Helen Keller was an exceptional woman, who, despite being both blind and deaf, became one of the leading humanitarians of the 20th century. Thanks to the efforts of her teacher, Anne Sullivan, Helen Keller managed to learn to communicate with people.
If I had three days to see
by
Helen Keller
Utah School for the Deaf: 1934
I have often thought it would be a blessing if each human being were stricken blind and deaf for a few days at some time during his early adult life. Darkness would make him more appreciative of sight; silence would teach him the joy of sound.
Now and then I have tested my seeing friends to discover what they see. Recently I asked a friend, who had just returned from a long walk in the woods, what she had observed. “Nothing in particular,” she replied.
How is it possible, I asked myself, to walk for an hour through the woods and see nothing worthy of note? I who cannot see find hundreds of things to feel in the delicate symmetry of a leaf. I pass my hands lovingly about the smooth skin of a silver birch, or the rough, shaggy bark of a pine. In spring I touch the branches of trees hopefully in search of a bud, the first sign of awakening Nature after her winter’s sleep. Occasionally, if I am very fortunate, I place my hand gently on a small tree and feel the happy quiver of a bird in full song.
At times my heart cries out with longing to see all these things. If I can get so much pleasure from mere touch, how much more beauty must be revealed by sight! And I have imagined what I should most like to see if I were given the use of my eyes, say, for just three days.
I should divide the period into parts. On the first day, I should want to see the people whose kindness and companionship have made my life worth living. I do not know what it is to see into the heart of a friend through that “window of the soul,” the eye. I can only “see” through my finger tips the outline of a face. I can detect laughter, sorrow, and many other obvious emotions. I know my friends from the feel of their faces.
How much easier, how much more satisfying it is for you who can see to grasp quickly the essential qualities of another person by watching the subtleties of expression, the quiver of a muscle, the flutter of a hand! But does it ever occur to you to use your sight to see into the inner nature of a friend? Do not most of you seeing people grasp casually the outward features of a face and let it go at that?
For instance, can you describe accurately the faces of five good friends? As an experiment, I have questioned husbands about the color of their wives’ eyes, and often they express embarrassed confusion and admit that they do not know.
Oh, the things that I should see if I had the power of sight for just three days!
The first day would be a busy one. I should call to me all my dear friends and look long into their faces, imprinting upon my mind the outward evidences of the beauty that is within them. I should let my eyes rest, too, on the face of a baby, so that I could catch a vision of the eager, innocent beauty which precedes the individual’s consciousness of the conflicts which life develops. I should like to see the books which have been read to me and which revealed to me the deepest channels of human life. And I should like to look into the loyal trusting eyes of my dogs, the little Scottie and the stalwart Great Dane.
In the afternoon, I should take a long walk in the woods and intoxicate my eyes on the beauties of the world of Nature. And I should pray for the glory of a colorful sunset. That night, I think I should not be able to sleep.
The next day I should arise with the dawn and see the thrilling miracle by which night is transformed into day. I should behold with awe the magnificent panorama of light with which the sun awakens the sleeping earth.
This day I should devote to a hasty glimpse of the world, past and present. I should want to see the pageant of man’s progress, and so I should go to the museums. There my eyes would see the condensed history of the earth—animals and the races of men pictured in the native environment, gigantic carcasses of dinosaurs and mastedons which roamed the earth before man appeared, with his tiny stature and powerful brain, to conquer the animal kingdom.
My next stop would be the Museum of Art. I know well through my hands the sculptured gods and goddesses of the ancient Nile-land. I have felt copies of Parthenon friezes, and I have sensed the rhythmic beauty of charging Athenian warriors. The gnarled, bearded features of Homer are dear to me, for he too, knew blindness.
So on this day, my second day, I should try to probe into the soul of man through his art. The things I knew through touch I should now see. More splendid still, the whole magnificent world of painting would be opened to me. I should be able to get only a superficial impression. Artists tell me that for a deep and true appreciation of art one must educate the eye. One must learn through experience to weigh the merits of line, of composition, of form and color. If I had eyes, how happily would I embark on so fascinating a study.
