Georgia Digest; No. 203; Dignity Of the Mentally Retarded

<v Susan>I believe every person and has the right to live in the community and <v Susan>I certainly don't believe in shipping people off to a institu-institution <v Susan>because it's the most easiest thing to do. <v Susan>And um I feel like that each person should, you know, triy <v Susan>to work and become, as, you know, as much as they can. <v Andrea Berry>Georgia's mentally retarded citizens and their struggle for dignity are a major <v Andrea Berry>story on this edition of Georgia Digest. <v Andrea Berry>[music] Welcome to Georgia Digest. I'm Andrea Berry. <v Andrea Berry>Mental retardation is a condition that's often pitied, laughed at or just ignored.

<v Andrea Berry>But it's an issue that involves both moral obligations and legal rights. <v Andrea Berry>But more important, it's the story about people with hopes and needs, just like yours and <v Andrea Berry>mine. One of their greatest needs is to live their lives with dignity and self-respect. <v Andrea Berry>That is the focus of our story by Gerald Bryant. <v Gerald Bryant>These are Georgia's retarded citizens. <v Gerald Bryant>They work. <v Gerald Bryant>They play. <v Gerald Bryant>They create. <v Gerald Bryant>They laugh. <v Susan>Well [laughs] yes. <v Gerald Bryant>They get into trouble. <v Ben>I didn't rea-read-realize it was against the law but uh I learned it was. <v Gerald Bryant>They have ambitions. <v Robbie>'Cause that's one thing about me I just-I want to

<v Robbie>to do things. <v Gerald Bryant>And they have outspoken friends like Pat Smith of the Georgia Association <v Gerald Bryant>of Retarded Citizens. <v Pat Smith>The biggest problem is what we ourselves do to retarded people, because <v Pat Smith>we we want to feel sorry for retarded people and we want to feel that they <v Pat Smith>are somehow uh uh that something terrible, <v Pat Smith>this is a terrible affliction that they have. <v Pat Smith>And so we're going to take care of them and we're going to be very maternalistic or <v Pat Smith>paternalistic and we're going to going to love them and care for them, <v Pat Smith>which is which is fine. <v Pat Smith>Except that what we very often do in that process is to deny them the dignity <v Pat Smith>of risk. <v Gerald Bryant>The quest for dignity may began at a service center for the mentally retarded. <v Gerald Bryant>They are state funded, but community operated. <v Gerald Bryant>This particular one is in Douglas County. <v Gerald Bryant>Here, daily living skills are taught. How to do the laundry, clean the house, make <v Gerald Bryant>change, write checks. Pre vocational skills are taught here too.

<v Gerald Bryant>That means not just how to work, but how to get along, how to react to criticism. <v Gerald Bryant>All programs are geared to what center director Bill Legge calls the principle of <v Gerald Bryant>normalization. <v Bill Legge>And very, very simply put is that these people have the same basic rights, <v Bill Legge>privileges, feelings that you and I have. <v Bill Legge>Uh, if there is a problem, it's in the rate at which they acquire new skills. <v Bill Legge>They um are entitled to make mistakes. <v Bill Legge>They are entitled to have the same freedoms. <v Bill Legge>Um, they have the same rights under the Bill of Rights that you and I have. <v Bill Legge>In all respects, except perhaps the speed at which they acquire <v Bill Legge>new skills, they are just like you and I. <v Gerald Bryant>Hazel Roberts oversees all mental retardation programs in Cobb and Douglas counties. <v Gerald Bryant>She talks of maximum results and minimum restrictions. <v Hazel Roberts>Our hope is that the person will uh <v Hazel Roberts>be less dependent on the system as we keep him in the <v Hazel Roberts>community program.

