Helen Adams Keller, June 27, 1880-June 1, 1968
Absent from the spunky-girl-overcomes-tremendous-disabilities movie and the feel-good memorials is the real Helen Keller: socialist, suffragist, pacifist, supporter of birth control, the Wobblies, and the NAACP, co-founder of the ACLU. Recipient of the Presidential Medal of Freedom, back when that meant something.
Yeah, it's almost surprising they teach kids about her, she being a dirty hippie socialist and all. Of course they don't mention anything in schools after she learns to sign...
ReplyDeleteExcellent post. Thanks for this.
ReplyDeleteThanks for remembering her.
ReplyDeleteYes, thanks. And thanks for remembering *all* of her, too. Not just the approved pap.
ReplyDeleteYou know, I actually didn't learn much about Helen Keller in school. In fact, as I recall, the main stuff about her was from a chapter of A People's History of The United States which focused on socialism in Helen Keller's time.
ReplyDeleteI guess it goes without saying that I went to a private school.