The evening of my second day I should spend at a theater or at the movies. How I should like to see the fascinating figure of Hamlet, or the gusty Falstaff amid colorful Elizabethan trappings! I cannot enjoy the beauty of rhythmic movement except in a sphere restricted to the touch of my hands. I can vision only dimly the grace of a Pavloa, although I know something of the delight of rhythm, for often I can sense beat of music as it vibrates through the floor. I can well imagine that cadenced motion must be one of the most pleasing sights in the world. I have been able to gather something of this by tracing with my fingers the lines in sculptured marble, if this static grace can be so lovely, how much more acute must be the thrill of seeing grace of motion.
The following morning, I should again greet the dawn, anxious to discover new delights, new revelations of beauty. Today, this third day, I shall spend in the workaday world, amid the haunts of men going about the business of life. The city becomes my destination.
First, I stand at a busy corner, merely looking at the people trying by sight of them to understand something of their daily lives. I see smiles, and I am happy. I see serious determinations, and I m proud. I see suffering, and I am compassionate.
I stroll down Fifth Avenue. I throw my eyes out of focus, so that I see no particular object but only a seething kaleidoscope of color. I am certain that the colors of woman’s dresses moving in a throng must be a gorgeous spectacle of which I should never tire. But perhaps if I had sight I should be like most other women—too interested in style to give much attention to the splendor of color in the mass.
From Fifth Avenue I make a tour of the city—to the slums, to factories, to parks where children play. I take a stay-at-home trip abroad by visiting the foreign quarters. Always my eyes are open wide to all the sights of both happiness and misery so that I may probe deep and add to my understanding of how people work and live.
My third day of sight is drawing to an end. Perhaps there are many serious pursuits to which I should devote the few remaining of hours, but I am afraid that on the evening of the last day I should again run away to the theater, to a hilariously funny play, so that I might appreciate the overtones of comedy in the human spirit.
At midnight permanent night would close in on me again. Naturally in those three short days I should not have seen all I wanted to see. Only when darkness had again descended upon me should I realize how much I had left unseen.
Perhaps this short outline does not agree with the program you might set for yourself if you knew that you were about to be stricken blind. I am, however, sure that if you faced that fate you would use your eyes as never before. Everything you saw would become dear to you. Your eyes would touch and embrace every object that came within your range of vision. Then, at last, you would really see, and a new world of beauty would open itself to you.
I who am blind can give one hint to those who see: Use your eyes as if tomorrow you would be stricken blind. And the same method can be applied to the other senses. Hear the music of voices, the song of a bird, the mighty strains of an orchestra, as if you would be stricken deaf tomorrow. Touch each object as if tomorrow your tactile sense would fail. Smell the perfume of flowers, taste with relish each morsel, as if tomorrow you could never smell and taste again. Make the most of every sense; glory in all the facets of pleasure and beauty which the world reveals to you through the several means of contact which Nature provides. But of all the senses, I am sure that sight is the most delightful.
When human atrocities run rampant, when ruthless dictators hold a nation captive, that’s when the E-Team is called into action. From Academy Award winning filmmaker Ross Kauffman and Emmy Award nominee Katy Chevigny, the latest Netflix Original Documentary brings you behind enemy lines and into the teeth of the world’s most dangerous war zones. A group of fierce idealists, The E-Team intrepidly risks their lives to expose the truth behind the horrific warcrimes of Bashar al-Assad and Muammar Gaddafi among others, providing a voice to the helpless victims of global genocide. Now streaming. http://www.netflix.com
A GOOD AMERICAN UNCOVERS THE TRUE STORY OF A TERRORIST MONITORING SYSTEM THE U.S. GOVERNMENT LAUNCHED IN THE WAKE OF THE FIRST WORLD TRADE CENTER ATTACK BUT DISCONTINUED JUST WEEKS BEFORE 9/11
Features NSA analyst-turned-whistleblower who was a leading expert on metadata responsible for the world’s most sophisticated global monitoring effort: ThinThread
This is a story about clothing. It’s about the clothes we wear, the people who make them, and the impact the industry is having on our world. The price of clothing has been decreasing for decades, while the human and environmental costs have grown dramatically. The True Cost is a groundbreaking documentary film that pulls back the curtain on the untold story and asks us to consider, who really pays the price for our clothing?
