The Amish are, as you say, Helen, doing surprisingly well. They have, however, special problems which come from the fact that they have been intermarrying among the same limited number of families too long. Frequently children are born with markings like a large butterfly on their face, and there are other health problems. No hemophilia yet. Johns Hopkins Hospital has been doing a study for many years and offers free or very low cost health care to the Amish in return for being part of the study. (You don't see the horse-drawn buggies at Hopkins Hospital; they arrange for an English neighbor to drive them down.) [English is one of the Amish words for non-Amish; the other is gay].

In the last 20 years or so, Amish elders in Pennsylvania have been sending their sons out west to find brides, to Amish communities in Indiana and further west, to get out of the limited gene pool at home. It now appears that it isn't working well. Not sure whether it's because not enough of the boys want to go there for a wife, or because the gene pool is not sufficiently different.

A couple weeks ago, my wife was telling me that she heard from a co-worker who is Mennonite that the Amish in western Maryland have asked the Dept. of Social Services to send them troubled teenage boys, whom they propose to adopt and hopefully make Amishmen out of, with the idea they can marry Amish girls, thus getting an instant infusion of fresh genetic material. Of course, it is highly likely that many of these troubled boys will be inner city blacks. We can't wait to see some of them become Amishmen and follow that rural 17th century lifestyle, but stranger things have happened.