Kentucky is Locking the Amish Up Over...Traffic Triangles?
Kentucky has what seems to be a fairly simple rule: any really large vehicle on the road, like a tractor, needs a reflective, bright orange triangle. It's for road safety, and it's fairly simple to follow. Unless you happen to be Amish.
The Amish, of course, is a religious sect that rejects most modern trappings. Famously that includes phones and computers, so we get to make fun of them with no repercussions, but that actually also includes most modern fabric production methods and bright colors. Not that they just want to trundle down the road in the middle of the night in a black buggy: they're perfectly happy to use white reflective tape.
Problem solved, right? Nope. The state of Kentucky tossed eight Amish men of the Swartzentruber sect into jail for three to 10 days for not complying with the law. Because apparently they were a huge risk to everybody, riding around in buggies that go a maximum of fifteen miles per hour.
Unlike most of Kentucky, the department of corrections is actually fairly sensitive to the Amish religion. They provided the men with dark jumpsuits instead of the usual hot orange numbers convicts usually get. Maybe the courts could take a cue from the jailers.
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