Filmed in countries all over the world, from the brightest runways to the darkest slums, and featuring interviews with the world’s leading influencers including Stella McCartney, Livia Firth and Vandana Shiva, The True Cost is an unprecedented project that invites us on an eye opening journey around the world and into the lives of the many people and places behind our clothes.
This year, over 5 million American kids will be bullied at school, online, on the bus, at home, through their cell phones and on the streets of their towns, making it the most common form of violence young people in this country experience. The Bully Project is the first feature documentary film to show how we’ve all been affected by bullying, whether we’ve been victims, perpetrators or stood silent witness. The world we inhabit as adults begins on the playground. The Bully Project opens on the first day of school. For the more than 5 million kids who’ll be bullied this year in the United States, it’s a day filled with more anxiety and foreboding than excitement. As the sun rises and school busses across the country overflow with backpacks, brass instruments and the rambunctious sounds of raging hormones, this is a ride into the unknown. For a lot of kids, the only thing that’s certain is that this year…
This historically expansive film examines the coal-mining traditions of West Virginia — and the affiliated corporate interests that often risk lives.
‘Blood on the Mountain’ focuses on the environmental and economic injustice and corporate control in West Virginia and its rippling effect on all American workers. This film will tell the story of a hard-working people who have historically had limited choices and have never benefited fairly from the rich natural resources of their land. The failure to diversify the economy has insured control by outside, unrestricted corporations with the support of politicians kept in their positions by these very same companies.
Chronicling programming prodigy Aaron Swartz’s efforts crusading for open access and the resulting legal nightmare and tragedy that ensued, “The Internet’s Own Boy” is a dynamic portrait of a brilliant tech millionaire who renounced the values of Silicon Valley startup culture and used technology to tirelessly fight for social justice, no matter what the cost.
From the creators of Enron and Going Clear comes an all-new Netflix Original Documentary Series exposing the greed, corruption, and crime spreading through our global economy. Dirty Money is now streaming on Netflix. Watch Dirty Money on Netflix: https://www.netflix.com/title/80118100
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A man who was wrongfully convicted of killing his mother has reached a tentative settlement in his lawsuit against the city of Los Angeles in which he accused police detectives of fabricating evidence to put him behind bars for 26 years.
A spokesman for the city attorney’s office did not disclose the terms of the settlement on Monday, saying such information typically remains secret until the Los Angeles City Council votes to approve the agreement.
Bruce Lisker, who was released from prison in 2009 after a Times investigation, also declined to reveal the settlement amount until the council’s approval, but he called the potential resolution of the case “a relief.”
“It’s been a never-ending series of delays and denials and has been extremely painful,” said Lisker, now 50. “It’s been a very emotional ordeal.”
The potential resolution of the case, he said, “will allow me to go on with the rest of my life,” he said.
In his federal lawsuit, Lisker contended that his civil rights were violated by the city, the LAPD and the former detectives who investigated his mother’s March 10, 1983, slaying.
A Times investigation into the case raised questions about key elements of the prosecution’s case against Lisker and exposed the LAPD’s murder investigation as sloppy and incomplete. A federal judge subsequently overturned the conviction, ruling that Lisker had been prosecuted with “false evidence” and that his original defense attorney did not adequately represent him.
