Bedlam Farm Blog Journal by Jon Katz

Alice and I joke about the dates we have gone on – lunch outings, boat rides, bands playing in the Mansion Great Room. We always dance, I always approach my “girlfriend,” and she is alway up for it. She has been staying at the Danforth Adult Care Center and like the other Mansion refugees, is eager to get home.

Her children came over the weekend and took her out to get her hair done.

When she returned, she was eager to have her photo taken, she was very happy with how it turned out. I asked her if I could put her hairdo up on my blog, as I always do, and she said “sure,” that would be great.

In another dimension, this would hardly be news. For Alice, it was big news.

It is important for the residents to have attention paid to them, to still be able to get a nice hairdo and show it off, to feel good about the way they look and flattered that someone is paying attention. To pay attention to their looks.

This week, I find myself in the not unusual position of being in an unwanted controversy, although in the overall scheme of things, not an earth-shattering one. This story is not really about me, or should not be. I apologize if I’ve done that.

I ticked somebody off, somewhere along the line, and my camera got banned from the Danforth Care Center, where the residents are staying. I am uncomfortable finding myself in this position.

But I do need to set the record straight, the downside of the Internet is that misunderstandings and misinterpretations and impulses often take precedent over caution and reason.

First off, the Danforth management was not responsible for my photos getting banned. That was the state of New York. They were asked to post this new dictum and they did.

I can’t quite fathom what their reasoning was,  there is probably some regulation somewhere about it, since I have not been there before.

This does not affect my Mansion work, and since the residents are due to go “home” in a few  days, the Lord and state regulators willing, there is really no point in my whipping up a storm, although I am certainly prepared to fight if I should need to.

I know some people have concluded that the Danforth must be trying to hide something, but I don’t think that is true. The staff and operations have been quite open to me and other visitors.

Other people are making – because of my writing – assumptions about the Danforth that I ought to address.  The Danforth is not the Mansion. It is not in a beautiful old house, as the Mansion is. The owners do not have the same ideas about activities that the Mansion owners have.

It is the Mansion that is quite special, not the Danforth.

The people at the Danforth care about their residents, they do the best they can. They are not evil or harming their clients, they are quite typical of most adult care facilities I have been in – well run, well supervised, the aides attentive and present. People get the care they need.

I wish there were more activities there, but it’s not my prerogative to tell them what to do. And America does not spend much money helping the aged.

The residents at the Danforth seem content to me. No one there has complained to me. It is not for me to judge them and if I have been doing that, I apologize. That feels arrogant to me.

The Danforth residents would love to have a dog like Red visit them, and I think they would appreciate an Army Of Good to support them, but there is only one Red, and only one Army Of Good. And to be honest, there is only one me, and one Maria.

I am not interested in expanding, we all have enough going on in our lives.

I am not looking to start a crusade, but you can see from Alice’s face that she wants people to know she is alive.

She wants to be seen.

That is the focus for me, now and always, that is what we need to think about: the people in elderly care are human beings, just like you and me. They hate and love and hope, just like you and me. When we forget that, we abandon them to an unhappy end. I don’t intend to forget that, my camera gives them voice and humanity. They have been voiceless and invisible for too long, if I am on any mission, that’s the one.

Alice is, to me, the point of taking photographs of the elderly. She wants and needs to be connected to the outer world, she loves getting letters (The Mansion, 11 S. Union Avenue, Cambridge, N.Y., 12816, she loves to dance, she loves to get her hair done and eat special food. Sometimes, she needs special orthopedic shoes to help her walk.)

The truth is, I don’t know what the Danforth does with or for its residents, nor is it my business. I am not the Lord of Assisted Care, or the special police of assisted care. The state seems eager to do that. I am where I belong and will stay where I belong.

As always, I just wanted to be clear. And I am so grateful for your assistance with the Mansion residents during this difficult week. We have done well. I can always use some help if anybody wishes to contribute to the Mansion Fund.

We have our big Homecoming Celebration coming up next week.

