It’s
a Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood! How
many of us, our children and grandchildren, watched – and maybe even made fun
of – Mr. Roger’s Neighborhood?
Fred
Rogers was a remarkable man – a kind and respectful person. If the world were made up of people like Mr.
Rogers, there would not be a need for a blog addressing tolerance – and the
lack thereof.[1]
In
February of 1999, Fred Rogers was inducted into the Television Hall of Fame. This is an excerpt from his speech
(emphasis added):[2]
"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 in 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--day and night!
The
conductor of the orchestra at the Hollywood Bowl grew up in a family that had
little interest in music, but he often tells people he found his early
inspiration from the fine musicians on television.
Last month
a thirteen-year-old boy abducted an eight-year-old girl; and when people asked
him why, he said he learned about it on TV. 'Something different to try,' he
said. 'Life's cheap; what does it matter?'
Well, life
isn't cheap. It's the greatest mystery of any millennium, and television
needs to do all it can to broadcast that ... to show and tell what the
good in life is all about.
But how do we make goodness attractive? By doing whatever we can do to bring courage to those whose lives move
near our own--by treating our 'neighbor' at least as well as we treat ourselves
and allowing that to inform everything that we produce.
Who in
your life has been such a servant to you ... who has helped you love the
good that grows within you? Let's just take ten seconds to think of some of
those people who have loved us and wanted what was best for us in life--those
who have encouraged us to become who we are tonight--just ten seconds of
silence.
[Ten
seconds elapse.]
No matter
where they are--either here or in heaven--imagine how pleased those people must
be to know that you thought of them right now.
We all
have only one life to live on earth. And through television, we have the choice
of encouraging others to demean this life or to cherish it in creative,
imaginative
ways."
“We have only one life to live on earth,”
and most of us are NOT in television.
But each one of us can make a difference in the lives of “the people in
our neighborhood.”
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