At the time of the killing, detectives were immediately suspicious of Lisker, a frizzy-haired 17-year-old who had a history of drug abuse and fighting with his 66-year-old mother, Dorka.
Lisker’s relationship with his parents had deteriorated to the point that they paid for him to live in a studio apartment near their home in Sherman Oaks.
Lisker told police he had come to the family home on the day of the killing to work on his car. When his mother didn’t answer the front door, he said, he went around to the backyard and looked through the living room window and patio sliding glass door. He said he saw his mother lying in the foyer and broke into the house through the kitchen window to come to her aid and call paramedics.
The detectives didn’t believe Lisker and placed him under arrest that day.
The prosecution’s case against Lisker at the time hinged largely on four elements: Blood spatter on his clothes allegedly implicated him; police believed it impossible for him to have seen his mother lying on the floor from outside the house; he allegedly confessed to a jailhouse informant; and police said bloody shoe prints placed only him at the scene.
At an evidentiary hearing in federal court challenging Lisker’s conviction, each of those elements was undermined or disproved.
For example, an LAPD analyst and an FBI expert testified that a bloody print found in the bathroom of the Lisker family’s house and attributed to Lisker at trial was not made by his shoes.
As for Lisker being able to see his mother from a window at the back of the home, experiments first performed by Times reporters and then corroborated by expert testimony proved he could have seen his mother as he had asserted.
Since his release from prison, Lisker has married and now resides in Woodland Hills. He said he has struggled to find work.
The council is expected to vote on the settlement within the next couple of months.
“Finally, there’s an acknowledgment of what me and my family have gone through,” Lisker said.
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Robert Reich, the Former Secretary of Labor of the United States, examines America’s fragile democracy and its fight for survival; as income and wealth go to the top, more Americans are left behind. Now it’s up to those ordinary Americans to change the rules. Saving Capitalism is now streaming, only on Netflix. Watch Saving Capitalism on Netflix: http://www.netflix.com/pn/title/80127558
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The civil justice system has been under heavy attack for over 25 years.
Despite the fact that federal legislation has never been successful, big business interests have won in the hearts and minds of average people. They launched a public relations campaign starting in the mid-80’s and continuing over the last two decades to convince the public that we have out of control juries, too many frivolous lawsuits and a civil justice system that needs reforming. They have used anecdotes, half-truths and sometimes out and out lies in their efforts, for one purpose – to put limits on people’s access to the court system, the one and only place where an average citizen can go toe to toe with those with money and power and still have a shot at justice.
Because of the success of the public relations campaigns, paid for by tobacco, pharmaceutical and insurance companies, to name a few, our civil justice system is not impartial. Jurors have been led to believe that a large verdict will affect their pocketbooks. Voters believe that we have a court system out of control that needs reforming. Although there are consumer advocacy groups who have attempted to set the story straight, there has yet to be enough money to launch the kind of public relations campaign for consumers that can even begin to combat and challenge the public relations campaigns of pro-business and tort reform groups. Over the last few years, however, documentary films and independent film festivals have become a vehicle for alternative ideas to get a public forum.
Because almost everyone has heard about the McDonald’s coffee case, and most people believe they know what it’s about, this project has a fascination for people. Of course, we go much further into the debate than just the McDonald’s coffee case, but the case is a vehicle for people to think about their long held beliefs and whether they are valid. We think this movie has the potential, with the right funding and effort, to really change the way people think about our civil justice system and access to the courts.
Director: Miki Mistrati & U. Roberto Romano | Producer: Helle Faber Genre: Documentary | Produced In: 2010 | Story Teller’s Country: Denmark Tags: Africa, Crime, Denmark, Europe, Human Rights, Ivory Coast, Trafficking
Synopsis: Children in Germany eat chocolate every day of the year. They enjoy the delicious taste of cocoa, which originated in Africa. But behind the production of their delicious treats, there is another taste altogether: the taste of child abusers and child slavery. In this program we will bring the chocolate makers to book, and confront them with our visual evidence. We will reveal the conditions under which the apparently innocuous chocolate bar is produced, and thereafter follow the coco beans’ route from the plantation to the chocolate bar in Germany, all with the consumer oblivious to the full story behind what their chocolate bar actually contains. In the process, those responsible will be held accountable. “The Dark Side of Chocolate” is a journalistic documentary which will reveal for the first time on film the hideous truth behind the manufacturing of German and international chocolate, as sold and enjoyed in Germany and the rest of the world.
