Letter: Why Helen Keller?

I know, I’ve finally done it. I’ve descended to the level criticizing someone with a disability. But I can’t help it.

As contemptible as it is in our politically correct society, I still believe that there are enough people in Alabama who believe in the principles that built America who join me in expressing general disgust with the placement of a monument honoring Helen Keller in our nation’s capitol as a representation of a great Alabamian.

Yes, Helen Keller overcame tremendous obstacles, both physical and social. Yes, she raised a lot of money to help people with disabilities. Yes, she is seen as an inspiration to disabled people struggling to live normal lives. Yes, yes and bravo.

But the problem with Helen Keller is that her work to help the disabled was just one aspect of her adult life. Much of her life was devoted to promoting ideals and principles that put her more on par with Karl Marx, Joseph Stalin, and Chairman Mao than the typical Alabamian.

Helen Keller was an avowed socialist — a radical socialist. She even criticized the leftist feminists at times for being too soft. Keller supported a workers’ revolution. She was a founding member of the ACLU, an admirer of Vladimir Lenin, a member of the American Socialist Party and an early supporter of Eugene Debs, Socialist candidate for president of the United States.

But the most disturbing fact about Helen Keller in my mind was her admiration and friendship with Margaret Sanger, founder of Planned Parenthood, the largest abortion provider in the United States.
It was Margaret Sanger who supported and campaigned for modern eugenics, and believed abortion and birth control would eliminate most people with disabilities, mental or physical — people like her friend, Helen Keller.

So, inquiring minds want to know: Who in the world believed that Helen Keller was the ideal “Alabamian” to portray to the world in our nation’s Capitol? As far as I can tell, the only thing about Helen Keller that is Alabamian is the fact she was born here.

If Helen Keller had not overcome a challenging disability, she would have been remembered by most Alabamians as a radical left-wing nut job who, if alive today, would be avoided like the plague by the same Alabama politicians who praised her statue’s recent inclusion in the new Capitol Visitor Center in Washington, D.C.

Matt Chancey
Enterprise