Comments

A lot of pain in this room

Not a peaceful area

Definately get the impression that there is something at the window to the right and it is not the reflected sunlight.

Eerie

I am not getting a good feeling from this hallway at all. I cannot believe you had the patience to stay here and photograph this whole area. You are to be commended.

Truly a sad and melancholy scene, one that truly saddens the heart of any enthusiast of classic harbor ferries. That ferry was one of the old diesel-electrics operated by the City Of New York from 1959 to 1966. The wreck in this picture is either the remains of the SEAWELLS POINT or her sister, JAMESTOWN. These two ferries were built in 1926 by the American Brown Boveri Electric Corporation of Camden, NJ. During the 60s, these two boats operated between E. 134th St in the Bronx, and Rikers Island, until a bridge was built in 1966. The ferries last ran on October 31, 1966, and were both sold for scrap to Wittes .

Is that light the baby's ghost?

Dear God, but that looks like a frame from an Asian horror film!

Hmm... Speaking of Zing...

Dang you, Weebs! 8`-) I even scrolled back to see if there was a comment by someone named "lol"!!!!! 8`-)

You're not ignorant - you're lucky. They aren't an everyday occurrence like they were in the past before psychotropic medications were available (with their own set of problems).

You take a small sharp metal blade and insert it a few inches into the eye socket right above the eyeball. You get into the frontal lobe area of the brain and you wiggle the little sharp device back and forth a number of times and scramble things around. You pull the little metal device back out (an ice pick can do the job) and voila! The person's executive functions have been shot all to hell. If you hit the correct part of the brain you wipe out the section that makes people impulsive and wild and instead turns them into walking zombies. If you miss, well, that's not a good thing. Of course, hitting the right part wasn't exactly a good thing either . . .

For a slightly more elegant description of the process (developed by Moniz but popularized by our friend Walter Freeman, about whom we were commenting several pages back) see:
http://www.stayfreemag...obotomy_sidebar.html
http://nobelprize.org/medicine/articles/moniz/index.html

Just a quick note - hypocrite is spelled with a "y" and not an "i". I find it best when calling someone a name to try to make sure it's spelled correctly or it sort of loses its zing. :-(

To answer your question, yes, the way I work with my clients is by giving them correct information, not letting them be confused by receiving incorrect or garbled information, and making sure that they are physically safe. Some people think that dealing in facts, telling the truth, and keeping people safe is a good thing, but, as they say, there's no accounting for taste.

As far as the part above about the rugs and the chair, that's not opinion, it's actually data-based factual information. I currently work as a risk management liaison and my job is to make sure folks are as safe as they can be without having any freedoms restricted unnecessarily (i.e., for any but reasons of safety). We have to do a lot of reading on furniture, lighting, rugs, etc., and keep up with the current research and best practices on safety, so I would have to say that this part is true and you could probably even take it to the bank.

As far as my personal opinion of spider girl, yes, I did get a tad testy with the child. She did have a lot of unique things to say, so my bad for sounding like I didn't support her and her fascinating comments wholeheartedly. That probably does indeed make me a hypocrite. As I am sure you have figured now, I've been called a lot worse. :-)

After seeing the "face" I am scared. I like feeling the excitement of the creepy lonely chair thing, but I really do believe that place is haunted. *shivers*

You are totally correct. But if we try understand how this happened then we will may acquire the tools to keep it from happening again.

The government actually has released a lot of information. It is not an exaggeration to say that there are literally tons of accessible paperwork concerning Pennhurst. This was one of the three or four most famous court cases in my field (MR/DD/II). We had to memorize large chunks of the court information for graduate school back in the 80s (the Pennhurst court case actually occurred in the early 80's). Everyone in my field knows what "Youngberg v. Romeo" means. I am well familiar with Pennhurst, and even worked as a consultant for a corporation that is named after the court case.

A lot of bad things happened at Pennhurst but a lot of good things happened there. I know some people who worked there and I know some of the people who were involved in the lawsuit to have the place shut down. There is plenty of paperwork on this that is easy to locate, and it documents both the good and the bad. If you need any references let me know and I can find you info on both sides of the story. Or you can do a quick web check. It's always easier to find negative info (like with anything), but there's a lot of positive information out there as well. Many parents loved the place and were distraught when it closed. Other parents were thrilled and still celebrate the closure.

You are also giving more credit to some of the current facilities than they deserve for their care. As was the case in the past, facilities today do only as well as they are funded and as well as they are surveyed.

Well, actually I started in the field in 1972 when a lot of this WAS going on. I was 16 and started out as a volunteer in a day treatment center for emotionally disturbed pre-school children. I am really old. Kind of like dirt. :-)

I hope you haven't for one second read my comments to mean that there wasn't abuse back then and that there isn't abuse now. As in right now today. Both in large facilities and in the community.

My point is and has always been that people shouldn't make assumptions about what they have read or heard, because they'll never get all the info and because the info is slanted to whichever of us is relaying it to you - whether that's me or whether it's someone else. I am asking you to look at a lot of different people's experiences, remember that this was a different place and time, remember that we shouldn't be single-handedly blaming staff or families or the people who lived here or the doctors or the legislators but look at the culture that created and accepted this. That was all of us, including me. Don't judge yesterday's actions by today's standards. Don't assume that people always did what they did because there was a vendetta or personal dislike or there was ill intent.

Let me say it again - conditions were terrible at times in many of these places. In some places they were rotten. In some places they were horrible. However, the sad irony is that people who ran these places were well aware of it at the time and constantly asked for help (i.e., more money) but didn't get it. I can show you state publications from the 1950s with the states actually documenting and showing how bad their facilities were with full page photos of putting two children in one crib in a room full of 45 cribs, and 1/2 a dozen of the cribs had two children because there weren't enough beds. The facilities sent yearly reports to their legislatures showing how decayed the facilities were, how overcrowded they were, how little money they had for the basics, and still nothing happened until the courts got involved in the 1970s and forced the states to start putting money out for these people.
http://i47.photobucket.com/albums/f152/docarelle/1955.jpg

So yes, bad things happened.

Let me say it again. Bad things happened. No one can deny it and no one wants to deny it.

But it seems that many folks are looking for someone to blame rather than trying to understand the whys and wherefores of what happened back then. Because what I am (apparently unsuccessfully) trying to impress on people is that we are three inches away from this happening again. Unless people understand how things got so screwed up in the first place, it can and will happen again.

But people need to stop pretending that the problems only occurred in another era and were the result of bad people rather than the result of a combination of bad circumstances. It was the result of bad systems and a culture with different priorities. As soon as the voters get a pinched belt they start voting against the type of programs that keep people at home and in the community where they belong, and push them back to (cheaper) congregate living facilities because that's what happens when budgets are tight and when people don't understand that you and I are the people who control the legislature that control the budget that dictates how these people will live.

I am saying let's quit chucking stones at the staff who worked here and start figuring this out so we can make life right for these folks. I don't think that's a lot to ask.

Wow. I love this shot. Seriously on my top 3. And that;'s a hard place to get. lol.

But seriously, this shot took my breath away. It must have been what the prisoners felt like...

Plus the foggyness, and the green with the wonderful, tall window. Just wow.

Great job.