Director: Drew Ambrose | Producer: Drew Ambrose, Tiffany Ang, Supriya Sobti Genre: Documentary | Produced In: 2012 | Story Teller’s Country: Qatar Tags: Asia, Economies, Governance, Health, Human Rights, India
Synopsis: Forty-two percent of India’s children, totaling 61 million, are malnourished. The Hunger and Malnutrition report released in early 2012 reveals that levels are double those found in sub-Saharan Africa, making every third malnourished child in the world an Indian. Nowhere else in India is the problem more chronic than in the Madhya Pradesh. According to UNICEF, 55% of the central state’s 10.5 million children suffer from calorie deficiency and acute malnourishment. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has declared the issue a “national shame.” India has one of the fastest-growing economies in the world. For years, the Indian government has tried to combat the problem, instituting the Integrated Child Development Scheme and a public distribution system. This includes setting up local Anganwadi centers to feed underweight children and mothers and running the world’s largest child feeding program, the Mid Day Meal Scheme. On top of this, the Cabinet passed the Food Security Bill in December 2011, in an effort to provide subsidized food grains to 75% of the rural population and half of the urban population. But critics say that the Bill will only gnaw at the federal government’s purse strings and slow down economic growth. Skeptics also question the government’s schemes, saying corruption and lack of administrative support are the root causes for the flawed execution. Anganwadi centers in Madhya Pradesh for example, are reported to have a lack of sufficient beds and are understaffed. The Mid Day Meal Scheme has also come under fire with corrupt local officials eating away at the funds. Meanwhile, a lack of basic hygiene is one serious problem. Critics now say that India may not be able to meet one of its UN Millennium Development Goals of halving malnutrition by 2015. 101 East travels to India and asks why the world’s largest democracy is failing to feed its millions.
Director:Link TV | Producer:Link TV Genre:Documentary | Produced In:2009 | Story Teller’s Country:United States
Tags: Americas, Crime, Human Rights, Race, United States
Synopsis:Torture. The word appears almost daily in the headlines of newspapers across the country. As long-held secrets of the Bush administration’s policies on detention and interrogation are revealed, Americans are increasingly asking questions: behind the closed doors of far-away prisons, what acts were committed in our name? Who committed these acts? And will they be held to account? Can a nation that has committed torture afford to walk away from its past? “Torture on Trial” is a Link TV original production that investigates the history of interrogations in the “War on Terrorism”, and the growing movement calling for accountability for those who authorized and participated in torture. Featured guests include: George Hunsinger, Founder of the National Religious Campaign Against Torture; Jane Mayer, Staff Writer with The New Yorker & Author of “The Dark Side”; Mark Danner, UC Berkeley Journalism Professor, Author of “Torture and Truth” & Contributor to The New York Review of Books; Elisa Massimino, Executive Director of Human Rights First; Col. Lawrence Wilkerson (Ret.), Former Chief of Staff to Secretary of State Colin Powell; Maj. Matthew Alexander, U.S. Air Force Interrogator.
Director:Chinju Prakash | Producer:WAVE
Genre:Documentary | Produced In:2010 | Story Teller’s Country:India
Tags: Asia, Education, Gender, Healing, Health, Oppression
Synopsis:Chinjuprakash shares the story of a vision-impaired girl in Kerala who is a trainer with the Insight program. This program helps differently-abled persons access technology skills, as explored in “Prameela, a Girl with Veiled Vision”.
Anais 