What Helen Keller Didn't See

This was to be a column about signs, but research for the article has proved unsettling. Most of us here in the Tennessee Valley take for granted the admiration and amazement for the accomplishments of Helen Keller, but apparently that is not true everywhere, even in other parts of her home state.

Several have objected to recent signs referring to Keller in an attempt to promote tourism. We are invited to "come see what she couldn't see," and this has offended many. I found the ad campaign refreshing and unique and believe that Miss Keller would have also. If local residents find the Chamber of Commerce signs offensive, they will undoubtedly cringe at recent comments concerning her new statue destined for the U.S. Capitol.

Each state is allowed to place two statues in the Capitol building, and until the law was amended in 2002, the placements were irreversible. Things change--a theme we need to hold onto for this article. Immediately after the regulations were amended, the State of Alabama initiated plans for a statue of Tuscumbia native Helen Keller to stand in the visitors' area of our nation's capitol building. Late last year the bronze statue was finished at a cost of $325,000.00. No state funds were used in this endeavor; total funding came from the private sector. Yet, Alabama being what it is, there was bound to be controversy.

Did some object to the removal of the statue of Jabez Lamar Monroe Curry, a fixture in the National Statuary Hall since 1908? Apparently not; remember, things change. Did someone object on the basis of a rumor it would be the likeness of Gen. Joseph Wheeler that would be replaced? No, and for the record, the Wheeler statue that has been in place in the Hall of Columns since 1925 will remain.

Apparently there have been objections to the Keller statue. Some have felt the State should have replaced Curry with an even more contemporary figure, while others have objected to representing Keller as a child rather than the elderly woman she was at her death. The most distressing comments have been directed at Keller personally, calling both her and the statue unattractive.

TideLaw343 was quoted in the Birmingham News online as stating: So, it's a statue of something that she couldn't see or hear. Do they even need to carve the rock? Stack the rough slab of stone up. It's as alert as she was.

Remember, the above statement was ostensibly from a student or alumnus of the University of Alabama's school of law. Things do change. Schools in most areas have not required Miss Keller's autobiography to be read in almost 30 years. It's been noted that we now have a generation of teachers who are not familiar with Miss Keller except via sick schoolyard humor.

Perhaps instead of a slick, professional campaign to advertise her birthplace to tourists, it's time to organize a grassroots campaign to re-introduce Helen Keller to the American educational system. Her memory deserves more respect than it currently commands. Things change.

Tomorrow: Some surprising signs.