<v Hazel Roberts>We would hope that we would do this through various training programs that <v Hazel Roberts>we would offer. <v Gerald Bryant>Robbie is one of several of the women who spend their week days here at the Douglas <v Gerald Bryant>County Service Center. But now she's on her way to where she lives, not a state <v Gerald Bryant>institution, but a group home. <v Gerald Bryant>Group homes are considered by many. The alternative to institution one in <v Gerald Bryant>Douglas County is often called the best in Georgia. <v Gerald Bryant>Here, House parents Doug and Shirley Rainwater offer guidance, but the women make the <v Gerald Bryant>rules and share the household responsibilities. <v Gerald Bryant>Robbie has been here about four years. <v Gerald Bryant>Before that, she was in a state institution for 37 years. <v Gerald Bryant>But she's not bitter. Instead, she sees her chance for dignity in the training she <v Gerald Bryant>receives. <v Robbie>One day if-if I get this job <v Robbie>done, the way I plan it and everything <v Robbie>I can do- just go on about my business. I want to learn how to do the typewriter. I hadn't ever typed or nothin', but I wanna

<v Robbie>learn how to do that. <v Gerald Bryant>And her philosophy is his tried and true as the Old Testament. <v Robbie>It's in the Bible that you, that <v Robbie>you love your neighbors, like you love yourself <v Robbie>and if you treat your neighbors like you love yourself, <v Robbie>you can love more people that anybody else. <v Robbie>'Cause it's in your heart and you know what God can do for us <v Robbie>and he's looking down on people, like, if you blind or <v Robbie>something like that, you can help 'em out. And ain't no sense in a <v Robbie>people getting around and not do nothing. <v Robbie>But I wanted do things like that. <v Robbie>[piano music] <v Gerald Bryant>Katrina also lives at the Douglas County Group home.

<v Gerald Bryant>She spent 17 years in an institution. <v Gerald Bryant>Her expressions of dignity are made with brush and canvas, for Katrina is an <v Gerald Bryant>artist whose paintings have achieved both critical and commercial success. <v Gerald Bryant>And she has become a statewide symbol of what the mentally retarded can achieve. <v Gerald Bryant>[piano music continues] But of course, not all mentally retarded people have artistic <v Gerald Bryant>talent. Most of them must seek other more commercial roads to their goals of <v Gerald Bryant>dignity and self-sufficiency. <v Gerald Bryant>Dignity, for many people means making your own way, having a job. <v Gerald Bryant>And among the employment opportunities for the mentally retarded are sheltered workshop <v Gerald Bryant>programs like this florist shop in Columbus, which i a fully licensed, taxpaying <v Gerald Bryant>business.

<v Gerald Bryant>Most of the employees at Happy Plants and Things are mentally retarded. <v Gerald Bryant>Here they have the opportunity to receive health benefits and they are paid for their <v Gerald Bryant>work. Not a lot, but enough to afford them a degree of economic dignity. <v Gerald Bryant>You come to work? <v Peggy>Uh-huh. <v Gerald Bryant>And what do you do around here? <v Peggy>Waterin' plants. <v Gerald Bryant>Work with the plants? <v Peggy>Mm-hm. <v Gerald Bryant>And uh what if a customer comes in looking for something? <v Gerald Bryant>What do you do? <v Peggy>I help them. <v Gerald Bryant>You help 'em find it? <v Peggy>Mm-hm. <v Gerald Bryant>And what do you like to do for fun? <v Peggy>To make money. <v Gerald Bryant>You like to make money? <v Peggy>Mm-hm. <v Gerald Bryant>That's a lot of fun. Yeah, I agree. <v Connie McDermott>I think through working. Being able to make their own money, money is <v Connie McDermott>the [laughs] thing that gives people the chance to say I can do for myself. <v Connie McDermott>They don't need to go to all service organizations for everything they need. <v Connie McDermott>They don't need that dependent support system behind them that keeps them just more <v Connie McDermott>and more and more dependent on something else. <v Connie McDermott>Money is where it's at. That's what you know, if you didn't have a job, where would you <v Connie McDermott>be?

