WEBVTT - Feed the Fish 0:00:00.160 --> 0:00:02.559 Teething can be a real nightmare for your little ones. 0:00:02.640 --> 0:00:05.960 Highlands Naturals Baby oral pain relief tablets can help ease 0:00:06.000 --> 0:00:09.119 the pain. It's gentle, natural active ingredients like camemeo and 0:00:09.200 --> 0:00:12.280 arnica suite your baby's mouth, and gums made with ingredients 0:00:12.280 --> 0:00:15.640 derived from plant minerals and other sources free of harsh chemicals. 0:00:15.640 --> 0:00:18.319 You can count on Highlands for serious pain relief for 0:00:18.360 --> 0:00:21.079 your teething baby. Highlands is a kinder way to care 0:00:21.120 --> 0:00:24.239 for teething. Visit Highlands dot com slash kind that's h 0:00:24.400 --> 0:00:27.160 y l a n ds dot com. Slash kind claims 0:00:27.160 --> 0:00:29.840 based on traditional homeopathrocractice, not accept the medical evidence, not 0:00:29.880 --> 0:00:34.559 ft evaluated. Hi. I'm Abne Moone and I'm Ricked Schwartz 0:00:37.120 --> 0:00:39.720 and we're here from the San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance, 0:00:39.800 --> 0:00:42.720 the global conservation organization behind the world chame of San 0:00:42.720 --> 0:00:46.519 Diego Zoo and Safari Park, and together we're excited to 0:00:46.560 --> 0:00:52.480 announce the podcast Amazing Wildlife. Here incredible stories about wildlife 0:00:52.520 --> 0:00:54.800 and the global efforts to save it as we explore 0:00:54.840 --> 0:00:58.840 the connection between humans, wildlife, and the environment. Listen to 0:00:58.880 --> 0:01:02.440 Amazing Wildlife. I'm I heart Radio app Apple podcast or 0:01:02.520 --> 0:01:09.600 wherever you get your podcasts easier mental and physical stresses 0:01:09.640 --> 0:01:12.520 with the natural ingredients of Infinite c D d R 0:01:12.560 --> 0:01:16.400 CBD products are all manufactured in house, infused for consistency, 0:01:16.480 --> 0:01:19.200 and available in a wide range of easy to use forms. 0:01:19.400 --> 0:01:22.560 Visit infinite cbd dot com and start feeling better today. 0:01:24.160 --> 0:01:27.360 It is so warm in my neighborhood today that I 0:01:27.440 --> 0:01:31.480 thought I would just get some water in this little 0:01:31.520 --> 0:01:37.080 pond and cool off my feet. In May of nine, 0:01:38.600 --> 0:01:40.840 Mr Rogers Neighborhood has only been on TV for a 0:01:40.840 --> 0:01:44.240 little more than a year. Mr Rogers arrives to his 0:01:44.319 --> 0:01:48.440 house carrying a kiddie pool. Let's now go get the water, 0:01:48.680 --> 0:01:52.440 all right. Of course, it's not a hot summer day. 0:01:52.840 --> 0:01:55.000 Mr Rogers has taped in a sound stage at w 0:01:55.120 --> 0:01:57.960 q e D in Pittsburgh, and the episode aired early 0:01:58.000 --> 0:02:00.880 in May, so it was probably taped somewhere around mid April, 0:02:00.880 --> 0:02:04.440 if not earlier. Some children think that when you grow up, 0:02:06.080 --> 0:02:09.200 you don't really care for cool water on your feet 0:02:09.200 --> 0:02:11.639 on a hot day. And I can tell you, as 0:02:11.639 --> 0:02:15.920 a Pittsburgh native, April in Pittsburgh is not summer, but 0:02:16.040 --> 0:02:21.720 I do. Yeah, So why is Fred so hot? Oh? 0:02:21.800 --> 0:02:25.920 There's Officer Clemmons. High. Officer Clemens, come in mine, won't 0:02:25.960 --> 0:02:29.399 you sit down? Officer Clemens is the friendly neighborhood cop 0:02:29.440 --> 0:02:31.520 who stops by now and again for a visit with 0:02:31.600 --> 0:02:36.840 Mr Rogers, and he's black. Not only is it unusual 0:02:36.880 --> 0:02:38.960 to have a black authority figure on TV in the 0:02:39.040 --> 0:02:42.600 late nineteen sixties, but his role makes Officer Clemens the 0:02:42.680 --> 0:02:46.840 only black recurring character on all of children's television at 0:02:46.840 --> 0:02:50.000 the time. It's so warm, I was just putting some 0:02:50.040 --> 0:02:52.160 water on my feet. Oh it sure is. Would you 0:02:52.280 --> 0:02:55.200 like to join me? It looks awten enjoyable. But I 0:02:55.240 --> 0:02:59.880 don't have a towel or anything. Oh you share mine? Okay? Sure. France, 0:03:00.000 --> 0:03:03.600 while removes his tall military boots, rolls up his pants, 0:03:04.160 --> 0:03:08.600 and Mr Rogers gently soaks Francoise feet with the hose 0:03:08.600 --> 0:03:17.160 that feels better already. A few years before this, in 0:03:18.919 --> 0:03:22.680 a group of black teenagers protested segregation at a Florida motel. 