Miracle

Today we visited Ivy Green,the birth place of Helen Keller.

Her grandfather had bought the plantation in the antibellum and her father had been a Calvary officer in-the confederate army.

She was born and healthy until the age of 19 months,when she contracted what was probably scarlet fever.

When the fever abated she could no longer see or hear.

She became a terror,things like locking her mother in a closet for several hours,she later wrote she could feel the floor and wall move as her mother tried to get out.

Her mother had another child, a boy. Helen was so jealous that she overturned the cradle, the parents decided that they needed help.

Anne Sullivan was the daughter of Irish immigrants who had come to the US to escape the Irish potato famine.

Her mother contracted TB and died when Anne was 8 years old. At age 5 she had contracted trachoma of the eye,but the family was so poor they could not afford treatment.Anne had a younger brother Jimmy who had a chronic hip problem.

Jimmy died shortly after the abusive father abandoned Anne and Jimmy.

Anne was alone and was able to get a social worker to admit her to a Perkins School for the Blind.

When Anne was 20 a family asked if she would come o Alabama to teach their 7 year old deaf and blind daughter. Hence Anne and Helen start a life long friendship. Not that it wasn’t without its problems.

Anne fighting with Helens parents about the civil war and slavery, dealing with Helen tantrums. Helen locking Anne in the second story bedroom and throwing away the key.They had to get a ladder and have her climb outside to get her out. Likewise Helen was dealing with a tough Irish woman, who brought rigor and discipline into her life..

The famous water pump scene is where Anne is pouring water over Helens hand while spelling it in sign language in her other palm is when the light bulb comes on for Helen.

She then remembers the wa,wa sound she heard as a young child for water, and makes the sound,writing and object connection

The synapses start firing and she learns 30 words that afternoon andknows 250+ words in the next week. Turns out that Helen had an IQ of 160. No wonder she was so angry and frustrated, she was captive in a body that couldn’t express what she needed to.

It is Helen,who in 1925 who gives a speech to the Lions club that gives them their primary objective for their organization.

One of the many other things she accomplished was a co founder of The ACLU.

The guide was excellent.

It as a moving and inspiring tour.

The next day we drove to Birmingham to visit their Civil-rights Institute that is located across the street from the 16th st Baptist church,where the 4 little girls were killed when the KKK USED A BOMB WITH 10 sticks of Dynamite on a Sunday morning. It had the nickname of Bombingham,because during that time there were over a hundred bombings in that city.

The clan bombed his home,his church,beat the crap out of him for trying to register his kids in an integrated school. One time the bomb blew the floor out from under him and he was standing in the debris Those crackers must have had a few brown streaks in their tightly whities,when they saw him standing there

Regarding the church bombing,the perpetrators were tried 4 times and not convicted

Then in 1977 a conviction ,2001 and 2002 two more convictions.The 4th guy died years before the convictions. Justice was served due to persistent southern prosecutors., not J Edgar Hoover who would not take the case to trail.

We had a 2+ hour drive to Montgomery in a driving rain.

Tomorrow we go to theSouthern Poverty Law Centers,Civil Rights memorial and to the Equal Justice Initiatives Center for Peace and Justice

Paul