<v Gerald Bryant>Many of the plants and flowers sold at this florist shop come from another related <v Gerald Bryant>program, this Columbus nursery and greenhouse. <v Gerald Bryant>The workers here, too, are retarded but if it wasn't for them, these plants would not <v Gerald Bryant>exist. This was a city run operation due to close because of budget cuts. <v Gerald Bryant>Now there is growth here. <v Gerald Bryant>Growth of two kinds. Growth brought about by nurturing and similar <v Gerald Bryant>growth can be seen elsewhere in the state. <v Gerald Bryant>Albany, Georgia is an old fashioned town with a modern approach to mental retardation. <v Gerald Bryant>That's due in large part to Project Arc, a program which has produced success stories <v Gerald Bryant>many people would call amazing. <v Gerald Bryant>Project Arc is a state funded community run program serving the mentally and physically <v Gerald Bryant>handicapped in eight counties. <v Gerald Bryant>The programs are wide ranging, but director Annette Bowling has a special interest in one <v Gerald Bryant>tragic aspect of mental retardation, potential involvement with crime. <v Gerald Bryant>While only 3 percent of the general population is classified as mentally retarded, <v Gerald Bryant>as high as 25 percent of the prison population in Georgia may fall in that category. <v Gerald Bryant>Why is it that the mentally retarded have a tendency to get involved with the criminal

<v Gerald Bryant>justice system? <v Annette Bowling>Mentally retarded individuals are people <v Annette Bowling>that can be easily led because if you take up time <v Annette Bowling>with them, uh if you accept them in, they they think of you as <v Annette Bowling>their friend and uh they could be easily led. <v Annette Bowling>And a lot of times people will bring the mentally retarded people into <v Annette Bowling>crime because they can control them. <v Annette Bowling>And most of the time these are the people who would be the victims because they'll be <v Annette Bowling>left holding the bag. <v Annette Bowling>Um, they don't know how to defend themselves. So most of the time I feel like it's poor <v Annette Bowling>representation in the courtroom. Them not knowing how to deal with the system and <v Annette Bowling>so therefore they're convicted. <v Gerald Bryant>Annette is talking about people like Ben, to all appearances and average guy with average <v Gerald Bryant>pursuits. But Ben is retarded and got involved in some activity. <v Gerald Bryant>He says he didn't know was wrong. <v Gerald Bryant>A non-retarded companion got 5 years probation. <v Gerald Bryant>Ben got a sentence of 62 years.

<v Gerald Bryant>How did you feel when you heard the judge saying that you may have to spend several years <v Gerald Bryant>in prison? <v Ben>I re-was hurt. Feelings was hurt <v Ben>and everything else. And my family wasn't satisfied <v Ben>what the judge said. <v Ben>They have a sister or somebody got in touch with Annette Bowling and <v Ben>she kinda helped me, and sister a whole lot <v Ben>about shortenin' uh, get me out, out of prison. <v Gerald Bryant>What did you do when you came to Albany? <v Ben>At first I came here, wasn't really doin' it all that much, but about every few weeks <v Ben>I start doin' a little more and all. <v Ben>Like going to the Y, I'll get my groceries, and go <v Ben>to the male group home down the road here where I live at. <v Gerald Bryant>Ben's looking for work now. Maybe in a restaurant.

<v Gerald Bryant>And he does have hope and a pretty normal lifestyle. <v Gerald Bryant>But his brush with the legal system has left him with some resentment and the feeling <v Gerald Bryant>that not everyone understands mental retardation. <v Gerald Bryant>Do you think, looking back on all the things that that happened, <v Gerald Bryant>that you uh were treated fairly? <v Ben>No. <v Gerald Bryant>What could have been better? <v Ben>Uh I think the sentence, I woulda thought if they were, if he woulda thought <v Ben>about it more, if I had a better lawyer, I think my sentence mighta been shorter. <v Ben>And uh <v Ben>probation should be shorter. <v Gerald Bryant>Do you think that most people understand the problems that retarded people <v Gerald Bryant>have? <v Ben>No. <v Annette Bowling>I wonder how we would come out of what Ben came out of, had society gave us the low <v Annette Bowling>blow that it gave him. <v Annette Bowling>But yet he came out. He accepted it. <v Annette Bowling>He has no bitterness.

