me, one of our instructors has gory pictures which he showed to us, He called it desensitizing, and I really think he has a point there, I have come on scenes where there was blood, broken bones, etc. and you swallow and go about doing what you can.


When I took my course we were able to go to the city and take a ride-a-long with the paramedics and EMT's, talk about rushes! Flying through the streets, sirens and flashers on, cars getting out of your way, going through red lights...all the while thinking, 'not wishing anybody harm, but if it's gonna happen, it might as well happen when I'm on a ride-a-long!' the paramedics and EMT's are quite friendly, I think it being that a Hutterite girl is actually doing this, it was quite interesting to them.


In conclusion I must say, it's not for everybody, but for myself, I love it. The only thing that is not so nice or good, is when I come home from a call (and here is where every Hutterite will know exactly what I am talking about) is when I walk out from the car and the questions fly, and I cannot answer them. Legally I can't even say if the call was medical or an accident, but this is where I do say if it was a medical or an accident, I have to give them something, I know for myself I would really like to know what is going on...But through the years I think most of our people understand, but they still ask in hopes of hearing the gory morbid details. :-)

                  Not what I am but what I can be...

This is going to be a short one, for my first. I have had dreams of being this successful blogger, with so many subjects to go on, now that I am here, my mind went blank. And I had such a beautiful title too! Not what I am but what I can be.


Guess I could start from there, what am I? well, first and foremost a simple Hutterite girl, trying to live for Jesus, and failing every day! But what I could be? well there is the wondrous thing about that, with Jesus I can be whatever He wants me to be. (which brings me to a quote which someone once wrote in my autograph book years ago:) "May you grow to be as beautiful as God wanted you to be when He first thought of you" Isn't that just inspiring? What should hold us back from being what He wants us to be? Nothing but self, and I am the first to admit my self often wins.


So...what shall I be? thought provoking question! I am what I am, (smile) It's already 11:30, was in Saskatoon today for doctors appointment, and I have a raging headache, so why am I blogging? Good question, I'm going to bed now, maybe my head will be clearer tomorrow and I will start to make sense!

There are a number of subjects I could talk on, there is a double wedding coming up next week, and at the end of June, Hillcrest is making plans to split with Lost River! So I'll sleep on a few more subjects, and hopefully come up with something intersting! Good night blog page, sleep well for I have plans for you!