The Washington D.C. Insane Asylum

[TatonkaJames]

I am so glad I decided early in life not to do anything that would land me in an insane asylum.
I remember seeing Cuckoo's Nest written by Ken Kesey starring Jack Nicholson and reading
that they used some actual patients in the movie, along with actors playing their roles so well, and
it scared the daylights out of me. Imagine being a sane person inside one of those places ?

Which brings to mind that saying about how "Art imitates Life." Believe it ! You could hop a train ride
down to the Washington D.C. Institute for the Criminally Insane for a tour or just turn on CSPAN and watch
the live stream from the nut house(s) and see for yourself that it does.

I wanted to go into politics, to be the one to make a difference, to make things right. And every so often someone I admired,
and it didn't matter to me what they did in their personal lives, or what party they were from; they were sincere statesmen
who knew how to help one another on the floor. But once the asylum started filling up with crazier and crazier patients
I began to have second thoughts. Who would want to give up a perfectly nice lifestyle and family life to hang around with
internees who are so out of touch with reality and the outside world from being captive for 180 days or so a year they
believe their working ? (that's what the staff tells them, that they're at work, helps to calm them) Sad, I know.

Eventually 20 years ago I knew I made the right choice to work for a living and the past 40 years has had it's ups and downs
but they're nothing compared to what those poor people "up on the Hill" (that's what they refer to them as) go through every day !

It's disturbing to see how many types of mental illnesses those people have. The worse one is that they believe they are actually two different
tribes who hate each other and argue back and forth all day, insulting each other, pretending they are attempting to be friends while it's only a
clever ruse to do damage and gain power from each other. Truly heart wrenching to see so many senior citizens in there for so long, 30,
40, some as long as 50 years ! I imagine myself, a young man trying to change the mindset of an 85 year old inmate who has a different opinion
about every possible subject matter I want to discuss. Sometimes when you get to sit in the gallery and watch them go about their day, it's amazing
how they portray these tribesmen who hate each other and after lights out at night they sit and have dinner together as if they've been friends all
their adult lives. What do they know, they're Gonzo.

I know one guy who was just like me and the guys I grew up with, who had his sights on taking the tour of the asylum ever since we used to
sneak into the local one and be chased away by the hooded guards some called brothers. They say it was a monastery but we knew what
it really was. The only difference is in D.C. they put the wealthier lunatics in there.

Anyway, once he took the tour and found his way into an internship with the staff and later on was actually promoted to a leader of
one of the departments, it became too much for him. After a few years of trying to talk sense into the patients he was found one day pouring honey
onto his hair with a blank stare on his face sitting at the base of the Lincoln Memorial with a G-string over his pants, stacks of hundred dollar bills
hanging out of every pocket, a rent-boy for hire in one arm and a bottle of booze in the other. When last I heard he was standing at a
podium of an empty room in one of the two complexes they hold them in, reading some ridiculous document for hours. Tragic is all I can say.

So my suggestion to you is forget about getting involved working for the Washington D.C. Institute for the Criminally Insane. The best we can do is see
that most of them are transferred out of there at every chance and put back into their local neighborhood homes to have a shot at becoming a useful citizen
of the community.