You can contribute to the Mansion Fund via Paypal, [email protected], or through my Post Office Box, Jon Katz, P.O. Box 205, Cambridge, N.Y., 12816. Another reason I take photographs is so  you will always see where the money goes, and to whom. Thanks.

It’s awfully cold right now, the cold gets into my bones. Tonight is my second acting class, I’m still looking for the right monologue for me to read. I’m trying to find Clarence Darrow’s exchange with William Jennings Bryan during the Scopes Monkey Trial.

But there is something beautiful about the cold also. It is so clear and blue and distinct. I’ll try to remember that, it’s going to be cold for awhile.

I’m happy to introduce Eh K’ Pru Shee Wah, a charismatic and poised 13-year-old honor student at the Hackett Middle School in Albany, N.Y.

She spent the first 10 years of her life in a United Nations refugee camp, her family fled Myanmar (formerly Burma) during the religious persecutions there. Our wish for her is that she spends her high school years at one of the best private schools in the Northeast.

Eh K’ Pru’s family entered the United States legally several years ago. Her father works repairing windows.

I’ve entered into discussions with the Albany Academy, a prestigious private school to help them find gifted refugee students to enroll in their academic program with full scholarship support.

As you know, we have worked to support RISSE, a refugee and immigrant support group,  through donations, private support and the very successful Amazon Wish List we suggested.

We also supported the refugee soccer team, now a part of RISSE.

We can continue to support the soccer team through donations to RISSE and also through the Wish List. After we helped Sakler Moo, a gifted student from the same school,  to get into the Albany Academies, I approached several private schools with the idea of offering scholarships to other gifted refugee students.

I talked to a lot of people before I found a wonderful and dedicated teacher at the Hackett School named Kathy Faso, she enthusiastically recommended Eh K’ Pru and last Friday, I met with her and Kathy at the  Hackett school.

E K’Pru is a remarkable young woman, smart, poised, articulate. She works hard to get good grades, she a class leader, skilled both in academics and social skills. She has made amazing progress learning English language skills and acclimating to the U.S. She is very popular with the other students.

If you see Kathy with her students, you can see just what teachers ought to be. She is clear, challenging, inspiring and full of love and interest. I hope I can do this with her every year.

“She is just an amazing person and a remarkable student,” Kathy told me, “I can’t think of anyone I could recommend for fully for a scholarship program.”

I’ve met and spoken with Christopher Lauricella, the head of the Albany Academies, he is sincere about working to make his school more diverse.  My job was locating promising students, and there are quite a few.  I have also partnered up with a senior at the school, an impressive 17-year-old named Alex Boggess, who has made helping refugee children enter the academy his senior class project. Alex is also a gifted photographer.

I’m urging him to create a blog, so his work can be seen.

My idea was that the first student needed to be a female. Everyone else agrees.

I’ve brought this idea to several private schools in the area, they are all interested in the idea.

If Eh K’ Pru is admitted to the Albany Academy, the school will offer her a scholarship. There are many refugee children in the Albany Public  School system, their teachers work long hours and seem especially dedicated. But the classes are small, and funding a struggle.

At the Albany Academy, Eh K’ Pru will be challenged in a way she wants and needs.

I don’t know the amount yet.

Alex will assist in fund-raising for this project from the school community, and if we need further assistance, I’ll ask for  help from the Army Of Good or we’ll consider a gofundmepage.  I hope that won’t be necessary.

I’ve made the argument to the school – and will continue to make this argument – that if they are serious about being diverse, they will consider that refugee families have little money to spare, they will need a full scholarship one way or the other. I believe Christopher Lauricella is quite serious, he is on it and he is also impressive.

I can testify that a lot of the people I contacted don’t care about this issue. He does.

I’m meeting with school officials and Chris and Alex and financial aid staffers on February 2nd. I spent 45 minutes with Eh K’ Pru last Friday, she is gracious and hard-working. She is, in fact, remarkable, just as Kathy said.

Eh K’ Pru loves Hip-Hop (Amigos) and wants to work in business after college.

Why business?, I asked. “Because no one in my family has been able to work in a big business,” she said, “I want to be the first person in my family to do that.”

