The Pottstown Mercury article today was a big disappointment—I guess the editors thought that if they wrote an editorial opposing the attraction than they could let the news article be a ringing endorsement for the "Pennhurst Asylum." The editor, who is not attributed, expresses his dismay that the "only horror in the Pennhurst Asylum is that it is proposed to start business in just a few short weeks, and no one is trying to stop it." Gosh, is that true? No one is trying to stop it? Then why did the Easter Seals make Randy Bates take down their logo from his Web site? You mean no one has been writing about this or issuing public statements against it? No one has made calls to the East Vincent Township authorities to check on building permits and asbestos removal? No one has checked with the Environmental Protection Agency to find out if the asbestos was removed properly? Indeed. One can only wonder where this editor has been. At least the opposition has certainly gotten Randy Bates' daughter Angela Bates Majewski riled up, as you can see from the illustration to the right. Funny choice of word "morons" considering the subject matter...

The good thing about the Mercury story is that it's out on the wire (AP) and other newspapers are picking it up( http://kdka.com/wireapnewsfnpa/Opponents.decry.plan.2.1885291.html and http://www.ldnews.com/news/ci_15933466).

The argument going back and forth seems to be that those who are for the attraction say that the buildings will be preserved, so what's the harm? The opposition says that altering the buildings to fit a commercial for-profit venture is not preservation, it's desecration. Those "for" compare the Pennhurst Asylum to Eastern State Penitentiary's annual haunted house; the differences in the two ventures are glaringly obvious. ESP was a prison where violent criminals were rightly incarcerated away from society; the residents of Pennhurst were the innocent victims of society’s apathy and the state’s many failures. ESP is run by Eastern State Penitentiary Historic Site, Inc., a nonprofit organization “with the sole purpose of preserving the Penitentiary and opening it for tours.” Pennhurst Asylum is run by a real estate developer willing to alter or raze the site for commercial profit. ESP was rescued by a group of architects, preservationists and historians, with the city of Philadelphia’s blessing. Pennhurst Asylum was…well, you get the idea.

Here's another NEWS FLASH: Pennhurst was NOT an insane asylum; Pennhurst was NOT a mental institution. Any attempt to cash in on the name is exploitation, pure and simple. The bottom line is that an attraction called the “Pennhurst Asylum” located on the Pennhurst campus and utilizing Pennhurst artifacts will naturally be associated with the history of Pennhurst. Anyone would be a fool to think otherwise. Here's a solution: Take Pennhurst out of the name, move the attraction out of the institutional buildings and put it in the superintendent's house or the doctors' residence and I don't think anyone would have a problem with it. If you can't or won't do that, then you are exploiting the name and the memory for your own profit.