Update II: The last update on this story from back in October of last year had Cedar Point refusing to back down under pressure from the National Alliance on Mental Illness to change the names of two HalloWeekends attractions because they were insensitive. Well, skip ahead to August 2011 and Cedar Point has done just that. Two features — Dr. D. Mented’s Asylum for the Criminally Insane and The Edge of Madness: Still Crazy — will be renamed. Via WEWS, Cedar Fair CEO Dick Kinzel says the park acquiesced because it didn’t want to hurt anyone’s feelings. No plans as of yet to rename the Magnum because some men still get coaster envy when visiting the park. — Grzegorek
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Update: Cedar Point announced today it won’t bow down to the National Alliance on Mental Illness’ concern over the park’s attractions. The haunted houses don’t represent reality, a park spokesman told the AP, and weren’t meant to be insensitive or insulting.
This article appears in Aug 17-23, 2011.
As a mental patient with manic depression and Bi-Polar disorders, I’d have to say that maybe this group should speak for themselves. I completely disagree with their view on this. It’s not “Dr. D’s house of the mentally ill”. It’s the “CRIMINALLY INSANE” meaning murderers. What is scarier then a schizophrenic man with blood on his clothes holding a knife or chainsaw? People are way too sensitive nowadays and take things way too far out of context.
Bravo Buzzhawg !! Everytime you turn around anymore some left wing do-gooder group is trying to shut down something, anything theyt don’t agree with !! Maybe they should remember the old saying “mind your own business” !! What morons !!
I don’t recall any haunted houses, NOT HAVING Criminally insane people, or similar. What is this group doing?? EVERY haunted house would have to shut down, why are they choosing cedar point, because it’s a large company?? I agree with buzzhawg and petecos.
I agree with the others. Sometimes, like this, the PC bull crap goes too far. When I think of Criminally insane I think of the Joker or Charlie Manson, not Larry Lithium or Suzie Suicide.
petecos and those of like mind:
“Left wing do-gooder group”….would that be in contrast to a “right wing do-badder” group?
Nowhere in the article did I see any political affiliation ascribed to the group, but as a liberal(read:free thinker), I can simultaneously believe that:
1. The fears expressed here by the NAMH here have little merit, and
2. The NAMH are NOT advocating laws to prohibit such displays or nomenclature, which is in contrast to,
3. The numerous unquestionably right wing organizations that labor tirelessly to limit our freedoms using the power of the government.
As proof of axiom #3 above, I ask you:
Was it the left or the right that wanted the government to limit access to what may and may not be seen on the Internet?
Was it the left or the right that wanted to ban thong bikinis in Ohio parks?
Was it the left or the right that tried on several occassions to limit our first Amendment rights of free speech by banning flag burning?
Is it the left or the right that seeks to implement laws banning certain forms of contraception(not abortion)that they find violates their sense of moral outrage?
Is it the left or the right that wishes to keep our youth ignorant by insisting on abstinence-only based sex education?
Was it the left or the right that successfully eviscerated Ohio’s adult entertainment industry, specifically at the behest of the Citizens for Community Values, a group founded by a certified porn addict?
Was it the left or the right who supported the Florida minister who threatened to publicly burn the Koran last month?
Is it the left or the right that consistently fights to prohibit gays from enjoying first class citizenship status by hampering their efforts to serve our country, preventing them from marrying the person of their choice or adopting children?
Was it the left or the right that wanted the government to fine CBS out of existence because of Janet Jackson’s wardrobe malfunction?
Finally, is it the left or the right that compels our government continue this useless and expensive war on drugs that has ruined more lives than it has saved and filled our penal systems to beyond capacity in an attempt to control what choices people make in their personal lives?
Have a care before allowing silly partisan hatreds to cause you to recycle ignorance or worse, outright lies.
NAMI is nothing but a front group for the pharmaceutical industry. They have steadfastly lobbied against any research on therapies that don’t involve drugs, and their long-term chairperson Laurie Flynn has gone on to lead “Teenscreen,” a shameless efort to get high school kids started on Prozac and other ssri antidepressants. They cry a lot of crocodile tears about the “stigma” of mental illness, but they themselves perpetuate the worst stigma of all: that people with p$ychiatric labels are genetically inferior specimens whose only hope is a life on brain-damaging, spirit-crushing drugs. Any claim they have to speaking “for” the mentally ill is a filthy LIE, and the SCENE would do well to investigate them. They have closets and closets and closets full of skeletons.
petecos; it isn’t necessary to throw politics into this. I’m a left-sider with bipolar, yet; I do not take offense to Cedar Point’s or anyone else’s portrayal of criminally insane being scary. In fact, I think warped-minded murderer’s are far more scary than the common street thug with a gun… because they are unpredictable.
Ventrue, (love the name btw – good clan) you make some excellent points; including the first and obvious one… if right is opposite left; does that make right-wing “do bad” if the left-wing is “do good”?
I find those who are most judgmental and the least open-minded (tolerant) to be typically to the right. They also tend to be quite hypocritical; but, hypocrits aren’t exclusive to one side or the other.
I am a registered with the political donkey’s, but that doesn’t mean I’m a bleeding heart or that I don’t think people need to take more responsibility for themselves and their actions/words/expressions. One can be compassionate and tolerant without being a door mat – balance is the key.
Maybe Cedar Point could make Uncle Tom’s Cabin a house of horrors. Never mind, if I want to see that, I go to east cleveland.
National Alliance on Mental Health needs to stop being ridiculous and stop trying to gain publicity through political means such as this, they are being childish when it comes to the Haunted Attractions. Everything now days has to political and politically correct, where does it stop. These attractions are not meant to be insensitive or insulting, they are not real nor do they portray the people with real mental illness or challenges as dangerous and deranged. They entertain by portraying the nightmares we all have and the “monsters” of fantasy as dangerous and deranged. If the National Alliance on Mental Health can’t tell the difference then they shouldn’t be working with anyone with mental illness in the first place.
New Name:
Dr. Politically Correct’s House of Non-Offensive Names