"When I was in kindergarten, I was pushed into a water fountain, and split my lip open. I had to go to the hospital to get stitches, but instead of being scared, I was just really excited, since everything I saw was just like the "Going to the Hospital" episode of Mr. Rogers I has seen earlier that week.
My mom wrote a letter to Mr. Rogers thanking him for his show helping me through what could've been quite a traumatic experience, and Mr. Rogers actually wrote back two letters, one signed "Fred Rogers" that was addressed to my mom, and one signed "Mr. Rogers" that was addressed to me." (commenter on Fark)
I wasn't planning on writing anything about Mr. Rogers, but I was reading comments about him on Fark, like the one above, and it made me emotional to see how many people he touched.
I think there are no good or bad people, only people who do good or bad actions. Mr. Rogers may be the one exception to this rule. Over the years, everything I read about him suggests that he devoted his total energy to being kind to others, to understanding people's suffering and easing it at the same time. Mr. Rogers’ warmth and sensitivity towards other people was so great that I can conceive of him being one of the few people able to resist, every day, the desires to be mean or hurtful that we all get because of the pain it would cause someone.
Everyone has flaws, but the image I have of Mr. Rogers is that he overcame the negative part of human nature as much as any human can. Maybe there exists a saccharine image of him in the media, but I’ve read so many personal stories that suggest otherwise. I still hold onto my belief that there are no good or bad people, only people who do good or bad actions. But it’s a belief that Mr. Rogers has shaken, if even for just a little.
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