Amish :: essays research papers

The Amish Who are the Amish? The Amish is a religious group, which lives in settlements in 22 states and Ontario, Canada. The oldest group of Old Order Amish, about 16-18,000 people live in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania. The Amish stress humility, family, community, and separation from the world. Although Lancaster Amish is Pennsylvania Dutch, all Pennsylvania Dutch are not Amish. The Pennsylvania Dutch are natives of Central Pennsylvania, particularly Lancaster and its surrounding counties. Unlike the Amish, they are not all one religion. Instead, their common bond is a mainly German background (Pennsylvania Dutch is actually Pennsylvania Deutsch, or German). They also have Welsh, English, Scottish, Swiss, and French ancestry. What is the history of the Amish? The Amish have their roots in the Mennonite community. Both were part of the early Anabaptist movement in Europe, which took place at the time of the Reformation. The Anabaptists believed that only adults who had confessed their faith should be baptized, and that they should remain separate from the larger society. Many early Anabaptists were put to death as heretics by both Catholics and Protestants, and many others fled to the mountains of Switzerland and southern Germany. Here began the Amish tradition of farming and holding their worship services in homes rather than churches. In 1536, a young Catholic priest from Holland named Menno Simons joined the Anabaptist movement. His writings and leadership united many of the Anabaptist groups, who were nicknamed "Mennonites." In 1693, a Swiss bishop named Jacob Amman broke from the Mennonite church. His followers were called the "Amish." Although the two groups have split several times, the Amish and Mennonite churches still share the same beliefs concerning baptism, non-resistance, and basic Bible doctrines. They differ in matters of dress, technology, language, form of worship, and interpretation of the Bible. The Amish and Mennonites both settled in Pennsylvania as part of William Penn's "holy experiment" of religious tolerance. The first sizable group of Amish arrived in Lancaster County in the 1720's or 1730's. Why don't the Amish accept modern ideas and innovations? The Amish seem stuck in history.

Obama Vs. Clinton Essay

The Affordable Health Care Act is a very in-depth process. The changes to the health care system were attempted to be passed in prior years by Bill Clinton. However, it failed at this time and was implemented in the United States by the current president Barack Obama. The Congress diversity of Democrats vs. Republican’s was very similar in both Clintons and Obamas time in office. There were many steps that were taken in creating this policy, and some of those steps succeeded, and some of those steps failed. Any new process would be expected to have some issues to work through as it was created. The Affordable Health Care Act still has some issues to work on, but many steps succeeded and that is why it has been implemented during Obamas term. Health Care Reform was in some ways similar in both Obama and Clinton’s proposals, but greatly different as well. Clinton’s main focus in the policy was to make health care mandatory for all Americans and have universal coverage. Employers would pay 80 percent of the cost of health insurance premiums, with the employee covering the remaining costs (Khan, 2014). However, both policies have the same goal of providing health insurance to all people. Each policy creates the ways of completing this task differently. Clinton’s health care reform plan was very complex. It involved high levels of government involvement in the health care industry. A federal national health board would have overseen the health system, and would be tasked with regulating premiums and overseeing benefits (Khan, 2014). Health care alliances at the state level would conduct a similar task, and states would have had the authority to regulate plans and have the option to create a single-payer system (Khan, 2014). The policy would be more of a government takeover, than assisting Americans with health  insurance. This was something that was not found to be favorable by many stakeholders. Obama’s reform allows for people with private insurance to keep their insurance. He is creating a government insurance company to compete with the private insurance companies. However, Obama still faces struggles with Republicans being opposed to this idea as well. The concern of finances was also purposed similar in both policy creations. Both presidents plan on the bill not adding to the deficit of the country. Another similarity between the two plans was that insurances companies could no longer deny a client because of their previous medical conditions. This has been another successful step in the process. Health Care Reform was created very similar but still with great differences between each president. The Affordable Health Care Act was successful for Obama mostly because of the way he pushed the bill through congress. Obama used Clinton’s health care reform failures as lessons and a blueprint of what not to do. This made him about to learn from past failure and make changes along the way. Different steps were taken in creating both of the policies. As Clinton moved slowly on this policy, Obama pushed his through quickly (Oberlander, 2014). Moving quickly was a decision that helped the policy succeeding, whereas, moving slowly caused it to fail. However, both presidents did pitch their speech about the Affordable Health Care Act before a joint session of Congress. This was not a successful step for either president. Both Obama and Clinton did not have great support for the policy, and this caused great suffering. Obama allowed for alternative methods in this policy whereas Clinton did not. Although both presidents had a wonderful idea, the steps that they took in implementing the policy are what changed the success of it. Both policies have similar stakeholders. When discussing health care insurance the stakeholders do not often change because the policies were slightly different. Stakeholders consist of business, insurance companies, and the American Medical Association. Other stakeholders consist of the people of the United States of America. There was much skepticism about the policy plans that both presidents were rolling out by the people of America. It is important that the presidents did not only look at stakeholders of large companies, but the everyday people of the community and employees of the health care industry as stakeholders as well. There were also government stakeholders in both  policies. However, the government level of stakeholders was greater in Clinton’s policy because his consist of government takeover. Stakeholders are crucial to the success of any policy. The Affordable Health Care Act has so far been successfully implemented by Obama. However, like any other new policy there are some issues still to be worked on. Obama was a success on passing this policy because he used the mistakes of the past to make his policy succeed. Even though there were struggles and steps that failed in Obama’s plan as well, there were more that succeed. Clinton’s policy was more government based and had many failures. The stakeholders for both presidents’ policies were similar. The Affordable Health Care Act has been in progress by many presidents for many years. However, it has been Obama’s plan that has been the most successful. Reference Oberlander, J. (2014). Long Time Coming: Why Health Reform Finally Passed. Retrieved from http://content.healthaffairs.org/content/29/6/1112.full Khan, H. (2014). Throwback to 1993? What’s New About Democrats’ Health Care Plans. Retrieved from http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/HealthCare/health-care-reform-president-obama-path-bill-clinton/story?id=8675596

