Mr. Rogers and Drone Strikes
I can’t imagine he’d approve
In order to comfort people after a tragedy, Mr. Rogers famously said “When I was a boy and I would see scary things in the news, my mother would say to me, ‘Look for the helpers. You will always find people who are helping.’”
If you were to look for the helpers after an American drone strike, you know what you might see? You’d be liable to see them get blown to smithereens by another drone strike. They’re called double taps.
In Peaceful Neighbor, Michael Long describes the radical pacifism of Fred Rogers. An excerpt of the book description is below:
Fred Rogers was one of the most radical pacifists of contemporary history. We do not usually think of him as radical, partly because he wore colorful, soft sweaters made by his mother. Nor do we usually imagine him as a pacifist; that adjective seems way too political to describe the host of a children’s program known for its focus on feelings. We have restricted Fred Rogers to the realm of entertainment, children, and feelings, and we’ve ripped him out of his political and religious context. Rogers was an ordained Presbyterian minister, and although he rarely shared his religious convictions on his program, he fervently believed in a God who accepts us as we are and who desires a world marked by peace and wholeness. With this progressive spirituality as his inspiration, Rogers used his children’s program as a platform for sharing countercultural beliefs about caring nonviolently for one another, animals, and the earth.
To critics who dared call him “namby-pamby,” Rogers said, “Only people who take the time to see our work can begin to understand the depth of it.”
If you have fond memories of Mr. Rogers from childhood or were moved by the recent documentary about Mr. Rogers or the new Tom Hanks movie or the profile of Mr. Rogers the writing of which the movie was based on or the more recent reflections of that author on Mr. Rogers, maybe consider whether our foreign policy is in line with Mr. Rogers teachings.
