Today, 27 June, is the birthday of Helen Keller. For many of us we know her from our elementary school days (perhaps the only study we ever had of persons with disabilities)or from the classic film THE MIRACLE WORKER. Our view of Helen Keller is passive, calm, the noble person with a disability rising above her limitations.
Yet, she was so much more. Helen Keller was a fierce and committed advocate for persons with disabilities and she grew more radical in her advocacy for workers rights and women's rights. Garrison Keillor writes that the FBI opened a file on her.
Why do we tend to pacify our prophets?
The fact is most of the persons who labored for and acheived significant social change for the marginalized and minimalized members of our society were fiery, radical, and someone whom, according to Frederick Buechner, you might not want to have over for dinner a second time.
Someone once said, "If you're not angry, you must not be paying attention." Plans to put more money into the hands of the wealthiest; cuts to human service programs that help millions live well and in community; the growing chasm between the impoverished and the rest of "us".......yep, I need to check my anger meter. We need a few more radicals who re-mind us of the call to do what is just and in doing so tend to piss us off in the best way possible....they make us take action.
sj;