Helen Keller Progressive Christian Social Activist

\"My drive will rise from the trenches stronger than it ever was. Under the obvious battle waging, there is an invisible battle for the freedom of man.\"

\"I don't give a damn most semi-radicals.\"

- Helen Keller

Helen Keller died June1, 1968, is to most Americans is an example of a sort of miracle that can occur when one person, like Annie Sullivan does not give up on another. Ms. Keller wasrendered deaf/blind at as a toddler a result of complications from Scarlet fever. At the age of seven Helen Keller over came here sensory isolation by responding to the modern teaching methods of Anne Sullivan, The "wa-wa water" moment is as iconic to the American public thanks to the numerous books and films on her life.

Most of the public is unaware of the events of Helen Keller's life beyond that moment of moral inspiration about fortitude. She continued to live some eighty years past her emblematic moment. Helen went on to have many more important firsts including being the first death and blind student to graduate with a Bachelor of Arts from Radcliff College.

One fact most Americans are not aware that Helen Keller may have been the first person who was blind and death to have also had a file kept by the FBI documenting her "un-American activities". She was no doubt the first radical activist to receive national honor having her image grace a US postage stamp and the Alabama state quarters. This is especially ironic given the State of Alabama is not noted for being a hot bed of progressive ideals.

Ms. Keller was a founder of the American Civil Liberties Union; member of the Socialist Party and the Industrial Workers of the World; a suffragist who campaigned for women's right to vote and birth control; an anti-fascist; and a pacifist

Helen Keller was a testament to the American character of the ability of people to over come great adversity. she was during her lifetime . Ms. Keller was also considered a political radical. Helen was raised in an upper middle class household but through her education and travels, learned to become a great champion of social justice. In1919 Hollywood made a silent film about her inspirational childhood. The cast was part of a union on strike.Helen showed her solidarity with the striking Actors Equity, a union for performers, by not crossing their picket line.

Helen Keller was a prolific writer. She produced an enormous amount essays and public papers on her progressive causes. She produced no less than five books .Helen Keller was not fearful of criticizing such publicly celebrated people of the time like John D. Rockefeller. Rockefeller was the Donald Trump of his time. She publicly blasted him for his corporate rule in the deaths of some striking minors known as the Ludlow Mine Massacre. She accused him in print as being a heartless capitalist.

Helen Keller also risked the previously warm relations at home in the South by her progressive ideals. Her mother harshly criticized her and accused her of damaging the family name by her public support and monetary donations to the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People Her family members were somewhat finally dependent on Helen's financial support from her work on behalf of American Foundation for the Blind.

Helen Keller did not like being forever, the symbol of compassionate Victorian values and the supposedly demure symbol of moral modern womanhood. Her passions in her later years were geared towards a world where she strove for political and social progress. Helen Keller wrote," So long as I confine my activities to social service and the blind, they compliment me extravagantly, calling me 'arch priestess of the sightless', 'wonder woman', and 'a modern miracle'. But when it comes to a discussion of poverty, and I maintain that it is the result of wrong economics - that the industrial system under which we live is at the root of much of the physical deafness and blindness in the world - that is a different matter!"

Helen Keller was a Christian and she saw the purpose of her work both political and social to be purposed by the will of God, but to what extent she did not know. Near the end of her life she wrote," I believe that all through these dark and silent years, God has been using my life for a purpose I do not know. But one day I shall understand and then I will be satisfied." A short four years before her death this committed leftist received the highest American accolade to be bestowed up an American civilian. President Lyndon Johnson awarded her 1964, the Presidential Medal of Freedom.

Those on the left owe gratitude pioneering women such as Helen Keller who risked their celebrated status in society to work tirelessly for social progress public acknowledgement of her support of social justice and equality. Victorian women who were literally almost a turn of the Century ahead of their times and pioneered the path of social activism for the rest of us were the true "Miracle workers."

Sources

http://experiencefestival.com/a/helen%20keller%20-%20biography/id/5119871

biographical short

http://www.rethinkingschools.org/archive/17_01/Kell171.shtml

biographical short

http://www.nytimes.com/learning/general/onthisday/bday/0627.html