Our Neighbor Mister Rogers

December 5, 2022

Many years ago, before a lot of us were even born, we had Mister Rogers. He was the most gracious man in all of history. I wish he was still alive today to help us in this world. He was kind and generous and talked about many feelings, some of them were serious. There was an episode on his TV show where he shared a pool with a policeman known as Officer Clemmons to promote the rights of those who felt they did not belong.

His spirit lives on in Daniel Tiger’s Neighborhood, it may not be the same, but it still talks about the same stuff.  The songs share the same advice as Mister Rogers did.

His sixth cousin Tom Hanks portrayed him in the movie A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood. I tried my best to watch it, but no matter how hard I tried, I couldn’t stop crying. I cried throughout the entire movie. I visit the Mister Rogers statute on the North Shore when I have spare time. Or before my volunteer shift at the Carnegie Science Center.  I cry when he sings the final song, Good Feeling. I even cried when I was writing this tribute.

If Mister Rogers was our neighbor in McKeesport, I believe that he would visit children, teens, and other community neighbors. I wish he was still alive to help us during these troubling times. I believe he is looking down from heaven and maybe he feels disappointed by what the world has turned into since his passing. I know this is not the world he would want us to live in. He would tell us to be good, kind and generous to others no matter what. Through good or bad times, we should be there for others because he always was there for people who needed his help when he was alive.

I believe if Mister Rogers was alive he would be making the world a better place.  He appeared on many TV shows, especially kid shows such as Arthur the Aardvark, Sesame Street, and so many more. They made us feel special in our own way. I remember the time when Mister Rogers told Arthur when he was bullied, it did not matter what others thought of him. “Real friends don’t make other real friends feel bad about themselves.” he said.

I still think Mister Rogers would want us to talk about our feelings, instead of hiding them. He was always teaching us to talk about our problems. I feel that a lot of us have forgotten this. If we watched Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood episodes on YouTube, I believe we would be inspired to share what we learned from him with younger generations.

His song It’s You That I Like tells us to accept others just the way they are. I am glad in many of the episodes, he says directly to the camera “Just by being you” as if he was talking only to us. It made me feel that he accepted all of us, no matter how we look or if we are a different color or disabled. It didn’t really matter. We were all accepted by one man. May his legacy live on in our memories and in our hearts.

“It’s such a good feeling to know you’re alive. It’s such happy feeling. You’re growing inside and when you wake ready to say I think I’ll make a snappy today. It’s good feeling. A very good feeling. The feeling you know that I’ll be back when the day is new. And I’ll have more ideas for you and you’ll have things to talk about. I will too”

God bless, Mister Rogers.
- Maria Palmer