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The Boys in the Bunkhouse

Servitude and Salvation in the Heartland
Nov 17, 2016PimaLib_NormS rated this title 4.5 out of 5 stars
“The Boys in the Bunkhouse: Servitude and Salvation in the Heartland”, by Dan Barry will put your emotions in a blender. The “boys” were a group of 32 intellectually disabled, institutionalized Texas men who were put to work in a turkey processing plant in the 1960s. In the 70s, they were moved to another turkey slaughterhouse in Iowa. They did the worst jobs imaginable, under deplorable working and living conditions, for years and years until the operation was shut down in 2009. 2009! This did not happen 150 years ago, when maybe people did not know any better. That these men had endure this within the last few years is just mindboggling. And yet . . . there are a few positives of this experience to note. The men gradually started to visit the nearby town in Iowa, and as they interacted with the locals, they became accepted members of the community. And, the fact that they were not just dumped in an asylum somewhere, but given real jobs, was certainly a positive. The question that comes to mind is: “Why couldn’t those men have been given real jobs AND been treated like human beings?” The story of these men, as told by Dan Barry, is another reminder that people with mental illness issues can still be contributors to society, and that they deserve to be treated with dignity and respect, same as everyone else.