0:03:23.440 --> 0:03:25.480 They didn't do it by picketing or by sitting on 0:03:25.520 --> 0:03:29.480 the lobby floor. They protested by jumping in the motel 0:03:29.560 --> 0:03:38.120 pool for swim who water on a hot day. The 0:03:38.120 --> 0:03:42.000 motel's owner, James Brock, responded by pouring what he said 0:03:42.120 --> 0:03:46.200 was muriatic acid into the pool with the intention of 0:03:46.240 --> 0:03:52.040 burning the protesters. The teens they were later arrested by 0:03:52.080 --> 0:03:58.040 Florida police. Swimming pools remained a hotly contested space throughout 0:03:58.080 --> 0:04:02.400 the so called Civil rights era, and that probably is 0:04:02.400 --> 0:04:07.160 why Fred Rogers was so hot in April in Pittsburgh 0:04:07.720 --> 0:04:16.479 in nineteen sixty nine. Is that enough? Well, I know 0:04:16.600 --> 0:04:20.560 how busy you are, but sometimes just a minute like this, 0:04:22.400 --> 0:04:30.000 we'll really make a difference. That we have great boots 0:04:30.040 --> 0:04:35.280 to fill office with. Clemon, thanks you stopping by, so 0:04:35.800 --> 0:04:40.200 have a good day, bye bye. Great to live in 0:04:40.240 --> 0:04:45.280 a neighborhood with special people like Officer Clements. I'll bet 0:04:45.320 --> 0:04:47.760 you there weren't ten white men in this country who 0:04:47.800 --> 0:04:51.200 would share a towel with a black man. Here in America, 0:04:51.520 --> 0:04:56.400 being black sometimes really presented a problem. And those swimming 0:04:56.400 --> 0:05:02.920 pools people were behaving in a very, very unkind way. 0:05:03.279 --> 0:05:07.040 And I talked to Fred about that, how helpless they 0:05:07.080 --> 0:05:13.280 made me feel, and he said, we'll see, We'll see 0:05:13.279 --> 0:05:19.279 what we can do. Francois, we hear a lot about 0:05:19.279 --> 0:05:23.680 empathy these days. The word is everywhere. Really T shirts 0:05:23.720 --> 0:05:26.919 and toad bags and Instagram accounts, all reminding us that 0:05:27.040 --> 0:05:30.200 we can choose empathy, as if that's all it takes 0:05:30.240 --> 0:05:33.919 to fix a world that so often feels broken. But 0:05:34.080 --> 0:05:37.000 if we want to change the world, then we have 0:05:37.120 --> 0:05:43.960 to take our empathy and do something with it. I'm 0:05:44.000 --> 0:05:47.839 Carvel Wallace and this is Finding Fred, a podcast about 0:05:47.880 --> 0:05:51.560 Fred Rogers from I Heart Media and Fatherly in partnership 0:05:51.600 --> 0:06:03.200 with Transmitter Media. Yeah, the entirety of the episode in 0:06:03.240 --> 0:06:08.640 which Fred silks Francoise feet is incredibly simple, but it's 0:06:08.680 --> 0:06:13.839 also incredibly powerful. Fred was a master of modeling good 0:06:13.880 --> 0:06:18.240 behavior for kids because he knew just how effective modeling 0:06:18.400 --> 0:06:23.479 could be. Here he is in an interview from I 0:06:23.640 --> 0:06:28.400 was at this nursery school and the director had invited 0:06:28.440 --> 0:06:36.640 this man to come and sculpt in front of the children. 