Essay on The Environmental Impact of Renewable Energy

The amazing thing about renewable energy resources is that they do not deplete. These energy resources include energies such as hydroelectric energy, solar energy, wind energy, and geothermal energy. The major advantage of using these resources is that the environmental impact is extremely low when compared to the use of fossil fuels and other energy processes. One of the most used renewable energy sources is hydroelectric power. When you look at all the environmental impacts of dams, etc., they seem to be a lot less devastating than those effects due to the use of coal and oil for producing energy. Some of the environmental impacts include major flooding due to the gigantic reservoirs that are formed by dams, which in turn makes†¦show more content†¦Also, there is a minor concern associated with the land use required to collect a substantial amount of energy, but one theory is that there is enough area on the roofs of every house and building in the world to supply an unfathomable amount of electricity (Baird). These environmental problems seem to be better than any other resource out there; no emissions, air pollution, water pollution, etc. When solar energy, a renewable energy resource, is compared to other forms of electricity production (based on environmental impacts), it is by far at the top of the list. The next renewable energy resource to be discussed is wind energy. Wind energy is very efficient and has a very minute amount of environmental impact. One of the major impacts due to wind energy is the noise that it generates. The turbines are very loud when one is up close to them, but when at a distance of 300 m from the average turbine the noise is about the same as the amount of noise in a library (Baird). Another impact is that these turbines have killed many birds and bats throughout the years, but when compared to bird deaths due to cats, the number killed due to wind turbines is not even close (AWEA). These environmental effects seem to be negligible, due to the fact that the noise is too far away for most people to hear, and the amount of birds killed every year is not substantial. Also, like all of the otherShow MoreRelatedThe Environmental Impact Of Renewable Energy Sources1555 Words   |  7 Pagesthe spectrum are renewable energy sources, which consist of solar, wind, g eothermal, hydro, and biofuels. The environmental impact of renewable energy sources is microscopic compared to the impact of fossil fuels. Specifically, I want to focus on the environmental impact of the production of electricity. 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