Last week, Malala Yousafzai and Kailash Satyarthi were awarded the Nobel Prize for Peace. Almost fifty years ago, there was a movement afoot to secure nominations for Helen Keller. Keller did not receive the Nobel Peace Prize, but the letters that were received from around the world are a wonderful reminder of this extraordinary humanitarian. Two are excerpted here below:
Letter from S. T. Dajani, Chairman, Arab Blind Organization, Jerusalem, to the Secretary-General World Council for the Welfare of the Blind, NYC, November 16th, 1953
"She spent only a few days in our country in May, 1952, but the official and popular reception and the spontaneous applause and admiration which were expressed by widely varying groups were undeniable signs of her spiritual influence.
…On every occasion her message to her audiences stressed the equality of human being and the divine character of peace. Peace to her is not the quietude of the cemetery but the actual cooperation between peoples to realise the divine purpose on earth. Her life and her career have been a reflection of this idea. That is why, we in this country feel that Miss Keller has worked for peace among the races more than statesmen and politicians. The world is certainly in need of such personalities and we consider it necessary that the world should recognize and esteem this contribution even though this recognition is only symbolical. "
Letter from Dorina de Gouvea Nowill, President, Fundaçao Para O Livro Do Cego No Brasil, Sao Paulo, Brazil, to the Nobel Peace Prize Committee, Oslo, Norway, November 25, 1953.
"Very few women in the world have been able, through their intelligence and their heart, to do so much to humanity, as Miss Helen Keller has done; not only the blind and the deaf have received the benefits from her example of courage and will power, but also everybody who had the good fortune to meet her or read about her.
Helen Keller is peace itself, because she has been able to communicate to others her admirable inner peace; this is almost a miracle in a world like the one we live in and for a creature who would have every reason to be revolted and unsatisfied.
Her words always full of an everlasting moral elevation, have the power to drive those who listen to her to moral and cultural progress.
Her travels around the world have established the friendship interchange and the policy of “to love each other”, which is the aim of all countries.
A fact which illustrates very well her power over the human soul has happened here in Sao-Paulo, in May of this year. During her last lecture, the theatre was completely crowded with about 2,000 people, one hour before the time fixed for the beginning of it; hundreds of people who were not able to go in, stayed in the halls or in the street, refusing to go away, listening in silence to Helen Keller’s words they could not hear through the walls.
We join in the wish of all, to honor one of the greatest women of this century. "
Image: Left to right: S. T. Dajani, Chairman of the Arab Blind Organization with Polly Thomson, Helen Keller and an unknown man at the workshop, Jerusalem, May 1952.
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