The ‘radical’ legacy of television’s Mister Rogers

[MrScorpio]

By Peter Smith / Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
LATROBE — When he died in 2003, Fred Rogers was described in many headlines as gentle, beloved, kind and — of course — neighborly.

But how about radical? Counter-cultural? Trouble-maker?

Scholars and others are using such adjectives as they assess the legacy of the late creator and host of the long-running “Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood.”

For all his much-parodied gentle voice and manner, the Latrobe native actually worked from a steely social conscience. He used his program, with its non-threatening benign puppets, songs and conversation, to raise provocative topics such as war, peace, race, gender and poverty with his audience of preschoolers and their parents — patiently guiding them across the minefields of late 20th century political and social change.

Mr. Rogers was no “meek and mild pushover,” wrote Michael Long, author of the recent book, “Peaceful Neighbor: Discovering the Countercultural Mister Rogers.”

Mr. Rogers was “a quiet but strong American prophet who, with roots in progressive spirituality, invited us to make the world into a counter-cultural neighborhood of love,” said Mr. Long, a professor of religious studies and peace and conflict studies at Elizabethtown (Pa.) College.

An early example could be seen on a recent afternoon in a classroom at the Fred Rogers Center for Early Learning and Children’s Media on the campus of St. Vincent College in Latrobe. The center was formed to carry on his legacy, and that includes learning to be bold advocates when needed, said its co-director, Junlei Li.

Mr. Li, a professor of psychological science, is teaching a seminar this semester titled, “What Would Fred Rogers Do?”.



http://www.post-gazette.com/news/education/2016/03/27/The-radical-legacy-of-television-s-Mister-Rogers/stories/201602170201

[Brickbat]

1. He was amazing. The closest thing to a hero I have.

[HuckleB]

2. K & R!

[Sinistrous]

3. So happy to see his legacy persists.

[annabanana]

4. He was the real deal. . . .n/t

[steve2470]

5. I actually cried real tears when he died

It always pained me to see people mock and ridicule him. He was a great guy.


for Mr. Rodgers

[TlalocW]

7. He took it in stride

And even liked it when it wasn't mean-spirited.

http://www.fredrogers.org/facebook/eddie-murphy.html

TlalocW

[awoke_in_2003]

9. I wonder if the first thought

that went through Eddie's head when he opened the door was "oh shit"

[fishwax]

12. yeah, i did too.

He definitely made the world a better place.

[U4ikLefty]

25. Me too, I was shocked at how hard I took his passing.

He was a good person.

[napkinz]

6. Mister Rogers defending PBS to the US Senate In May 1969

[C Moon]

14. That was awesome!

[napkinz]

21. a soft-spoken, articulate, compassionate advocate for children got through to that chairman

love that last line, "“It looks like you just earned the 20 million dollars."

[FSogol]

8. K&R. Pittsburgh named one of their 3 main bridges after him and erected this statue

(The other two bridges are named after Roberto Clemente and Andy Warhol)

[mountain grammy]

15. How nice. If I'm ever in Pittsburgh, I'll visit this.

He was my favorite. I watched him with my children for years.

[FSogol]

16. One of my favs. I watched him as kid. n/t

[Demonaut]

17. the Bridge is nice..that statue...not so much..

he looks like a mud man..or worse

[FSogol]

18. It looks better in person. n/t

[jwirr]

10. As a strong Democrat and social activist I raised my children

on Mr. Rogers and was never disappointed. I am glad that they real Fred Rogers is being brought out again. LOVE.

[Orrex]

11. Anyone who hasn't seen it should watch this clip right now:

This quiet, gentle man utterly commanded a roomful of A-List celebrities simply by calling upon the virtues of gratitude and humility.


A rare and magnificent human being, sorely missed.

[hibbing]

20. Dang it...kleenex time

Thanks for posting this, I had not seen it.

I thought the article was really interesting.


Peace

[Orrex]

22. The first time I saw that video I was a wreck

The most striking moment IMO is when he calls for the ten seconds of silence and someone in the audience chuckles, thinking it's a gag. But Mr. Rogers patiently looks at his watch, and everyone in the room quickly realizes what they've witnessed.

Even the boundlessly cynical Cracked.com reveres him and recognizes what a treasure he was.

[Javaman]

13. where are all the Mr. Rogers today?

He was a gentle voice for me in my violent house when I was growing up.

