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Just admit PENNHURST was a terrable place. Look at the pictures read the documation. For your own sake admit it.
Only then will you become credible. Admitting our mistakes allows us to move forward!

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Advocate,

That's exactly what many of us do. But if you can't see the good that went with the bad you are doomed to repeat history. If you throw the baby out with the bathwater you'll have a nice clean tub but no baby. :-)

parent,

I see that - you are hardly able to control yourself NOW and you are presumably under fairly ideal conditions. :-)

P.S. I would advise a slightly larger circle of reading and references than that which you have limited yourself to. However, the danger there is that you might learn something you don't want to know - that is, that not all staff were killers and torturers, that not all situations were 100% terrible, that some people thrived even in rough situations, and that every now and then good things happened.

You would also have to realize that until you get off your hindquarters and get out there and push for increased taxes for mental health that this will happen over and over again while you are sitting there with your mouth agape and your finger pointing outward - you will then have to realize that "when you point a finger at someone else, 4 fingers are pointing back at you."

However, it's sure easier to poke at other people than to do something yourself, I've found. How can you fail when you never try? Leaves you right (and righteous) 100% of the time.

Come out with us and get your feet (and index finger that you wag at others so much) dirty and THEN tell us what it's like. Then you might have some credibility. Right now you come across merely as an armchair whiner. That's the best job in the world because you don't have to do anything but complain and protest. Maybe I should come join you. It would be a lot easier than actually doing something, that's for sure. :-)

People shoul spend less time thying to defend Pennhurst and more time making sure it never happens again.

VIOLENT ! VIOLENT! I have no dout ihe clients at PENNHURST lost control of their emotions. If I found myself in the DOCUMENTED conditions that existed at PENNHURST, I dout that I would be able to contain my emotions!

http://www.opacity.us/...rotting_bathroom.htm

Merriam-Webster OnLine:
1 a : a space that intervenes between things; especially : one between closely spaced things <interstices of a wall>

Holly Crap!! Freddy Krugger IS in the window of that first door!

I wonder how many women gazed upon that very sign with misery and dread, wishing for a better life somewhere else, wishing for a sound mind.

Why does this shot bring The Shining to mind?

There's probably some museum somewhere that would love to have this organ in their collection. I'd love to see it restored.

It appears that everyone is wearing a suit.

That X is very creepy. It looks like the markings on the houses flooded by Katrina. I have to look at them on a daily basis and, frankly, would love to forget them.

Gorgeous shot. I too like the solid building standing tall before the speeding sky.