<v Annette Bowling>He said that he taken it as a lesson, that it was something <v Annette Bowling>that he learned from from that system, that he doesn't want to be a part of it no more. <v Annette Bowling>Um, also, he said that maybe had be not have gotten into that he wouldn't be able to <v Annette Bowling>accomplish some of his goals that he's already accomplishin' now because with that, it's <v Annette Bowling>helped him set back and take a look at really what he wants out of life. <v Annette Bowling>He's making decisions for himself instead of somebody else making the decisions for him. <v Annette Bowling>And to me, that's dignity. <v Gerald Bryant>Another product of Project Arc is Susan, although retarded. <v Gerald Bryant>She functions efficiently as the program secretary receptionist. <v Susan>Good afternoon, Project ARC. <v Gerald Bryant>She too is a little bitter <v Gerald Bryant>over past experiences. She says a vocational counselor once told her that an <v Gerald Bryant>institutional training program would be just like going to college. <v Susan>Bye Bye. It wasn't with other patients, it wasn't it like going to college at all. <v Susan>And they um like to sing in our

<v Susan>our um homes. <v Susan>We had to have permission from our counselor to leave the grounds. <v Susan>And uh, which I didn't like, I'm <v Susan>surprised that I tolerated it as long as I did. <v Susan>I was very angry with her for doing me that a way because I really <v Susan>trusted her. I didn't feel like I was a mentally ill person. <v Susan>I just wanted to get training so I could go back to work. <v Gerald Bryant>Meeting Susan shatters many of the myths about mental retardation. <v Gerald Bryant>She is expressive and articulate and she has an understanding of her situation. <v Susan>Well, I I believe every person has the right to live in the community and <v Susan>I certainly don't believe in shipping people off to instita-institution <v Susan>because it's the most easiest thing to do. <v Susan>And um I feel like that each person should, you know, try <v Susan>to work and become, as you know, as much as they can.

<v Susan>[piano music]. <v Gerald Bryant>To become <v Gerald Bryant>as much as they can. Georgia's retarded citizens are trying to do that <v Gerald Bryant>and do it with dignity. They do not ask for pity. <v Gerald Bryant>They ask for understanding. They do not beg for charity. <v Gerald Bryant>They merely request the chance they feel they deserve. <v Susan>Unless you have a member in your family or some <v Susan>person that's close to you that's retarded or has some kind of disability, <v Susan>you're not gonna be as uh recep-receptive to a handicapped <v Susan>person. <v Andrea Berry>You know, those of us who live in Georgia sometimes forget just how diverse some of the <v Andrea Berry>areas of our state really are.

<v Andrea Berry>Janet Martin has this story about one of Georgia's Golden Isles. <v Andrea Berry>[ocean wave sounds] <v Janet Martin>Of all Georgia's Golden Isles, one of the most enticing is tiny, remote <v Janet Martin>Blackbeard Island. <v Janet Martin>East of Sapelo Island, blackbeard is 18 miles from the mainland. <v Janet Martin>It's almost inaccessible. <v Janet Martin>Well, except to those intrepid souls who own or rent a boat. <v Janet Martin>We managed to do that one bright July day last summer. <v Janet Martin>Our guide, Karen Kicklider, coursed the water with a steady hand, telling us bits of <v Janet Martin>history along the way. <v Janet Martin>Blackbeard Island gets its name from the 18th century Pirate Edward Teach. <v Janet Martin>Legend has it that Blackbeard buried his loot there. <v Janet Martin>[music] <v Janet Martin>So you might say we went looking for treasure.

<v Janet Martin>We didn't find it. <v Janet Martin>What we discovered was the richness of an island left mostly to itself. <v Janet Martin>Traveling the sand levees that are the only roads. <v Janet Martin>We were almost swallowed by the lushness here. <v Janet Martin>Live oak trees count the centuries. <v Janet Martin>In 1880, the island was used as a quarantine station. <v Janet Martin>Ships were unloaded and sprayed for the dreaded yellow fever before embarking again for <v Janet Martin>Savannah. While there is no yellow fever today, there are mosquitoes, <v Janet Martin>along with friendlier insects.

<v Doug Baumgartner>Blackbeard Island has a variety of habitats, it has the beach areas, <v Doug Baumgartner>it has the marsh lands, it has the Savannah <v Doug Baumgartner>areas, it has a live oak palmetto areas. <v Doug Baumgartner>Uh this variety and habitat is necessary for a variety <v Doug Baumgartner>of wildlife. <v Janet Martin>Doug Baumgartner is a refuge manager with the U.S. <v Janet Martin>Fish and Wildlife Service. <v Janet Martin>Doug was our guide for the day and he seemed to enjoy the experience. <v Doug Baumgartner>Of all the barrier islands that I have <v Doug Baumgartner>been on Blackbeard is definitely my favorite. <v Doug Baumgartner>You can get the feeling of uh of being alone out there, such <v Doug Baumgartner>a vast area with so few people. <v Janet Martin>In 1914, President Wilson designated this 5,000 acre island as a federal <v Janet Martin>wildlife refuge.

