After watching and being a fan of Sesame Street for many years, I've recently begun to wonder about the people behind the set: the puppeteers, the props, even Elmo's goldfish Dorothy. What are their stories? How did they come about? How do the face, clothes and personality come together to eventually make a character who teaches my son about counting? This morning's episode, though we've seen it dozens of times, led me to also wonder about Mr. Rogers. You know, the super-friendly neighborhood guy who began and ended each episode by changing his sweater and shoes. What was his life story? What led him to his career in children's television, thus introducing him to American-icon status? I'd heard of a story floating around that he was a sniper in Vietnam, held the title of highest number of kills during the war and had tattoos covering his arms. Supposedly, the Mr. Rogers we know and love for so many years was concealing his past. I couldn't bring myself to believe it, so I did a little digging on one of my favorite websites, www.snopes.com. Turns out, he wasn't hiding anything. At all.
The website doesn't allow copying and pasting, so here's a link to the article. It makes for an interesting read.
http://http://www.snopes.com/radiotv/tv/mrrogers.asp
Why do we do this to the people who least deserve it? All he wanted to do (and did) was to bring joy and education to children watching at home. Are we that desperate to bring fault and deceit to others in order to make up for something lacking in ourselves?
Maybe those are questions Mr. Rogers could have answered.
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