I remember my mother plotting me down in front of the television to watch this show, along with Sesame Street. And you know what? I'm glad she did! I hardly spoke any English at the age of 6 and 7, and I attribute these shows to helping me become a Spelling Bee contestant and winner as I went from grade to grade. I had 12th grade spelling by the time I was in 5th or 6th.
Rogers, educated as a minister, was displeased with the way television was addressing children, and he made every effort to change this over his career, and he did. During the Nixon Administration, the president wanted to cut funding to the Public Broadcasting Service, and Mr. Rogers was having none of it.
He went directly to the Senate offices in 1969 and spoke for 6 minutes of what was supposed to be a 20 minute speech, and got $20 million dollars for it. One of the senators, Sen. John Pastore, a Democrat from Rhode Island (the same man who had led a crusade against the impropriety of commercial broadcast network TV content - wasn't exactly inclined to approve the funding.) went so far as to say, "I'm supposed to a pretty tough guy, and this is the first time I've had goosebumps for the last 2 days."The story only gets so much better, but you have to see the video to see, hear and feel what I'm talking about. It's pretty darn emotional -- pretty darn amazing. I love you, Mr. Rogers. You have made a difference in my life, and I thank God for you.
