The World According to Fred Rogers—Part 5

“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 the helpers.”–Fred Rogers

Be a helper. In all the divisiveness and “us v. them”, we need sensible people to be bridges—to help unify. We need healers. We need people who can be trusted to pick us up when we fall and protect us when we are attacked.

On thing that angers me most on social media are the videos (yeah, I could pretty much stop here) of people being bullied, attacked, abused, harassed, etc. Put the damn smart phone down and help! We are a society of bystanders. It is shameful.

In the parable of the “good Samaritan”, it was the man who was despised by the man to be helped—not the religious passers—who cared for the man in the ditch and was called a “good neighbor”.  Think about that.

Mr. Rogers told us children: “You will always find helpers.”  Sadly, I am not so sure that is right anymore.  It doesn’t help, either, that we are teaching kids to fear the would-be helper.

Time to step up and be helpers—to be good neighbors (no exceptions).

Be your best today; be better tomorrow.

Carpe momento!

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