The rest of the story

If you check your quarters and run across the one from the state of Alabama, you'll find that familiar persona, Helen Keller. We all read the story as children and were in awe of the determination of both Annie Sullivan and her charge to communicate despite Helen being blind and deaf. It is a good story -- but evidently incomplete. In a terrific case of irony, Miss Keller was an ardent socialist and firm believer in eugenics, which would have weeded out a child such as herself and dismissed the patient work of Annie as wasteful sentimentality. Who knew?

She was a founder of the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU);

She was a personal friend and strong admirer of Margaret Sanger, the founder of Planned Parenthood, the largest provider of abortions in the country;

She was a strong advocate of birth control and sterilization;

She was a supporter of the eugenics movement, once declaring, in an ironic twist, that: “Our puny sentimentalism has caused us to forget that a human life is sacred only when it may be of some use to itself and to the world.”

Not exactly the feminine genius we would hope for, given her suffering and successes. Given that she was an ardent admirer of Vladimir Lenin, it's doubtful that she was even grateful to the God Who cherished her and gave her so much grace in her trials. A pity, that.

Comments

[Karinann]

Thanks for the heads up on Helen Keller. How ironic, but sad.

[Elizabeth]

Wow! Thanks for sharing.

[Teresa]

I did NOT know that about Helen Keller, just the inspirational story ala Patty Duke/Anne Bancroft then Melissa Gilbert/Patty Duke.

I reckon Helen knows the truth now.

[JimmyV]

Total Bummer.

[Rapnsum]

Want to know more about Margaret Sanger and Eugenics check out a documentary called: maafa21 here: www.maafa21.com

[Sue]

Wow. That's kind of crazy.

[Donna-Marie Cooper O'Boyle]

Wow! Thanks for this, Genevieve.

[Enbrethiliel]

+JMJ+

Oh, my! I've just finished reading William Gibson's Miracle Worker with a high school boy whom I tutor. I did not know this. I shall share it with him.

Thanks, Genevieve!

[Sunnyday]

I had no idea about this side of Helen Keller. Thanks for sharing, Genevieve.

[elena maria vidal]

I was shocked to discover all this, too.

[Richard Chonak]

it's doubtful that she was even grateful to the God Who cherished her

Helen Keller was a religious believer of a sort: she belonged to the Swedenborgian Church, a non-trinitarian sect, and praised the doctrine of Emanuel Swedenborg, on which the Church was based.