06/27 - Helen Keller Day

Image from page 13 of "Helen Keller Newspaper Notices" (1913)

~~ Helen_Keller_Talks

Helen Keller was born June 27, 1880 and was rendered both blind and deaf by an illness at the age of 19 months. At the age of 7 she was introduced to her first teacher, Anne Sullivan, who taught her language, reading and writing. Ms Sullivan, 13 years her senior, would become her governess and her life long companion. In time Ms. Keller would graduate phi beta kappa from Radcliffe, as the first def and blind person to get a B.A. She became a prolific speaker and authored, in addition to her speeches, 14 books and numerous essays. She also became an activist.

Ms. Keller became an advocate for those with disabilities as well as, generally, all those disadvantaged by life's vissectitudes. Among other things She was a suffragist and supporter of workers' rights, a pacificist, and particularly, an opponent of military interventions, a birth control supporter, a financial supporter of the NAACP, and a founding member of the ACLU. She became a socialist and a member of the International Workers of the World. She has been described as both a "political radical" and a "radical socialist", both phrases meaning nothing more, in the US, than a professed socialist, which she clearly was, becoming a member of the US Socialist Party and supporting Debs. She was initially driven to join the IWW, at least in part, because so many cases of blindness and other disabilities were caused by horrible working conditions, which were, in turn, generally driven by simple greed and not any necessity. These two decisions caused something of a sea change in the attitudes and treatment of her by the various elites in this country, which, naturally influenced public opinion of her as well proving once again the old adage that "there are none so blind as those who will not see".

Coincidentally enough, the IWW, or Wobblies were also born on June 27, specifically June 27, 1905, in Chicago. As a labor movement, they were successful enough to be branded as Reds and ceaselessly subjected to criminal and violent attacks, harassment, and persecution by all levels of government. It is tempting to accept the sobriquet thrust upon them by their foes because that makes the identity and nature of their persecutors crystal clear, even though neither "Government" nor "Business" actually starts with the letter F, the identity of interests of the two agglomerations certainly does, and quite notoriously so.

it is also Emma Goldman's birthday anniversary too.

PRIME TIME:

A prime p is said to be a Sophie Germain prime if both p
and 2p + 1 are prime. ... Sophie Germain primes p>3 of the form p=4k-1 correspond to the indices of composite Mersenne numbers Mp.

https://mathworld.wolfram.com/SophieGermainPrime.html

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On this day in history:

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1499 – Americo Vespucci sighted the coast south of Cape Cassipore' Brazil

1556 – The thirteen Stratford Martyrs were burned at the stake because protestants
1806 – British forces took Buenos Aires during the first British invasion of the River Plate.

1895 – The inaugural run of the B & O Railroad's Royal Blue from D.C., to NYC

1898 – The first solo circumnavigation of the globe (by Joshua Slocum)

1905 – During the Russo-Japanese War sailors mutinied aboard the battleship Potemkin.

1941 – Romanian authorities launched a violent pogrom killing at least 13,266 Jews.

1946 – The Parliament of Canada established the definition of Canadian citizenship.

1950 – The United States decided to send troops to fight in the Korean War.

1954 – The Obninsk Nuclear Power Plant near Moscow.opened

1973 – The President of Uruguay ,Juan María Bordaberry, dissolved Parliament and established a dictatorship.

1974 – U.S. president Richard Nixon visited the Soviet Union.

1976 – Air France Flight 139 was hijacked and redirected to Entebbe, Uganda.

1977 – France granted independence to Djibouti.

1981 – The Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party laid the blame for the Cultural Revolution on Mao Zedong.

1982 – Space Shuttle Columbia launched on the final r and d flight mission, STS-4.

1988 – The Gare de Lyon rail accident in Paris, France, killed 56 people.

1988 – Bolivian anti-narcotics police kill nine to twelve and injure over a hundred protesting coca-growing peasants.

1991 – Slovenia was invaded by Yugoslav troops, tanks, and aircraft

1994 – Members of the Aum Shinrikyo cult released sarin gas in Matsumoto, Japan.

2007 – The Brazilian Military Police committed the Complexo do Alemão massacre.

2013 – NASA launched the Interface Region Imaging Spectrograph to observe the Sun.