<v Janet Martin>It remains just that, a stronghold for deer, raccoon <v Janet Martin>and the ever watchful alligator. In <v Janet Martin>the winter, waterfowl of all types nest here. <v Janet Martin>They settle for a spell as if on vacation. <v Janet Martin>But vacations here are strictly for the birds you might say, because with rare exception, <v Janet Martin>overnight stays are prohibited. <v Janet Martin>But those who visit for the day can still find the beach. <v Janet Martin>Rugged, isolated, captivating. <v Janet Martin>There is a rhythmical order to life here on Blackbeard Island. <v Janet Martin>The winds and ocean currents tear down the North Shore line and build up the south. <v Janet Martin>Even this graveyard of trees serves a function, retarding erosion for a while, <v Janet Martin>providing a haunting beauty in the meantime. [music]. <v Doug Baumgartner>There's a magical feeling when you uh stroll under the live oaks in the Spanish

<v Doug Baumgartner>moss and wander among the tall meadows, <v Doug Baumgartner>especially in the evening when the shadows start to fall. <v Janet Martin>Blackbeard Island, one of Georgia's natural treasures. <v Andrea Berry>From Blackbeard Island, we take you north to Summerville, Georgia, for a story about a <v Andrea Berry>man who was a former preacher, banjo player, bicycle repairman <v Andrea Berry>and a very successful artist. <v Andrea Berry>We'd like you to meet Howard Fenster. <v Howard Finster>God has taken me and lifted me up and he gave me the kind of art that the people love. <v Howard Finster>That's not Howard Fenster art, that's art from wisdom from another world, from God.

<v Howard Finster>Like followin' a blueprint. <v Janet Martin>Howard Fenster is Summerfield, Georgia's self-proclaimed man of visions as <v Janet Martin>he punched into the art world in 1971 at the age of fifty five, <v Janet Martin>beginning construction on his paradise garden discouraged one night <v Janet Martin>after a 30 year career as a Baptist preacher and bicycle repairman. <v Janet Martin>He started looking for a way to get his message across. <v Howard Finster>That night in the service as I called out over my audience, they quietly sat and listened <v Howard Finster>to me. I said, "How many of you people remeber what I preached on this morning at <v Howard Finster>eleven o'clock. Hold your hand up. All of ya that remember what I preached on at eleven <v Howard Finster>o'clocl this morning." And you know their wasn't but one man that hold his hand up in the <v Howard Finster>whole congregation. They forgot my message from one service to another. <v Howard Finster>And I thought to myself, Lord, they like me. They've kept me here 15 years and 3 months. <v Howard Finster>I'm a good pastor from it but they're not listening to me, God. <v Howard Finster>And I come home. I close the church up and I come home. <v Howard Finster>And I sat down there and I think to myself, I've got to build this garden. <v Howard Finster>I built that garden and I started, I started putting my messages down with tractor and

<v Howard Finster>animal and now two of 'em went in the Library of Congress. <v Howard Finster>One went in the Governor's office in California and the paper get that message today, <v Howard Finster>it's a hanging there in the morning. And uh people aren't gonna pay 500 dollars for a <v Howard Finster>message and hang it up there and do away with it. It's gonna be there from now on when <v Howard Finster>Jesus come. <v Janet Martin>Five years later while repairing a bicycle, Howard discovered his talent for painting <v Janet Martin>through a vision. <v Howard Finster>One day I dipped my finger in white paint to rub it on that place and patch that bicycle, <v Howard Finster>and I looked on my finger and in that paint was a human face right on the ball of my <v Howard Finster>finger and my finger's round just like a face too. <v Howard Finster>And as I looked under my finger, there's a face looking out of my finger into my face, in <v Howard Finster>that paint. And there's a warm feeling just flashed all over me, said, "Paint sacred <v Howard Finster>art." And I said to that feeling I said, "I can't do that. <v Howard Finster>I know professionals can, not me." And then it come to me again says, "Howard, how do <v Howard Finster>you know you can't?" and then thought come to me, how do I know I can't? <v Janet Martin>Howard found that he could. He paints almost exclusively with tractor enamel <v Janet Martin>on plywood, metal and plexiglass. <v Janet Martin>In the past seven years, he's turned out nearly 3800 paintings selling for up to 4,000

