God...


...grant me the serenity to accept
the things I cannot change;
courage to change the things I can;
and wisdom to know the difference.
-Reinhold Niebuhr




Wednesday, January 23, 2008

Shameful Institutionalization of the Mentally Retarded


Where were the families of these people? Only a couple decades ago, people with mental retardation were institutionalized. Supervised by far too few staff, they sat around rocking back and forth. Some were naked. Some were restrained. The stench was overwhelming. All who could not feed themselves were given white mush as fast as possible. Disgusting. No human deserves this type of treatment.

We watched part of this video in class so history does not repeat itself. I hope this part never does.


1 comment:

Christina said...

Wow! This was a powerful clip. It is hard to believe that people with mental retardation were treated like this. I am glad that people in America finally woke up and realized that this kind of treatment is inhumane. I too, hope that this part of history never repeats itself.