Mr. Rogers is dead. The first television show I was allowed to watch was Mr. Roger’s Neighborhood and I’m sure it was the same for a lot of people my age. There are a lot of articles today about the man (I used Google’s news page to find them) and they all echo the same sentiments.
How rare is it to find someone who is so universally admired? Sure you can outgrow Mr. Rogers, but you just can’t pick at the guy. The NPR article says that he was an ordained Presbyterian minister, but he never proselytized on the show. The reason I bring this up is because a big charity at Northwestern switched their beneficiary this year due to the proposed one having ties to Opus Dei.
Yeesh. I went to a summer program that had Opus Dei ties (although I remember my parents talking to the pastor, don’t remember about what) with a mixture of kids, from Catholic to atheist. Went to Jesuit high school. I’m no brainwashed crazy.
Maybe it’s wrong to mix the two issues. If I wanted to get really nutty, I’d throw in Bush’s support for faith based community centers. Swerving away now… In the end, it’s all about teaching values. Like Mr. Rogers did. And I support that.