Won't You Be My Neighbor

Won’t You Be My Neighbor

Carolyn and I went to see Won’t You Be My Neighbor Friday night.  I was deeply touched by the simple messages of hope and esteem that this man, Fred Rogers, presented.  He gave us esteem, wholesome concepts like honesty, acceptance, responsibility and many other great concepts, during his fifty years of being in the public eye.

And in his theme song, this lyric speaks loudly today.  “Would you be mine?”.

The full lyric is”

“So, let’s make the most of this beautiful day.

Since we’re together we might as well say:

Would you be mine??

I have to couch this in the context of what I’m seeing in our world today, especially in America.  I have been threatened no less than ten times to be unfriended because of the way I voted in the last election.  I have been accused of having less than righteous morals, poor judgment, lacking in mental acuity, and just being plain un-American. 

This is wrong!  It is wrong on so many levels. 

My friends, I live next door to you.  I shop in the same grocery store and buy my gas at the same places you do.  I attended the same college/university as you.  In many cases, I attended the same denominational church you attended.  And now … just because I made a different choice from you, I am a lesser specimen. 

I don’t think so. 

My view … we are neighbors.  You may live in Tennessee, New Mexico, or any other parts of this great land, yet we are neighbors.  The globe has shrunken to ‘everybody is my neighbor.’ 

I never get far from this John Kennedy quote:

Our most basic common like is that

we all inhabit this planet. 

We all breathe the same air. 

We all cherish our children's future. 

And we are all mortal. 

We get to choose.  We get to vote as we see fit.  We get to voice our opinions.  And it stops there.  We don’t coerce, we don’t force a decision for who or what or how to believe, and we don’t threaten or commit violence if we don’t get our way.  After all, we all breathe the same air.  And we cherish our futures and those of our kids and grandkids.

We are reasonable adults, and I call upon reasonable and responsible actions from all of us in managing our frustrations, our angst, our disappointments and our concerns. 

And, perhaps, I call for prayer for ALL of our leaders.  A L L !

I hope to God a civil war never shows its ugly face on our land again.  I pray for tolerance, understanding, and a grand sense of “won’t you be my neighbor” to come sweeping over all of us.

What do you say … neighbor?

This is what is on

my mind today.

P Michael Biggs

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