short notes:
will brady's ruminations
will brady's ruminations
2009-02-18
history / society / neglect
The Suitcase Exhibit was born from the chance discovery of personal possessions in the attics of Willard Psychiatric Center in New York's Finger Lakes when it closed in 1995.
Workers discovered hundreds of suitcases in the attic of an abandoned building. Many of them appeared untouched since their owners packed them decades earlier before entering the institution.
State Museum Curator Craig Williams brought the suitcases to the Museum's storage facilities. He contacted Darby Penney and Peter Stastny bringing the suitcases to their attention.
They, in turn made the effort to once again breathe life into the spirit of those souls long neglected after their hospitalized imprisonment ~ for warehousing is nothing less than that - imprisonment. A website memorializing those souls whose lives were unjustly frozen when confined into long-term institutional custodial placement speaks to what they found:
Would that this was an isolated phenomenon, but it isn't. For well over a century people who died in mental hospitals across the North American continent were buried in unmarked, sometimes numbered graves. The "conventional wisdom" of the mental illness treating establishment erroneously believed that being labeled "insane" was so shameful that people identities were masked, hidden, rendered confidential!
Too bad the perpetrators of this gruesome myth could not see - indeed they still cannot see - that the real shame here is to hide from society the lives of these souls captured and confined and put away in psychiatric facilities.
This injustice is still done today, albeit more subtly - it is now called "STIGMA" but, in truth, stigma's face is still irrational prejudice and bigotry held against those of us who get labelled as mentally ill.
The Suitcase Exhibit was born from the chance discovery of personal possessions in the attics of Willard Psychiatric Center in New York's Finger Lakes when it closed in 1995.Workers discovered hundreds of suitcases in the attic of an abandoned building. Many of them appeared untouched since their owners packed them decades earlier before entering the institution.
State Museum Curator Craig Williams brought the suitcases to the Museum's storage facilities. He contacted Darby Penney and Peter Stastny bringing the suitcases to their attention.
They, in turn made the effort to once again breathe life into the spirit of those souls long neglected after their hospitalized imprisonment ~ for warehousing is nothing less than that - imprisonment. A website memorializing those souls whose lives were unjustly frozen when confined into long-term institutional custodial placement speaks to what they found:
The suitcases and their contents bear witness to the rich, complex lives their owners lived prior to being committed to Willard. They speak about aspirations, accomplishments, community connections, but also about loss and isolation. From the clothing and personal objects left behind, we can gain some understanding of who these people were before they disappeared behind hospital walls. We can picture their jobs and careers, see them driving cars, playing sports, studying, writing, and traveling the world. We can imagine their families and friends. But we can also see their lives coming apart due to unemployment, the death of a loved one, loneliness, poverty, or some other catastrophic event.The project has included: an intensive study by Peter, Darby and the photographer Lisa Rinzler; a major exhibit at the New York State Museum viewed by more than 600,000 people in 2004; a portable traveling version of the exhibit, on tour since 2006; and a book, The Lives They Left Behind: Suitcases from a State Hospital Attic, by Darby Penney and Peter Stastny. It was published in hardcover by Bellevue Literary Press in January 2008, featuring Lisa's wonderful photographs along with historical photos. The paperback version was released in November 2008.
The suitcases and the life stories of the people who owned them raise questions that are difficult to confront. Why were these people committed to this institution, and why did so many stay for so long? How were they treated? What was it like to spend years in a mental institution, shut away from a society that wanted to distance itself from people it considered insane? Why did most of these suitcase owners live out their days at Willard? What about their friends and families? Are the circumstances today any better than they were for psychiatric patients during the first half of the 20th century?
Would that this was an isolated phenomenon, but it isn't. For well over a century people who died in mental hospitals across the North American continent were buried in unmarked, sometimes numbered graves. The "conventional wisdom" of the mental illness treating establishment erroneously believed that being labeled "insane" was so shameful that people identities were masked, hidden, rendered confidential!
Too bad the perpetrators of this gruesome myth could not see - indeed they still cannot see - that the real shame here is to hide from society the lives of these souls captured and confined and put away in psychiatric facilities.