0:06:37.800 --> 0:06:41.320 She said, I don't want you teaching sculpting. I want 0:06:41.400 --> 0:06:45.640 you simply to sit with the children and do what 0:06:45.760 --> 0:06:48.600 you feel you'd like to do with the clay. Well, 0:06:49.839 --> 0:06:55.920 the kids started using clay that medium in the most 0:06:56.120 --> 0:07:03.240 wonderful ways. And that wouldn't have happened if this gifted 0:07:03.440 --> 0:07:07.920 sculptor hadn't loved clay. Right in front of them. This 0:07:08.040 --> 0:07:11.160 idea of just doing what you love in front of 0:07:11.200 --> 0:07:13.800 people as a way of teaching it, of spreading it. 0:07:14.160 --> 0:07:17.160 Loving the Clay, as Fred would later call it, has 0:07:17.160 --> 0:07:20.320 been sitting with me since I first heard it. It 0:07:20.400 --> 0:07:24.320 echoes ideas I've heard in so many disparate contexts, show 0:07:24.480 --> 0:07:27.880 don't tell attraction rather than promotion. So in that sense, 0:07:27.920 --> 0:07:32.160 it's a timeless, almost interfaith concept, like love that neighbor 0:07:32.280 --> 0:07:34.760 or do oneto others. And the other thing about it 0:07:34.800 --> 0:07:37.680 is that rather than pushing me to become some hero, 0:07:38.080 --> 0:07:41.480 some great leader of men, the idea of loving the 0:07:41.600 --> 0:07:45.240 Clay just calls on me to be the best version 0:07:45.400 --> 0:07:48.680 of myself that I can be, and then to let 0:07:49.040 --> 0:07:53.280 that be seen. My favorite like recurring Mr Rogers moment 0:07:53.400 --> 0:07:56.800 is him feeding his fish. This is my friend Eve 0:07:57.040 --> 0:07:59.800 Ewing Eve as a scholar and a writer and a 0:08:00.080 --> 0:08:03.040 fessor and a poet and a comic book writer. She's 0:08:03.080 --> 0:08:05.480 like everything, you don't just be writing, you know, I 0:08:05.560 --> 0:08:08.920 just write like essays and stuff as well, and about 0:08:08.960 --> 0:08:13.120 those fish. Let's feed the fish. Whenever he feeds the fish, 0:08:13.120 --> 0:08:16.560 there's like this little jazz piano riff that plays. Give 0:08:16.640 --> 0:08:21.320 them a little food mimicking like the actions of the 0:08:21.360 --> 0:08:23.160 fish as they go up and like open and close 0:08:23.200 --> 0:08:27.640 their mouths to get the food. Seeing this adult engage 0:08:27.680 --> 0:08:31.200 in this small moment of caring for another living creature 0:08:31.680 --> 0:08:35.320 that requires just like a pause of patience and quiet 0:08:36.000 --> 0:08:39.000 is just so beautiful to me. He was showing us 0:08:39.040 --> 0:08:43.559 how to be good, not just through saying like be good, 0:08:43.800 --> 0:08:47.520 don't do drugs, don't rob people, or whatever, but actually 0:08:47.800 --> 0:08:51.280 just like doing it, like feeding the fish, or helping 0:08:51.280 --> 0:08:54.880 your neighbor with something, or being nice to somebody that 0:08:54.960 --> 0:08:56.640 you know that other people are maybe not nice to 0:08:56.720 --> 0:08:59.000 all the time. Tell me more about the role that 0:08:59.040 --> 0:09:01.840 Fred Rogers played in your childhood. I know that you're 0:09:01.880 --> 0:09:03.840 calling him Fred for this podcast, but I can't bring 0:09:03.880 --> 0:09:06.800 myself to do that. I haven't begivener he never got 0:09:06.840 --> 0:09:08.840 it and get no permission to call this derive by 0:09:08.840 --> 0:09:13.040 his first name. Well, you know, that's a lot. I 0:09:13.080 --> 0:09:16.560 think he's just you know, somebody that I can say 0:09:16.559 --> 0:09:19.280 that's always been there in my life in the same 0:09:19.320 --> 0:09:22.600 way that Maria and Gordon from Sesame Street have always 0:09:22.600 --> 0:09:24.800 been there. There's a way in which that can sound 0:09:24.880 --> 0:09:28.640 like kind of sad that these TV adults played this 0:09:28.880 --> 0:09:32.200 role in my life, but my mom was working full 0:09:32.200 --> 0:09:35.080 time out of the house and my dad was home 0:09:35.120 --> 0:09:39.160 with me. And he will say quite proudly and candidly 0:09:39.240 --> 0:09:42.920 that his strategy was to basically like, have me watch 0:09:43.280 --> 0:09:47.440 PBS all day, and he will attribute much of my 0:09:47.520 --> 0:09:51.840 success as an adult to this parenting strategy. But I 0:09:51.840 --> 0:09:54.360 think that I think as an adult, I've come to 0:09:54.440 --> 0:09:58.760 realize that that was very intentional, That these were adults 