This I Believe, Radio Broadcast with Edward R. Murrow, 1951

Transcription

"This I Believe"
Broadcast by
Helen Keller
Humanitarian

MURROW: This I Believe. As everybody knows, Helen Keller was stricken deaf and blind, as a baby. But this miraculous woman lived to become a symbol of courage to millions. Today, though over 70, she confidently travels the world as a counsillor (sic) for the American Foundation for the Blind. In the voice she has learned to use but cannot hear, she introduces her creed.

KELLER: It is Helen Keller who salutes you. You are not familiar with my voice. But my friend Polly Thompson (sic) will interpret the beliefs I have written from my soul:

THOMPSON (sic): I choose for my subject faith wrought into life, apart from creed or dogma. By faith I mean a vision of good one cherishes and the enthusiasm that pushes one to seek its fulfillment regardless of obstacles. Faith is a dynamic power that breaks the chain of routine and gives a new, fine turn to old commonplaces. Faith reinvigorates the will, enriches the affections and awakens a sense of creativeness.

Active faith knows no fear, and it is a safeguard to me against cynicism and despair. After all, faith is not one thing or two or three things, it is an indivisible totality of beliefs that inspire me - Belief in God as infinite good will and all seeing Wisdom whose everlasting Arms sustain me walking on the sea of life. Trust in my fellow men, wonder at their fundamental goodness and confidence that after this night of sorrow and oppression they will rise up strong and beautiful in the glory of morning. Reverence for the beauty and preciousness of earth, and a sense of responsibility to do what I can to make it a habitation of health and plenty for all men. Faith in immortality because it renders less bitter the separation from those I have loved and lost, and because it will free me from unnatural limitations and unfold still more faculties I have in joyous activity. Even if my vital spark should be blown out, I believe that I should behave with courageous dignity in the presence of fate and strive to be a worthy companion of the Beautiful, the Good and the True. But fate has its master in the faith of those who surmount it, and limitation has its limits for those who, though disillusioned, live greatly. True faith is not a fruit of security, it is the ability to blend mortal fragility with the inner strength of the Spirit. It does not shift with the changing shades of one's thought.

It was a terrible blow to my faith when I learned that millions of my fellow-creatures must labor all their days for food and shelter, bear the most crushing burdens and die without having known the joy of living. My security vanished forever, and I have never regained the radiant belief of my younger years that earth is a happy home and hearth for the majority of mankind.

But faith is a state of mind. The believer is not soon disheartened.

When I think of the suffering and famine, and the continued slaughter of men, my spirit bleeds, but the thought comes to me that, like the little deaf, dumb and blind child I once was, mankind is growing out of the darkness of ignorance and hate and into the light of a brighter day.

MURROW: You have heard the beliefs of Helen Keller, introduced by her own voice and interpreted by Polly Thompson (sic), who for nearly 40 years has helped her emerge from a blind and deaf mute's prison to communicate so richly with the world.

Related Articles

• Miss Keller's Favorite Quotation from the Bible
• Letter to Mr. Clemens from Miss Keller (December 8, 1905, draft)
• Walt Whitman (n.d., draft; document source not identified)
• The Simplest Way to be Happy, as published in Home Magazine, (February, 1933)
• Letter to Miss Keller from Franklin D. Roosevelt (January 12, 1942)
• My Luminous Universe, as published in Guideposts, (1956)
• Miss Keller's Favorite Quotation from the Bible
• Letter to Miss Keller from S.L. Clemens (December 6, 1905)