In addition to being Presidents' Day, today happens to be the 50th anniversary of the debut of PBS’s Mr. Roger’s Neighborhood. Unlike the current occupant of the White House, who, as President, will doubtlessly, regrettably, suck deserved attention away from a real American icon worthy of celebration—Fred Rogers, star of the iconic children’s program, represented everything and every value we hoped to impart to our children. His lessons were carefully taught with conviction, patience and Rogers’ trademark gentility. Somehow, as a nation, we managed to fail at learning every single one of them.
“When I was very young, most of my childhood heroes wore capes, flew through the air, or picked up buildings with one arm. They were spectacular and got a lot of attention. But as I grew, my heroes changed, so that now I can honestly say that anyone who does anything to help a child is a hero to me.”
Today, we witness a weekly massacre of our school-age children at the hands of rampant gun violence while many more of our most vulnerable young Americans languish in the desperation of nutritional vulnerability, inadequate healthcare, and reinvigorated intolerance of cultural, racial, and sexual identity. And it’s getting worse by the day.
“I would like to tell you [children] what I often told you when you were much younger: I like you just the way you are.”
…Unless you were brought to America when you were an undocumented immigrant. In that case, you are a criminal and a scourge. Unless you someday feel an intimate attraction to a member of the same sex, in which case you are a godless pervert. Unless you were born to a poor family forced onto government assistance, in which case you are a lazy, terrible burden.
“Love isn’t a state of perfect caring. It is an active noun like struggle. To love someone is to strive to accept that person exactly the way he or she is, right here and now."
Our national empathy meter is reading zero at the moment. Differences are no longer a part of the woven fabric of our collective American culture, but rather are causes for prejudice, derision, and rejection.
“Fame is a four-letter word; and like tape or zoom or face or pain or life or love, what ultimately matters is what we do with it. I feel that those of us on television are chosen to be servants. It doesn’t matter what our particular job, we are chosen to help meet the deeper needs of those who watch and listen.”
Kim Kardashian. Alex Jones. Sean Hannity. Donald Trump.
“One of the greatest dignities of humankind is that each successive generation is invested in the welfare of each new generation.”
We have mortgaged our children’s future by piling unmanageable debt onto our young ones while obliterating the environment, deepening income inequality, and decimating public education.
“As human beings, our job in life is to help people realize how rare and valuable each one of us really is, that each of us has something that no one else has—or ever will have—something inside that is unique to all time. It’s our job to encourage each other to discover that uniqueness and to provide ways of developing expression.”
...Unless you are an African-American protesting police violence in a racially stigmatized neighborhood. Or a peaceful, patriotic Muslim. Or a black NFL quarterback kneeling to call attention to a cause. Or a woman in the workplace struggling to overcome the indignity of misogyny or harassment. Or a transgender citizen who happens to need to pee.
“It’s a beautiful day in the neighborhood, a beautiful day for a neighbor. Would you be mine? Could you be mine? Won’t you be my neighbor?”
…Unless you are desperately fleeing a ravaged, war-torn country full of brown people. In that case, to hell with all that touchy-feely neighborly shit—stay the fuck out of my country.
It’s telling, and quite sad, that conservative Americans, along with our current president, somehow even have enough hateful animosity left over to fuel the urge to fire torpedoes into the very platform on which Fred Rogers attempted to impart all these universally valuable lessons to our children, vowing to destroy PBS, NPR and the National Endowment for the Arts by choking off their modest funding forever.
Decades ago, Fred Rogers was the very best kind of American, investing an entire life in the betterment of society, particularly as it related to children. What happened? How did we land so far afield of his teaching? As the generation that grew up on Mr. Rogers’ Neighborhood, I thought we’d be a lot better off by now. We should be.
Mr. Rogers deserves a way better Golden Anniversary than this.