This injustice is still done today, albeit more subtly - it is now called "STIGMA" but, in truth, stigma's face is still irrational prejudice and bigotry held against those of us who get labelled as mentally ill.
FOR MORE INFO SEE: The Lives Left Behind, and learn about similar efforts like The Eastern State Hospital Project, caring for Patients' Graves and the Disability Rights Center's Augusta Mental Health Institute. PHOTO CREDIT: Lisa Rinzler from the The Suitcase Exhibit Team
Labels: abandonment, abuse, anonymity, bearing witness, mental hospitals, psychiatric survivors, warehousing
¶ 09:40 0 comments
2009-02-15
crime : famous murderers
Maricopa County Arizona Sheriff Joe Arpaio rode into power by running against a fellow Republican and incumbent Maricopa County Sheriff, Tom Agnos, by bad mouthing Agnos and arguing that the entire Maricopa County Sheriff's Department needed to be cleaned up. Five terms and seventeen years later, he has not accomplished his stated goal.
Instead, publicity hound Sheriff Arpaio has used his post to foster his own agenda, namely that of a bigoted, hostile yahoo now in power. Although his racist, anti-immigrant opinions are well known being in power, I suspect, is his most important priority, not serving the citizens of Maricopa County Arizona.
So I am heartened that members of the US House Judiciary Committee are calling investigation of his crimes, if not is ouster, just yet.
Now, in case you are wondering why I calls him as a "murderer" when he has not been found guilt of such an act, it's simple; because, while under his watch he and his minions took part in, and over saw the deaths of three unconvicted detainees, Scott Norberg, Charles Agster and Clint Yarborugh.
All died while in strapped into a restraint chair. In the case of Agster, a mentally retarded man arrested for trespassing. A report conducted by the US Department of Justice found that "...Detention officers at the Madison Street Jail pulled a hood over his head and slammed him into a medieval-looking restraint chair. The hood around Agster's throat smothered him to the point that he became brain dead."
The weblog Firedoglake stated
Maricopa County Arizona Sheriff Joe Arpaio rode into power by running against a fellow Republican and incumbent Maricopa County Sheriff, Tom Agnos, by bad mouthing Agnos and arguing that the entire Maricopa County Sheriff's Department needed to be cleaned up. Five terms and seventeen years later, he has not accomplished his stated goal.Instead, publicity hound Sheriff Arpaio has used his post to foster his own agenda, namely that of a bigoted, hostile yahoo now in power. Although his racist, anti-immigrant opinions are well known being in power, I suspect, is his most important priority, not serving the citizens of Maricopa County Arizona.
So I am heartened that members of the US House Judiciary Committee are calling investigation of his crimes, if not is ouster, just yet.
Now, in case you are wondering why I calls him as a "murderer" when he has not been found guilt of such an act, it's simple; because, while under his watch he and his minions took part in, and over saw the deaths of three unconvicted detainees, Scott Norberg, Charles Agster and Clint Yarborugh.
All died while in strapped into a restraint chair. In the case of Agster, a mentally retarded man arrested for trespassing. A report conducted by the US Department of Justice found that "...Detention officers at the Madison Street Jail pulled a hood over his head and slammed him into a medieval-looking restraint chair. The hood around Agster's throat smothered him to the point that he became brain dead."
The weblog Firedoglake stated
" It should be noted that neither Norberg, Agster, nor Yarbrough were ever tried or convicted for the charges they were arrested on; none of them lived to see their first court date and died innocent men under the law. Those are just the deaths associated with the medieval restraint chair, there have been numerous deaths from improper or complete lack of medical care, neglect and other perils."So I think of Arpaio the same way I regard the circumstances of Ronald Rajcok, the guy who drove Mary Ann Measles to her assault, gang rape and death, even though he didn't hold the weapon. Arpaio is complicit in the crime, and, as such, deserves time in the same institutions he should proudly and brazenly lords over.
Labels: arizona, joe arpaio, racism, vigilantes
¶ 21:06 0 comments