0:09:59.120 --> 0:10:02.800 entering my life that I could view as like trustworthy, 0:10:02.880 --> 0:10:05.880 carrying adults, even if I didn't know them personally. That 0:10:05.880 --> 0:10:08.600 that I see that now in retrospects like a form 0:10:08.640 --> 0:10:11.840 of public intervention or like a public service. That was 0:10:11.920 --> 0:10:19.920 very intentional. M. Fred Rogers was one of the first 0:10:19.960 --> 0:10:21.920 makers of TV You to recognize that it could be 0:10:21.960 --> 0:10:26.360 a constant positive presence for kids who didn't always have 0:10:26.559 --> 0:10:31.319 that at home. He liked to say that attitudes are caught, 0:10:31.800 --> 0:10:35.920 not taught. It's what happens when you watch someone love 0:10:36.000 --> 0:10:38.760 the clay in front of you. And he didn't just 0:10:38.800 --> 0:10:41.320 demonstrate how to work with the clay, or tie your 0:10:41.360 --> 0:10:44.600 shoes or draw with crayons. He actually showed kids that 0:10:44.800 --> 0:10:49.480 doing the right thing can make them feel good. One 0:10:49.480 --> 0:10:51.320 thing I've learned in my forty five years on this 0:10:51.360 --> 0:10:54.320 planet is that doing the right thing does not always 0:10:54.440 --> 0:10:57.000 feel good. Sometimes it can take a lot of effort 0:10:57.320 --> 0:11:00.520 to overcome habit or instinct to do the right thing. 0:11:01.360 --> 0:11:03.640 One of the key ways that Mr Rogers showed us 0:11:03.640 --> 0:11:07.520 how to be good was accepting people, accepting people as 0:11:07.559 --> 0:11:10.360 they are, and that, for me, is one of the 0:11:10.360 --> 0:11:14.800 most difficult lessons from Fred Rogers. It's particularly difficult these 0:11:14.880 --> 0:11:18.880 days with Nazis marching in the streets and conspiracy theorists 0:11:18.880 --> 0:11:22.600 on cable news. If being good means accepting those people 0:11:22.800 --> 0:11:25.679 as they are, well, first, I'm not sure if I 0:11:25.720 --> 0:11:29.520 can do it. But am I supposed to do it? 0:11:29.600 --> 0:11:33.439 Is it supposed to feel good? I have been thinking 0:11:33.440 --> 0:11:38.040 a lot about just how to understand this moment and 0:11:38.080 --> 0:11:41.200 also how to understand where Fred fits into that. And 0:11:41.240 --> 0:11:44.079 one specific question that I've been asking everyone is that 0:11:44.120 --> 0:11:48.320 Fred has this? Uh not now I feel selfconscious calling Fred, 0:11:48.760 --> 0:11:52.080 But Fred has this. I know your parents are not 0:11:52.160 --> 0:11:56.920 raised you to call. We're gonna let that go. We're 0:11:56.920 --> 0:12:00.679 gonna have to edit this im post um. There's this 0:12:00.840 --> 0:12:04.600 thing about I like you the way you are or 0:12:04.640 --> 0:12:06.920 it's you I like, it's you I like, and these 0:12:06.960 --> 0:12:09.360 are these are really and this is a really fascinating 0:12:09.400 --> 0:12:12.760 for me theological concept. I even ask my therapist about this, 0:12:12.960 --> 0:12:16.160 and I was like, what about the bad people? Like? 0:12:16.240 --> 0:12:19.960 What about it doesn't matter? And I wonder how you 0:12:20.080 --> 0:12:23.479 parse that out. The idea that we are not accepting 0:12:23.480 --> 0:12:26.120 and tolerating of certain people's behavior because it does harm 0:12:26.200 --> 0:12:30.920 the least of us. Man, that's so tricky. Um. I'm 0:12:30.920 --> 0:12:33.000 not a theologian, although I've spent a lot of time 0:12:33.040 --> 0:12:36.640 around theologians. So my non theologian reading of that is 0:12:37.200 --> 0:12:40.000 that's the idea of grace. That's what grace is, right, 0:12:40.080 --> 0:12:44.600 the idea that God's love is unconditional, and that you're 0:12:44.840 --> 0:12:47.719 great just the way you are, just just by being you. 0:12:48.400 --> 0:12:53.599 That's enough. Now, I think that there's a subtle difference 0:12:53.840 --> 0:13:00.240 between that idea and saying that everything you do is fine. Right. 