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Yet another strong inhibiting factor is a very human failing -- a denial of reality. The need for change can be effectively repressed by denying unpleasant realities which would underline the urgency for change. When Burton Blatt, the head of the Department of Special Education at Boston University, undertook with a photographer friend to expose the shocking conditions in American institutions for the mentally retarded, and produced the book "Christmas in Purgatory," he was attacked. And this is not at all a rare occasion. Those who point at institutional atrocities will find themselves much more sharply attacked than those who commit them.

Even Senator Robert Kennedy had the experience that the people of the State of New York had very little interest in listening to an account of the truly horrible conditions existing in a large state institution for retarded children located within the boundaries of New York City and serving some 5,000 people. And they were even less inclined to do something about it. Professor Sarason of Yale, in that respect, recently quoted "the eyes that do not see, ears that do not hear, minds that deny the evidence before them."

There is another very interesting and paradoxical maneuver. We had a clear example of it in Massachusetts when the movie "Titticut Follies" was produced, depicting conditions in the Bridgewater institution. Let me assure you, this was a very fine, sensitive film which really was done with a very sympathetic eye and in no way exploited the situation in terms of showing individuals. But in a paradoxical yet sanctimonious successful maneuver, the State administration protested against this invasion of the privacy of institution residents, thereby blocking effective exposure of institutional practices which result day by day in routine denial of elementary privacy and rights to dignity for the residents!

And then we have something else, a flower that grows particularly well in California soil, a kind of patriotism, state chauvinism, or even parochialism. The great state of so-and-so proudly proclaiming its pre-eminence in industry and finance, in culture and education, cannot afford to let it be known that with all its riches, its glittering state office buildings, its highways and freeways, it treats in its institutions human beings, as you well know, in ways a dairy farmer would not treat his cattle.

When President Kennedy met for the first time with his Panel on Mental Retardation he turned to the chairman, Mr. Mayo, and said "Mr. Mayo, what do we have to learn from foreign countries?" Mr. Mayo assured him quickly that the panel would send abroad some task forces. And in typical Kennedy fashion, this was the first question Jack Kennedy raised a year later when the panel submitted its report.

With his phenomenal memory, he turned to the chairman and said "Mr. Mayo, what did we learn from foreign countries?" Well, as you know, we learned a good bit but strangely our administrators seem resentful about it, and hesitate to apply it.

To say that California is remarkably advanced in the care of the retarded may be a nice attempt to please the Governor, but it just is not helpful at all. And to be very frank with you, I thought in this morning's session we had some very bad instances of this. You were assured again and again that you are really quite good. Let me tell you, you are not! Let me tell you that there are smaller states that will show up much more favorably. One part of your problem -- and fifteen months ago I tried to convey this to you at the Annual Convention of the California Council a little bit less vociferously -- is that you have and always have had a need to point out that really you are better than the others. It reminds me of the story of a woman who mot the new Episcopalian Rector in town and she said "Reverend, how are you?" And he said "Well, I tell you, Mrs. Frank, I do not like things at all. Sunday the church is half full and at the Wednesday evening vesper service barely a handful of people." And she said "You are so right, Reverend, you are so right. But the Lord be praised, the Methodists are not doing any better."

Why do you have this hesitancy to admit that something is grossly wrong -- a hesitancy, by the way. President Kennedy did not have? He very forcefully said "Here is one field in which we are behind, and badly behind." I wish -- and I am addressing myself to the California Council very specifically, as an organization -- I wish you would have the courage of your conviction and not always have this bland and meaningless politeness, this reluctance to speak out.

Why do you not turn to the task at hand? We all love California. Yours is one of the most important States. Yours is one of the richest States. Yours is a State that has greater resources than most others, because everybody wants to come to you. So why should you, first of all, be content to compare yourself with others? But, secondly, why do you not take a closer look and really see what others are doing?