2014 – At least fourteen people were killed when a Gas Authority of India Limited pipeline explodes in the East Godavari district of Andhra Pradesh, India. (By comparison, PG&E's San Bruno Pipeline explosion only killed 8, proof that private companies do a better job (/s))

2015 – A dust fire occurs at a recreational water park in Taiwan, killing 15 people and injuring 497 others, 199 critically.

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Some people who were born on this day:

“We owe more to our illusions than to our knowledge”

~~ Lafcadio Hearn

1717 – Louis-Guillaume Le Monnier, botanist and physicist
1767 – Alexis Bouvard, astronomer and academic
1805 – Napoléon Coste, guitarist and composer
1806 – Augustus De Morgan, mathematician and logician
1812 – Anna Cabot Lowell Quincy Waterston, writer
1817 – Louise von François, author
1838 – Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyay, journalist, author, and poet
1850 – Jørgen Pedersen Gram, mathematician and academic
1850 – Lafcadio Hearn, historian and author
1862 – May Irwin, actress and singer
1869 – Kate Carew, llustrator and journalist
1869 – Emma Goldman, philosopher and activist
1870 – Frank Rattray Lillie, zoologist and embryologist
1872 – Heber Doust Curtis, astronomer
1872 – Paul Laurence Dunbar, author, poet, and playwright
1880 – Helen Keller, author, academic, and activist
1884 – Gaston Bachelard, philosopher and poet
1885 – Guilhermina Suggia, cellist
1888 – Lewis Bernstein Namier, historian and academic
1892 – Paul Colin, llustrator
1901 – Merle Tuve, geophysicist and academic
1906 – Vernon Watkins, poet and painter
1912 – E. R. Braithwaite, novelist, writer, teacher, and diplomat
1913 – Elton Britt, singer, songwriter, and guitarist
1913 – Philip Guston, painter and academic
1913 – Willie Mosconi, pool player
1914 – Robert Aickman, author and activist
1915 – Grace Lee Boggs, philosopher, author, and activist
1916 – Robert Normann, guitarist
1919 – M. Carl Holman, author, educator, poet, and playwright
1919 – Amala Shankar, danseuse
1922 – George Walker, composer
1923 – Jacques Berthier, organist and composer
1923 – Elmo Hope, pianist and composer
1925 – Leonard Lerman, geneticist and biologist
1925 – Doc Pomus, singer and songwriter
1928 – James Lincoln Collier, journalist and author
1929 – Peter Maas, journalist and author
1931 – Martinus J. G. Veltman, physicist and academic
1932 – Anna Moffo, operatic soprano
1932 – Hugh Wood, composer
1936 – Lucille Clifton, author and poet
1937 – Kirkpatrick Sale, author and scholar
1939 – R. D. Burman, singer and songwriter
1941 – James P. Hogan, author
1942 – Bruce Johnston, singer, songwriter, beachboy, and producer
1942 – Frank Mills, pianist and composer
1944 – Angela King, environmentalist and author, co-founded Common Ground
1945 – Joey Covington, drummer, songwriter, and producer
1948 – Camile Baudoin, guitarist
1951 – Gilson Lavis, drummer and portrait artist
1953 – Alice McDermott, novelist
1958 – Lisa Germano, singer, songwriter, and guitarist
1958 – Jeffrey Lee Pierce, singer, songwriter, and guitarist
1959 – Dan Jurgens, author and illustrator
1959 – Lorrie Morgan, singer
1960 – Robert King, harpsichordist and conductor
1965 – Simon Sebag Montefiore, journalist, historian, and author
1972 – Dawud Wharnsby, singer, songwriter, guitarist, and producer
1973 – Abbath Doom Occulta, musician
1974 – Christian Kane, singer, songwriter, and actor
1976 – Leigh Nash, singer and songwriter
1978 – Apparat, musician
1980 – Jennifer Goodridge, keyboard player
1986 – Drake Bell, singer, songwriter, guitarist, and actor
1992 – Ahn So-hee, singer and actress

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Some people who died on this day:

It matters little who first arrives at an idea, rather what is significant is how far that idea can go

