Mundane PC protest of the insane

Protest planned at former Weston hospital

Disability advocates continue to protest the name and some practices of the historic Trans-Allegheny Lunatic Asylum, a name they say the former mental healthcare facility in Weston never really had.

Groups from around the state will hold a demonstration at the former Weston Hospital at 1 p.m. on Saturday, during one of the attraction's mud bogging competition days. They hope to attract attention from the owners and the community to their quarrel about the operation of the nationally recognized historic landmark.

The main point of contention is the hospital's new name. Advocates say that referring to the hospital as a lunatic asylum is inflammatory and hurtful to people in the mental health community.

The former Weston Hospital was christened Trans-Allegheny Lunatic Asylum after the deteriorating building and 300-acre complex were purchased from the state by Morgantown contractor Joe Jordan for $1.5 million in August 2007.

The Jordan family began offering tours of the facility in March. The growing mud bog motor sport events began in May to help raise funds for upkeep and repairs of the blue sandstone behemoth, one of the largest hand-cut stone masonry buildings in the United States.

The summer travel season and some national publicity from a spot on the SciFi Channel's "Ghost Hunters" program have boosted business and given the hospital national attention, said Rebecca Jordan-Gleason, operations manager.

She said 350 people have visited the hospital in just the last week, to experience tours catering to either history or horror buffs.

"We're helping the community, but people can't seem to see past their own fears," Jordan-Gleason said.

But advocates said they are concerned that the Jordan family is trying to make money by sensationalizing the hospital's past.

Representatives from Northern West Virginia Center for Independent Living, the West Virginia Mental Health Consumers Association and ADAPT WV are protesting because they think the ghost tours and motor sports are insensitive to patients and families who suffered because of the hospital. Activists said the term "lunatic asylum" stigmatizes people with mental disabilities.

"They're taking something to be historically preserved and turning it more into an amusement park for ridiculing the insane. In the community I live in, I like seeing mental health being promoted, people welcomed into an inclusive environment," said Michelle Wakely, compeer coordinator for the Northern West Virginia Center for Independent Living. "I just really feel like it's exploitation more than preservation."

Advocates say they want the hospital to be preserved and they don't mind if the Jordans have a thriving business, as long is it is historically accurate.

According to "A Short History of Weston Hospital," a record compiled by the Weston Hospital Revitalization Committee in 2001, the hospital was originally commissioned as "Trans-Allegheny Asylum for the Insane" in 1858.

However, no patients were ever treated in the facility under that name. The Civil War stopped construction and the hospital was ……………..

http://www.wvgazette.com/News/200806111313