[Demonaut]

19. I fell for the internet hoax about his military service...oh well

still a great man

[Skittles]

23. Mr. Rogers and Bob Ross were awesome

calm and cool

[rug]

24. Their audience all grew up so fast.

[Skittles]

27. WOW!

[Recursion]

26. My favorite bio of him

http://www.thedqtimes.com/pages/castpages/other/fredrogerscanyousayheropg1.htm

ONCE UPON A TIME, there was a boy who didn't like himself very much. It was not his fault. He was born with cerebral palsy. Cerebral palsy is something that happens to the brain. It means that you can think but sometimes can't walk, or even talk. This boy had a very bad case of cerebral palsy, and when he was still a little boy, some of the people entrusted to take care of him took advantage of him instead and did things to him that made him think that he was a very bad little boy, because only a bad little boy would have to live with the things he had to live with. In fact, when the little boy grew up to be a teenager, he would get so mad at himself that he would hit himself, hard, with his own fists and tell his mother, on the computer he used for a mouth, that he didn't want to live anymore, for he was sure that God didn't like what was inside him any more than he did. He had always loved Mister Rogers, though, and now, even when he was fourteen years old, he watched the Neighborhood whenever it was on, and the boy's mother sometimes thought that Mister Rogers was keeping her son alive. She and the boy lived together in a city in California, and although she wanted very much for her son to meet Mister Rogers, she knew that he was far too disabled to travel all the way to Pittsburgh, so she figured he would never meet his hero, until one day she learned through a special foundation designed to help children like her son that Mister Rogers was coming to California and that after he visited the gorilla named Koko, he was coming to meet her son.

At first, the boy was made very nervous by the thought that Mister Rogers was visiting him. He was so nervous, in fact, that when Mister Rogers did visit, he got mad at himself and began hating himself and hitting himself, and his mother had to take him to another room and talk to him. Mister Rogers didn't leave, though. He wanted something from the boy, and Mister Rogers never leaves when he wants something from somebody. He just waited patiently, and when the boy came back, Mister Rogers talked to him, and then he made his request. He said, "I would like you to do something for me. Would you do something for me?" On his computer, the boy answered yes, of course, he would do anything for Mister Rogers, so then Mister Rogers said, "I would like you to pray for me. Will you pray for me?" And now the boy didn't know how to respond. He was thunderstruck. Thunderstruck means that you can't talk, because something has happened that's as sudden and as miraculous and maybe as scary as a bolt of lightning, and all you can do is listen to the rumble. The boy was thunderstruck because nobody had ever asked him for something like that, ever. The boy had always been prayed for. The boy had always been the object of prayer, and now he was being asked to pray for Mister Rogers, and although at first he didn't know if he could do it, he said he would, he said he'd try, and ever since then he keeps Mister Rogers in his prayers and doesn't talk about wanting to die anymore, because he figures Mister Rogers is close to God, and if Mister Rogers likes him, that must mean God likes him, too.

As for Mister Rogers himself…well, he doesn't look at the story in the same way that the boy did or that I did. In fact, when Mister Rogers first told me the story, I complimented him on being so smart—for knowing that asking the boy for his prayers would make the boy feel better about himself—and Mister Rogers responded by looking at me at first with puzzlement and then with surprise. "Oh, heavens no, Tom! I didn't ask him for his prayers for him; I asked for me. I asked him because I think that anyone who has gone through challenges like that must be very close to God. I asked him because I wanted his intercession."

ON DECEMBER 1, 1997—oh, heck, once upon a time—a boy, no longer little, told his friends to watch out, that he was going to do something "really big" the next day at school, and the next day at school he took his gun and his ammo and his earplugs and shot eight classmates who had clustered for a prayer meeting. Three died, and they were still children, almost. The shootings took place in West Paducah, Kentucky, and when Mister Rogers heard about them, he said, "Oh, wouldn't the world be a different place if he had said, 'I'm going to do something really little tomorrow,'" and he decided to dedicate a week of the Neighborhood to the theme "Little and Big." He wanted to tell children that what starts out little can sometimes become big, and so that could devote themselves to little dreams without feeling bad about them. But how could Mister Rogers show little becoming big, and vice versa? That was a challenge. He couldn't just say it, the way he could always just say to the children who watch his program that they are special to him, or even sing it, the way he would always sing "It's You I Like" and "Everybody's Fancy" and "It's Such a Good Feeling" and "Many Ways to Say I Love You" and "Sometimes People Are Good." No, he had to show it, he had to demonstrate it, and that's how Mister Rogers and the people who work for him eventually got the idea of coming to New York City to visit a woman named Maya Lin.

[Odin2005]

28. Christ, did he really die 13 years ago already?

[TipTok]

29. The worst insult I know...

[napkinz]

30. kick