Perhaps, you remember Mr. Rogers. I just read about one show in 1969; black Americans were barred from swimming alongside whites, Mr. Rogers invited Officer Clemmons to join him and cool his feet in a plastic wading pool, breaking a well-known color barrier. And there they were, brown feet and white feet, side by side in the water, silently, contemplatively, without comment. The episode culminated with Rogers drying off Clemmons’ feet. The real weight the episode carried, its scriptural overtones, found in John 13:34, “A new commandment I give unto you, that ye love one another; as I have loved you, that ye also love one another.” The spiritual overtones were missed by many, but the image of a white man tending to the needs of a black man was seared in their minds, nonetheless. Years later, when Officer Clemmons asked Mr. Rogers what he was thinking during that silent interlude, his answer, “I love you.”
This week of protecting and riots ends with the burial of George Floyd, In a world screaming out for tolerance, acceptance, kindness, and love – choose to be a Fred Rogers – because if more people could find a way to love others the way he did, without barriers, this world would be a much better place. I believe Mr. Rogers would have taken a knee.