~~ Sophie Germain

1729 – Élisabeth Jacquet de La Guerre, harpsichord player and composer
1829 – James Smithson, chemist and mineralogist
1831 – Sophie Germain, mathematician and physicist
1907 – Elizabeth Cabot Agassiz, educator, co-founded Radcliffe College (
1946 – Wanda Gág, author and illustrator
1948 – Dorothea Bleek, anthropologist and philologist
1950 – Milada Horáková, politician, resistant, activist
1952 – Max Dehn, mathematician and academic
1975 – G.I. Taylor, mathematician and physicist
1989 – A. J. Ayer, philosopher and academic
2001 – Tove Jansson, author, illustrator, and painter
2002 – John Entwistle, singer, songwriter, bass guitarist, and producer
2005 – Shelby Foote, historian and author
2006 – Eileen Barton, singer
2012 – Rosemary Dobson, poet and illustrator
2013 – Ian Scott, painter
2014 – Allen Grossman, poet, critic, and academic
2015 – Chris Squire, bass guitarist, singer, and songwriter
2018 – Liz Jackson, journalist and former barrister

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Some Holidays, Holy Days, Festivals, Feast Days, Days of Recognition, and such:
Canadian Multiculturalism Day (Canada)
Day of Turkmen Workers of Culture and Art and poetry of Magtymguly Pyragy (Turkmenistan)
Helen Keller Day (United States)
Independence Day, celebrates the independence of Djibouti from France in 1977.
Mixed Race Day (Brazil)
National HIV Testing Day (United States)
National PTSD Awareness Day (United States)
Unity Day (Tajikistan)
Industrial Workers of the World Day

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Today's Tunes

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IWW Day

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Multiculturism Day

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Napoleon Coste

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Guilhermina Suggia

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Elton Britt

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Robert Normann

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Elmo Hope

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Doc Pomas

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Anna Moffo

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R.O. Burman

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Bruce Johnston

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Frank Mills

Joey Covington

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Camile Baudoin

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Elisabeth Jacquet de la Guerne

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John Entwistle

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Please save Covid-19 commentary for a separate thread. Thank you.

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Ok, it's an open thread, so it's up to you folks now. So what's on your mind?

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Comments

janis b's picture

It’s hard to beat a day when Helen Keller and Emma Goldman rule.

The guitar playing of Liying Zhu is fantastic.

Based on some of your recent commentary I watched the documentary, “Berkeley in the Sixties”. It’s a wonderful encapsulation of the political essence of the time and place.

Be well and enjoy

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9 users have voted.
enhydra lutris's picture

@janis b

I found Liying Zhu while looking for Coste. There is another performance of his work by someone using a special 7 stringed guitar, but Liying Zhu's artistry easily eclipsed that clip.

Thanks for reading.

be well and have a good one

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4 users have voted.

That, in its essence, is fascism--ownership of government by an individual, by a group, or by any other controlling private power. -- Franklin D. Roosevelt --

Lookout's picture

...and I was in Montgomery when her statue was placed in the Capitol. Of course it is her as a girl by a hand pump rather than as the mature socialist. Most of those honoring her had no concept of her politics or she wouldn't have been honored.

We got a 0.1" of rain...at least it was a dust settler. More forecast through the week. Plan to mow the road edges and swap the bush hog for the box scrape for some other tasks. Always something.

Hope everyone has a nice day. Thanks for the OT!

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11 users have voted.

“Until justice rolls down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream.”

enhydra lutris's picture

@Lookout

There is a quantum of rain that is ideal, not a drencher, but enough to irrigate that is perfect but rare, perfect unless your soil and situation permits recharging the water table that is.

Yeah, when Helen "came out" as a socialist many who praised her greatly before suddenly began lambasting her, probably people with little or no understanding of what socialism was really about, especially to one such as her. Her portrayal in most of popular history seems to downplay her activist and "radical" side.

be well and have a good one

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6 users have voted.

That, in its essence, is fascism--ownership of government by an individual, by a group, or by any other controlling private power. -- Franklin D. Roosevelt --

usefewersyllables's picture

are currently living in some temporary housing in downtown Denver, still trying to figure out where we are going to end up after our house fire in March. And it has been an interesting week to do the urban thing, to be sure.

