One of the favorite things I remember about my early childhood was the time that I spent every day in Mr. Rogers’ Neighborhood.  That, coupled with Sesame Street, and then followed with Reading Rainbow, was enough to send my imagination reeling for the day.  My 18 month old son is just getting to the age where he can enjoy this stuff, and it thrills me.

So when I ran across this article, I thought it was just too great to pass up.  Fred Rogers was really a great man, both on screen and off, and the list displays some of his greatest moments.  A couple of my favorites:

4. He Saved Both Public Television and the VCR
Strange but true. When the government wanted to cut Public Television funds in 1969, the relatively unknown Mister Rogers went to Washington. Almost straight out of a Capra film, his 5-6 minute testimony on how TV had the potential to give kids hope and create more productive citizens was so simple but passionate that even the most gruff politicians were charmed. While the budget should have been cut, the funding instead jumped from $9 to $22 million. Rogers also spoke to Congress, and swayed senators into voting to allow VCR’s to record television shows from the home. It was a cantankerous debate at the time, but his argument was that recording a program like his allowed working parents to sit down with their children and watch shows as a family.

5. He Might Have Been the Most Tolerant American Ever
Mister Rogers seems to have been almost exactly the same off-screen as he was onscreen. Despite being an ordained Presbyterian minister, and a man of tremendous faith, Mister Rogers preached tolerance first. Whenever he was asked to castigate non-Christians or gays for their differing beliefs, he would instead face them and say, with sincerity, “God loves you just the way you are.” Often this provoked ire from fundamentalists.

The whole article is great, so head over and check it out.