Pittsburgh Tribune-Review: "Most of the time, Jessica Dickey doesn't pay much attention to television news. But five years ago, she found herself engrossed by the national media's coverage of the shooting at an Amish schoolhouse in Lancaster County. In Oct. 2, 2006, Charles Carl Roberts IV entered the West Nickel Mines Amish School in Lancaster County, where he shot 10 girls, between the ages of 6 and 13, then killed himself. Five of the girls died.
Sunday, April 10, 2011
'Amish Project' puts tragedy, forgiveness center stage
Pittsburgh Tribune-Review: "Most of the time, Jessica Dickey doesn't pay much attention to television news. But five years ago, she found herself engrossed by the national media's coverage of the shooting at an Amish schoolhouse in Lancaster County. In Oct. 2, 2006, Charles Carl Roberts IV entered the West Nickel Mines Amish School in Lancaster County, where he shot 10 girls, between the ages of 6 and 13, then killed himself. Five of the girls died.
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3 comments:
This is really interesting to me. I can understand why Dickey would have found this forgiveness reaction so bizarre and attractive. In our culture forgiveness is really hard because there's a level of selfishness that is encouraged. In a lot of religions and eastern world views forgiveness means something else and is a marker of your goodness. This Amish reaction is surprising but I also feel like it shouldn't be. We can all learn something from that.
This is indeed an extremely shocking and, although at first a depressing tale, it is a very uplifting story of forgiveness. I hope to be able to read and/or see this play. It is great that someone could take something so disturbing and turn it into art. I'm sure it was quite a challenge to show what caused these people to display such forgiveness, and since it is not just a recounting of facts but instead a story, I hope that this reaction from the Amish community is believable. Definitely a show worth considering to see.
This is not all facts... She says, "By getting beyond the facts of this specific tragedy, Dickey hoped to turn the conversation in another direction." I understand wanting to raise questions, but the actual factual events raise questions by themselves.
Also, there is film about this incident which is very good. When it first aired it was the most watched for made-for-T.V. movie to date and it just aired again this past weekend. It was filmed in California because of the film tax incentives which we read about on the green page a few weeks ago. I would like to compare the film and play because I am skeptical about this one-woman piece...
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