Were you ever told a lie as a kid that you believed wholeheartedly? Something like swallowed gum stays in your stomach for seven years before it is digested? It’s something that may sound true, but actually isn’t, just like many people’s accomplishments.
Like whether the American Army or Native Americans fired the first shot at Wounded Knee, because each side said differently in order to benefit themselves.
During the Kent State Shootings, when Ohio National Guard members fired into a college protestor crowd, killing four students and wounding nine. The guards claimed they were acting in self-defense; however, they were not in any immediate danger, as reported. Their false claim helped them to remain uncharged, just like the American Army wanted to protect the military and government.
Or, when Christopher Columbus, praised for the “discovery” of America, didn’t actually discover it. The land had been lived on for years, claimed by Indigenous people, and Christopher Columbus’s arrival brought upon them invasion, violence, mass death and enslavement. Despite knowing this, he is still thought to be a hero, because when it happened, there were only stories of his amazement and goodness that it brought Europeans and, later, Americans, which shows the crafted narrative that is always chosen to benefit people in history.
Another example is Helen Keller, who was a woman in the late 1800’s and early 1900’s. She turned blind and deaf at 19 months old, for reasons unknown, but most likely it was from scarlet fever, according to Britannica. At age 6, she was examined by Alexander Graham Bell, who assigned Anne Sullivan to be Helen’s teacher. Anne taught Helen to associate objects with finger signals, and later Helen learned Braille, and later learned how to speak and feel words through facial movements and vibrations.
At age 23, Helen (supposedly) wrote two books, The Story of My Life and Optimism, and later (supposedly) wrote 12 more books. I say supposedly because did Helen Keller really write these books? Did she give a brief overview, and someone else wrote parts, or did someone ghostwrite the books for her? As a writer, Helen had editors, like Anne Sullivan who was Helen’s teacher, who proofread and revised all her work. But did they do more than just fix it up?
At 66 years old, Helen Keller supposedly flew a plane. According to Britannica, “Keller sat in the copilot seat with her hands on the throttle and instrument panel. As she steered for about 20 minutes, the pilot gave instructions that Thomson interpreted through tactile fingerspelling, a form of communication that uses touch to convey letters and symbols.” How, if her hands were on the throttle and instrument panel, did she get fingerspelled instructions? Tactical fingerspelling, especially in her time, was only used on the hands, so she couldn’t have received the instructions anywhere but her occupied hands. Now, I know another Deafblind girl flew a plane, but that was 2012, way later, and with more advanced technology than available in 1946. Also, the girl had one hand flying the plane and the other receiving instructions, so fully feasible, and there is genuine proof. Also, Helen only held the plane in the same position in the air and didn’t actually control the takeoff and landing at all, which makes me wonder if that even counts as piloting?
According to the WFDB, in 2018, between 0.2% and 2% of the world’s population is deafblind, and they are more likely to be poor and unemployed, with lower educational outcomes. How, if Helen Keller made such strides in learning as a deafblind, becoming the first Deafblind to earn their Bachelor’s degree, do we have a majority of Deafblinds poor, uneducated, and unemployed? Both Helen and her teacher, Anne, kept journals of how Helen was learning and all of their teachings, so if we have those resources and if she really did everything that is told, we would have many institutions and aids and help for Deafblind people, and yet, there are the stats.
My history teacher once said to my class, “I could tell you a lie about the history we are learning, and you would have no idea.” This stuck with me because I really wouldn’t have any idea if she lied. This pushed me to ask questions, check facts, and really wonder, are we learning the truth? Every story has two sides; I encourage you to consider both.