On Friday there was a Roe protest starting at 5pm at the state house, which we did not attend. We were actually thinking of going, but as we were walking up the side walk in that general direction at about 4:30, several SWAT vehicles went screaming by us with soldiers dressed in the full panoply of Freedumb hanging off the sides. We did not feel at all encouraged to press on at that point, because those motherfuckers are so trigger-happy, so we came back to the place we're staying and drank wine instead.

We did go to Pride, quite happily, both saturday and sunday. It was wonderful, as it always is, and we managed to ignore the squads of soldiers dressed in the full panoply of Freeedumb at least most of the time. Lots of people attempting to be happy, somehow, despite it all. Good chicken on a stick, an awesome concert from the Guerilla Fanfare Brass Band, and the best of all was getting to play cornhole (what a poor word choice) with breast implants... And nobody got shot, amazingly, but is was unsettling to see the cops on the rooftops Keeping An Eye on us.

And then last night the Avs won the Stanley Cup, and we already knew that the squads of soldiers dressed in the full panoply of Freeeeeedumb would be out *in force*. We watched as the cops systematically blocked all the roads except for those leaving town (at least here where we are), and we didn't feel at all encouraged to wander outside to see if anybody was going to get shot. So we stayed home and drank wine instead.

When they make wine illegal, we're fucked- because I'm just not at all comfortable walking past cops the occupying forces any more. This is not the crossfire I want to die in, not just yet. Ain't Freeeeeeeeeeedumb just great?

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12 users have voted.

Twice bitten, permanently shy.

enhydra lutris's picture

@usefewersyllables

report, a small snapshot of modern society, which, in a way, echoes and reflects the history of this country. The occupation forces are indeed intimidating, much more routinely open and brazen than in most times past with a seemingly more all-pervading presence. I think their presence and posture is a form of terrorism intended to cow us into complete subservience. Let us hope they fail at that.

be well and have a good one

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7 users have voted.

That, in its essence, is fascism--ownership of government by an individual, by a group, or by any other controlling private power. -- Franklin D. Roosevelt --

usefewersyllables's picture

@enhydra lutris

that there is something fundamentally flawed about any society in which the first response of an ordinary citizen to the sight of a cop is *fear*. Here it is, writ large.

I do fear the cops. I fear them especially when they have to have their riot gear on every time they leave the station. Even the ones scooting around Pride with their public smiles pasted on didn't make up for the guys on the rooftops with their sighting scopes all set up, ready to rain ballistic Freeeeeedumb on the unwashed below. They definitely are terrorists, in every aspect. They aren't going to stop the Bad People from doing Bad Things, but they sure as hell are good at discouraging the Non-Bad People from doing anything- other than perhaps cowering in their hovels.

I was kind of looking forward to doing the urban thing for the first time in decades. But everytime the SWAT trucks go screaming by me on their way to Dunkin or whatever, I become more ready to nope the fuck out of here...

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7 users have voted.

Twice bitten, permanently shy.

usefewersyllables's picture

@usefewersyllables

to try a new eatery tonight, and before we made it 3 blocks, three SWAT trucks and about 7-8 cruisers went screaming down 18th past us. Four nights in a row. Mac&cheese and more wine tonight, I guess. We’ll find out who got Freeeeeeeeedumbed tomorrow.

No smiley.

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4 users have voted.

Twice bitten, permanently shy.

Lily O Lady's picture

Why couldn’t Helen Keller drive?
Because she was a woman.

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3 users have voted.

"The object of persecution is persecution. The object of torture is torture. The object of power is power. Now do you begin to understand me?" ~Orwell, "1984"

enhydra lutris's picture

@Lily O Lady

be well and have a good one

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4 users have voted.

That, in its essence, is fascism--ownership of government by an individual, by a group, or by any other controlling private power. -- Franklin D. Roosevelt --

I held her up to the highest esteem, did know something of her socialism. Maybe that's why I did...my law school pals always referred to me as a commie.
Hope you had a good weather day, EL.
It is lower than 100 deg. here. I am pretty darn ok with that.
Take care, friend.

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5 users have voted.

"We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false." ---- William Casey, CIA Director, 1981

enhydra lutris's picture

@on the cusp

be well and have a good one

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2 users have voted.

That, in its essence, is fascism--ownership of government by an individual, by a group, or by any other controlling private power. -- Franklin D. Roosevelt --