<v Janet Martin>dollars a piece. <v Janet Martin>His art has been shown in some of the nation's most prestigious galleries and in <v Janet Martin>international exhibits. <v Janet Martin>Such fame has brought a steady stream of welcome visitors to his world's folk <v Janet Martin>art church and garden in Summerville. <v Howard Finster>Everybody is welcome to come to the garden. <v Howard Finster>A garden is for people to come and enjoy. Uh like miss down there a while ago, that lady <v Howard Finster>right over she must've eat a gallon of muscadines. <v Howard Finster>I never said-she enjoyed them! I bet you she'll eat a meal on as a much enjoyed more than <v Howard Finster>a muscadine, just pickin' 'em off the vine. <v Howard Finster>And I've seen babies, you know, pick their first fruit down there off them vines. <v Howard Finster>That's a beautifulest picture I've evern seen in my life. <v Howard Finster>Is to see a little kid being been living out of a paper poke all of his life and don't <v Howard Finster>even know where a muscadine come from, and see him pick his first one off of a vine. <v Howard Finster>And then I had the apples. I had all kinds of grapes. <v Howard Finster>I had raspberries, black raspberries, and the people and the birds eat something. <v Howard Finster>That's what I planted them for. <v Howard Finster>This is where when I want a full time artist, I molded one of my bicycle tubes to show <v Howard Finster>the world that I'd quit fixin' bicycles.

<v Howard Finster>And I just <v Howard Finster>molded my tube here in the walks <v Howard Finster>and down here it said, you can't read it all, but it said <v Howard Finster>Howard's joinin' the art world. Holding in his tools here. <v Howard Finster>I've done this little batch here and uh and down in Florida on a vacation, I done <v Howard Finster>these out on the beach, looking out over the ocean. <v Howard Finster>Done 'em on a table with a pace knife and a teaspoon. <v Howard Finster>Uh this here is a old fashioned baseball player. <v Howard Finster>That's my wife and that's my wife and this. <v Howard Finster>I now this is an Italian. Here in is an ape man. <v Howard Finster>And uh there is a German uh German soldier, <v Howard Finster>and this is one of the earlier baseball players and this is a baseball player. <v Janet Martin>The garden's strange beauty hasn't gone unnoticed outside the art community. <v Janet Martin>Howard appeared on The Tonight Show in 1983 and R.E.M., an Athens, Georgia Rock

<v Janet Martin>group, made a music video here [music] [Song: Radio Free Europe by R.E.M.] <v Howard Finster>R.E.M. singers come here and they went through my garden they loved it, they visited it. <v Howard Finster>They like to come here when they get more out. Get back from England or somewhere. <v Howard Finster>They just want to get in Paradise Gardens. <v Howard Finster>Get down there in some of them trees andlay down and rest. <v Howard Finster>And they come, and so they had to make an album cover for 'em. <v Howard Finster>And it's out on the record now and people have sendin' it in to me to autograph. <v Howard Finster>I make up songs. I've made up around 100 lyrics, I've probably sang. <v Howard Finster>[banjo music] [sing] <v Howard Finster>And that's all a wonderful, beautiful dream and I never have got finished.

<v Andrea Berry>On the next edition of Georgia Digest, Dean Mallisine looks at some of the ways Georgia <v Andrea Berry>is trying to attract, keep and evaluate competent teachers. <v Teacher 1>[class repeating French from teacher] I <v Teacher 1>love to teach. <v Teacher 1>I think I'll always be a teacher. <v Teacher 1>But for a young person who has to make a living, <v Teacher 1>I don't think that they should go into teaching. <v Teacher 2>What would Georgians, what did Georgia- if we are competent teachers, we should say bring <v Teacher 2>on the tests. <v Andrea Berry>Thank you for being here for Georgia Digest. <v Andrea Berry>I'm Andrea Bery. [music]