The Legacy of Fred Rogers

Recently, while watching the documentary 'Won't You Be My Neighbor' I was reminded of Fred Rogers' revolutionary impact on our culture and the lasting legacy of peace, kindness, understanding, and love he has bestowed upon a society not always accepting or entirely cognizant of his message or the impact of his life's work.

For nearly five decades, Mr. Rogers Neighborhood invited America's children (and open minded adults) into a world where their feelings and needs were regarded as valid, necessary, and essential to a sense of self still in the process of development. Implicit in his message throughout the years was the belief that all children (young and old) have an essential integrity and are to be regarded with equal respect. He consistently delivered this underlying theme with a caring gentleness of spirit that permeated the confines of the 'neighborhood' while providing a safe and predictable structure in which the world of the child was deeply understood, validated, and honored.

In so doing, Fred Rogers posited an alternative mode of being and a challenge to a prevailing male archetype. In a culture infused with conflict where violence (especially among the male population) is variously accepted, promoted, celebrated, taught, valued, and otherwise revered, his peaceful, kind, and loving presence stood in stark contrast with the surrounding ethos of the society in which he was operating and attempting to change with each visitation into his special world. Not surprisingly, his efforts, while universally praised by early childhood development experts, were met with resistance by segments of the larger society who felt his affirmation of 'just the way you are' was a repudiation of the concept contained in 'earning your way' and consequently yielded a generation of entitled citizens expecting recognition for their 'special uniqueness' instead of earning their way in the real world of competitive striving. Accordingly, he became the object of ridicule, scorn, and mean spirited defamation probably in direct proportion to the extent to which he simultaneously was challenging the prevailing paradigm of acceptable male behavior and societal norms.

In the meantime, the children and whomever chose to accept the wisdom of his implicit teaching continued to benefit by the persistent example of this gentle revolutionary. Thank you, Fred Rogers for inspiring us to see the world through the eyes of a child, reconnect with our abiding innocence, and help forge the path of the peaceful warrior toward a better tomorrow.