Eh K’ Pru is a perfect match for the Albany Academy, whose students often enter the business world at the highest levels.

I am excited about this new direction when it comes to refugee support. I think we can change the lives of some of these very gifted and deserving children.

I had nothing to do with getting Sakler Moo into the Albany Academy, but the Army Of Good was able to help bridge the gap between what the school could offer him and what he needed. Sakler’s experience inspired me. He also had the support of one of his teachers.

I think this is a strong plan. The school is a partner with me on this, and so is Alex. Chris Lauricella reached out to me and asked for my help. He wants this to happen. So do I, especially after meeting Eh K’Pru Friday.

I believe this is the most effective way for me and the Army Of Good to help the refugees and their family. It is, in so many ways, about the children. I hope you will continue to support RISSE and the soccer team, and also, the ballet dancers.

We can help in a thoughtful and focused way.

Thanks. I’ll keep you posted on the effort to help Eh K Pru enter the Albany Academy.

And special thanks to Kathy Sosa. I tried contacting a lot of people, many teachers and even the refugee groups blew me off. Kathy answered my call and went to work on behalf of one of her most gifted students.

She is a hero here. So is Christopher Lauricella.

I am determined to do everything in my power to make this happen. Every year. Stay tuned, this needs to happen.

I got a message last night from the daughter of one of the Mansion residents that I want to share:

“I want to thank you and your readers for all of the help you have given my mother and the other residents this week and throughout the year. They love you and they love Maria and Red. Your photographs have been a great comfort to us, we can see how our Mother is doing even though we don’t live close by, and we know you have helped her more than once this year in a number of ways. Your photographs are a comfort to us, and she really loves being noticed. Thank you, thank you, please don’t let them stop you.”

Thanks much for that, I’m not inclined to let them stop me.

Yesterday, the management of the Danforth Adult Care Facility put up a note to all staffers – theirs and the Mansions – forbidding anyone from taking photos or videos inside their facility of anyone, including visitors.

I find last night and this morning that I’m not comfortable permitting them to make the Mansion residents invisible again, especially during this difficult time, when they help and attention, and when they need to be reminded that they are not alone or forgotten.

We all have to resist sometimes in our own way, I’m figuring out my way. I’m posting this photo of the Mansion residents having dinner a few days before the ban notice.

The Mansion staff does a great job of protecting their residents privacy in many ways.

Sometimes, a resident will die and I won’t know anything about it until I see someone else in their room. There are many residents you never see.

The support and attention the residents  have received from the outside world has made an enormous difference to them this week while regulators and officials – acting perhaps in good faith – have uprooted them from their lives.

For me to stop posting images of them would make me compliant which a system that has made them invisible to the outside world. We hide the elderly away and out of sight, we don’t really have to think about how they are or how they are being treated.

The photographs are their voices, they bring them to life, they honor their lives and tell them the are not forgotten. They connect them to their families.

I reject the idea that they need to be protected from me, or from Red, or from the Army Of Good. They need to be protected from isolation and indifference, and I don’t see too many bureaucrats inspecting for that. The Mansion understands that, they have made my work possible

I respect the residents privacy totally, as does the Mansion, but the issue is not privacy. It is clearly something else. The residents are entitled to the support they are receiving, and the photographs are essential to that. They are never taken without permission.

I’m not sure how I will respond to this Danforth note. I didn’t bring my camera into the Danforth last night when I visited last night. I joked the other day that they would regret it if they hauled Red or me off to jail. Maybe it ought not to be a joke.

Out of concern for the Mansion aides, who were compelled to sign the ban, I won’t take any photographs inside the Danforth. The Mansion aides might get into trouble, and they don’t need to be in the middle of this.

But no one can stop me from posting photographs I took before the ban notice went up.  I have permission to photograph the Mansion residents, I broke no rules, although no one has bothered to talk to me directly.

So I will do that this week, I don’t want them to fade into memory or feel forgotten. Those who can read my blog faithfully. I won’t let them down. And thanks once again for your support.