“I am not dumb now!”

A 1930 newsreel of Helen Keller and her teacher-companion, Annie Sullivan, explaining in brief how Helen went from a blind-deaf-mute to a woman with the power of vocal speech, the means of expression–and a remarkable eloquence that turned her into one of the foremost feminists and socialists of the day. The use of the word “dumb”, here, is the old one–meaning speechless, not stupid.

As one can see by her writings and speeches, Helen Keller was formidably intelligent. Many biographers now prefer to focus on the individualistic “miracle” aspect of her learning to communicate without sight or hearing, rather than the logical outcome of it–namely, Helen’s free and progressive mind. Her politics are often bowdlerized or misrepresented, if they are mentioned at all, because they are so unfashionable–and so threatening to corporate interests, now more than ever.

One wonders what she’d have said about the way the ‘wingers are now doing their stupid best to derail all hope of universal, publicly funded healthcare in the states. What would she say to their corporate-backed fascist “tea parties”, which are so contrary to what the REAL Boston Tea Party was about? I suspect she’d have blasted them.

How we need the likes of her today!