[Greenbuilding] AIA COTE Verifying Building Performance

[Tom Gorman]

<<On Nov 15, 2007, at 11:10 AM, baileys at ktis.net wrote:

IMHO We could learn much from the Menonites and the Amish.  They have  
opted out of the life style that modern society has built and they  
seem to get along just fine.  The Amish around here don't own  
automobiles or have electricity in their homes. Bicyles and horse  
drawn buggies are their main tramsportation. As an aside, I once saw  
some Amish teenagers drag racing their horse drawn buggies.  They  
were grinning from ear to ear.

I don't care too much for some of their beliefs, but those Menonites  
that I know personally are good people.  >>

It is a general misunderstanding of the Amish, Menonites and other  
such communities that they reject modern technology and society.  In  
fact they think long and hard as a community before deciding to adopt  
any 'new' technology.'  They deliberate on how adopting the 'new'  
will affect their lives and community and how it may make them less  
self-reliant and independent, they don't fall for the 'newer, faster,  
bigger, better' pitch.  Certainly their communities are not without  
problems, though it would seem they are fewer than those our larger  
'society' generates.