Helen Keller - The first Socialist Party Member on American Coinage

[benburch]

I doubt most Alabamians know anything about Helen Keller other than she was deaf, blind, and overcame amazing odds, or I am quite certain that her image would not have been chosen by them to represent their state on their State's Quarter Dollar coin;

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/c/cd/Alabama_quarter,_reverse_side,_2003.jpg/603px-Alabama_quarter,_reverse_side,_2003.jpg

But she was a lifelong Socialist, and quite a radical one! Here is a link to an archive of some of her works, which I encourage you all to read;

http://www.marxists.org/reference/archive/keller-helen/index.htm

I wonder how our friends, the Freeptards would react to this were they smart enough to figure it out? :rofl:

[NYC]

1. I like that.

I never found one of those. I'll have to keep looking.

[pnorman]

6. For all these years,

I never bothered to look at the back of those quarters, but I will from here on. I knew about Helen's Socialism though. I knew also that J (Cross-dressing) Edgar Hoover kept a beady eye on her for most of her life: http://www.ragged-edge-mag.com/0901/0901ft3.htm LOL LOL LOL!

pnorman

[shenmue]

2. Thank you

Glad to know :loveya:

[Alamom]

3. She has always been an inspiration to me and some of us do

know.....Thank you for bringing this to the attention of those who don't.

[GrpCaptMandrake]

4. Alamom, I'm back on the old stomping grounds

and took my boy to her birthplace just this evening.

You'll look for a long time to find anything about her Socialist history there!

It's been five years since I've been "home," and it took me a full week in the Shoals to see my first "W" sticker. And as much as I love my West Virginia hills, there's something mighty special about being back on one's own home ground.

The tide may be turning.

[katamaran]

5. She's my fifth cousin...too fricking cool...

Helen Keller on my mom's side and Mark Twain on dad's side. Two of the coolest people in American history. And apparently her Socialist beliefs trickled down a bit to me as well ;-)

[benburch]

7. Wow.

I can only claim Davy Crockett and Andrew Jackson...

[spuddonna]

8. Very cool!

I'll have to show this to my kids! Their school is named after Ms. Keller.

[benburch]

9. I'll bet they NEVER tell the kids this. nt

[benburch]

10. Kick!

:kick:

[KyndCulture]

11. I did not know this..

VERY cool!!!


I bet the Alabama freeps surely don't know this.

[rucky]

12. On the Alabama coin, no less.

Extremely cool.

[KatieW]

13. I'm reading a very interesting book "Lies My Teacher Told Me"

and they mention this about Helen Keller. It's a very interesting book which goes into details about parts of the US History which we don't learn in school and how some of the things we are taught just aren't quite the way we learned in school. By the way, in case anyone is interested in the book, the author is James Loewen.

[Goldeneye]

14. I just read it for one of my classes.

The whole thing is just .... so good. Made me think a lot about what I have and haven't learned and how dangerous not knowing history can be. I would say that is a big part of our problem in America today.

[bunkerbuster1]

16. A seminal work

in every sense of the word. Everyone at DU should read "Lies My Teacher Told Me" and get at least three other people to read it as well.

[Tom Yossarian Joad]

15. Actually, this Alabamian knew.

:toast:

[Jade Fox]

17. People love Keller as a nice blind lady....

and ignore the fact she was a passionate lefty!

[OxQQme]

18. Kicking........Snipped from that link...thnx benburch

The laws made by men rule the minds as well as the bodies of women. The man-managed state so conducts its schools that the ideals of women are warped to hideous shapes. Governments and schools engender and nourish a militant public opinion that makes war always possible. Man-written history, fiction and poetry glorify war. Love of country is turned into patriotism which suggest drums, flags and young men eager to give their lives to the rulers of the nation. There will continue to be wars so long as our schools make such ideas prevail.

Women know the cost of human life in terms of suffering and sacrifice as men can never know it. I believe women would use the ballot to prevent war and to destroy the ideas that make war possible. In spite of an education that has taught them to glorify the military element in their ideals of manhood, they will wake to the realization that he loves his country best who lives for it and serves it faithfully. They will teach children to honor the heroes of peace above the heroes of war.

Women are even now more active in working for social legislation and laws affecting the schools, the milk supply and the quality of food than are the men who have the votes. Fundamentally, woman is a more social being than man. She is concerned with the whole family, while man is more individualistic. Social consciousness is not so strong in him. Many questions can be solved only with the help of woman's social experience--questions of the safety of women in their work, the rights of little children.

Yet her peculiar knowledge and abilities are made the basis of arguments against giving women the vote. It is indesputably true that woman is constituted for the purposes of maternity. So is man constituted for the purposes of paternity. But no one seems to think that incapacitates him for citizenship. If there is a fundamental difference between man and woman, far be it from me to deny that it exists. It is all the more reason why her side should be heard.

For my part, I should think that man's chivalrous nature would cause him to emancipate the weaker half of the race. Indeed, is seems strange that when he was getting the suffrage for himself it did not occur to him to divide up with his beloved partner. Looking closer, I almost detect a suspicion of tryanny in his attitude toward her on the suffrage question. And can it be that this tyranny wears the mask of chivalry? Please do not misunderstand me. I am not disparaging chivalry. It is a very fine thing--what there is of it. The trouble is, there is not enough to go around. Nearly all the opportunities, educational and political, that woman has acquired have been gained by a march of conquest with a skirmish at every post.

So since masculine chivalry has failed us we must hustle a bit and see what we can do for ourselves--and the men who need our suffrage. First of all, we must organize. We must make ourselves so aggressive a political factor that our natural protectors can no longer deny us a voice in directing and shaping the laws under which we must live.

We shall not see the end of capitalism and the triumph of democracy until men and women work together in the solving of their political, social and economic problems. I realize that the vote is only one of many weapons in our fight for the freedom of all. But every means is precious and, equipped with the vote, men and women together will hasten the day when the age-long dream of liberty, equality and brotherhood shall be realized upon earth.

[trof]

19. heh heh, I knew, but I didn't tell.

I actually favored Booker T. Washington or George Washington Carver.
Thought it would have sent a nice message.

Studied Helen Keller in a poli sci class at U. of AL and knew her politics.
Quite a radical in her day.
When I heard the statehouse boys were leaning Keller I just kept mum.
<hee>

[benburch]

20. Good for you!

Nice to see sheep lead to the slaughter so calmly, isn't it?

[robertpaulsen]

21. Oh, your post put a HUGE smile on my face!

I never wander over to lurk on the dark side, but if anyone else here does, I would LOVE to see the freepers reaction to that. I'd love to berate them for their ignorance, but truth be told, I didn't know this about her.

Thanks for enlightening me, benburch! Now my respect for Helen Keller is even greater.