Dem
47
GOP
53
There are many great anecdotes about Fred Rogers. The time, for example, that his car was stolen. When word got out that it wasn't just anyone's car, it was Mr. Rogers' car, the thieves returned it the next day, to the very spot where they had taken it from. Or the fact that, whenever he fed his fish on the show, he always explained verbally what he was doing. That is because he'd gotten a letter from a young, blind viewer who wanted to be certain the fish were OK. Oh, and speaking of fan letters, Mr. Rogers answered them all, all by himself. There's even a collection of them, entitled Dear Mister Rogers, Does It Ever Rain in Your Neighborhood?
Of course, Mr. Rogers was also a trailblazer. He did not invent children's television, but he basically did establish that children's television could engage with serious subjects, as long as it was in an age-appropriate manner. Most famously, after seeing the (rather terrifying) "instructional" classroom film Duck and Cover, he once did a whole week on nuclear war. Behind the scenes, one of the key cast members on Mr. Rogers' Neighborhood was François Scarborough Clemmons, who played, well... Officer Clemmons. Clemmons, who is still among us, is gay. Mr. Rogers, who was an ordained Presbyterian minister, knew Clemmons was gay. And while that could not plausibly be incorporated into a children's show of that era, Mr. Rogers made clear that Clemmons would not be terminated on the basis of his sexuality. That was an unusually tolerant attitude for nearly any person of that time, much less for an ordained minister.
And then there is one of the most famous incidents from Mr. Rogers' career. In the late 1960s, the Senate Committee on Commerce's Subcommittee on Communications was holding hearings to decide whether or not to slash the budget for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting by half, from $20 million to $10 million. The chair of the Subcommittee was Sen. John Pastore (D-RI), a budget hawk known for being a hardass. On May 1, 1969, Mr. Rogers appeared in order to testify. You can read his remarks here, or you can watch them:
It was masterful, full of the empathy and the gentle good humor for which Mr. Rogers was so well known. Pastore was completely won over, and admitted he had "goose bumps." The Senator concluded: "I think it's wonderful. I think it's wonderful. Looks like you just earned the 20 million dollars." In fact, the Senate eventually ended up bumping the total to $22 million.
Yesterday, on reading about the decision-making going on in Congress, we were reminded of this rather famous incident. And we weren't the only ones; the footage of Mr. Rogers' appearance was all over the place yesterday. Back then, there was a lot of decency to go around, even if one person had a D after their name, and another person had an R (and although he did not broadcast it, Mr. Rogers was indeed an R). One can only hope that the nation eventually gets back to that place, one of these days.
Have a good weekend, all! (Z)