0:13:00.400 --> 0:13:04.000 So to me, what I hear when I hear it's 0:13:04.040 --> 0:13:06.840 you I like or the idea of loving people unconditionally 0:13:07.320 --> 0:13:10.320 is that I don't believe in monsters. I really don't. 0:13:10.920 --> 0:13:15.560 I don't believe that the vast majority of people who 0:13:15.840 --> 0:13:20.400 do harm do so because they're inhuman. I I believe 0:13:20.440 --> 0:13:25.280 that people harm others for so many complicated reasons that 0:13:25.559 --> 0:13:28.880 usually have to do with some variation of they themselves 0:13:28.920 --> 0:13:31.880 have been harmed and have never been given any opportunity 0:13:31.920 --> 0:13:36.319 to heal from that harm, or because our society disregards 0:13:36.320 --> 0:13:41.839 others because they're considered marginal. Now that being said, uh, 0:13:42.000 --> 0:13:44.800 you know, as the old saying goes, like Jesus loves you, 0:13:44.920 --> 0:13:47.280 Jesus forgives you. That doesn't mean I have to you know, 0:13:49.000 --> 0:13:52.040 Mr Rogers, ministry doesn't have to be everybody's ministry. So 0:13:52.240 --> 0:13:54.400 Mr Rogers as a person who came out and said, 0:13:54.520 --> 0:13:57.959 I love everybody unconditionally, and that's not something everybody is 0:13:58.000 --> 0:14:00.520 able to do. And that is okay, you know, I 0:14:00.559 --> 0:14:07.319 think that that's fine. Accepting people as they are is 0:14:07.360 --> 0:14:10.960 a lofty goal. Not everyone is able to do that. 0:14:11.640 --> 0:14:14.680 I guess most of us can't always do that, and 0:14:14.760 --> 0:14:19.520 sometimes it's way more complicated than just accepting someone. How 0:14:19.560 --> 0:14:22.600 do you accept someone when the thing that they're doing 0:14:23.440 --> 0:14:27.200 is hurting you or hurting your family or your community. 0:14:30.640 --> 0:14:40.240 We'll be right back. Teething can be a real nightmare 0:14:40.280 --> 0:14:41.920 for your little ones. So are you looking for the 0:14:42.000 --> 0:14:45.960 best relief to soothe teething pain or Highlands Naturals Baby 0:14:46.080 --> 0:14:48.720 oral pain relief can help us the pain. It's gentle, 0:14:48.960 --> 0:14:52.640 natural active ingredients like cameramil and arnica. They'll soothe your 0:14:52.680 --> 0:14:56.560 baby's mouth and gums. No chemicals, no funny business. Highlands 0:14:56.600 --> 0:14:59.240 is a kinder way to care for teething Get yours 0:14:59.280 --> 0:15:03.080 at Highlands dot com, slash kind that's h y l 0:15:03.120 --> 0:15:06.160 A and d s dot com. Slash Kind claims based 0:15:06.160 --> 0:15:08.520 on traditional homeopath a practices. 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And he did it on TV, 0:16:59.280 --> 0:17:02.280 where million of children could mimic what Fred was modeling, 0:17:02.560 --> 0:17:04.879 but they could also learn how to love the clay 0:17:04.960 --> 0:17:09.200 in their own way. Even though Mr Rogers neighborhood belonged 0:17:09.280 --> 0:17:13.760 to Mr Rogers, Fred also had dozens and dozens of 0:17:13.800 --> 0:17:17.880 television neighbors, each of whom demonstrated their own gifts and 0:17:18.000 --> 0:17:22.439 talents for the toddler audience. I have never not sang. 0:17:23.280 --> 0:17:25.359 I've always been able to sing a song. It was 0:17:25.359 --> 0:17:27.280 all at first, you know. It's kind of like a trick. 0:17:28.160 --> 0:17:31.080 My aunts and uncles and cousins would ask me to sing, 0:17:31.480 --> 0:17:35.600 and Mr Rogers neighborhood Francois Clemens played the police officer, 0:17:36.160 --> 0:17:39.840 the singing police officer. My nickname was Buttercup, and the 0:17:39.840 --> 0:17:42.119 older I get, the more I love that name, a 0:17:42.160 --> 0:17:45.359 little Buttercup. And they used to say, Buttercup, come over here, 0:17:45.440 --> 0:17:48.560 child and sing this song for me, and I would 0:17:48.560 --> 0:17:51.119 come over. I sing for my aunt Clara, my and Hattie, 0:17:51.200 --> 0:17:54.600 my aunt Emma Clemens is something of a phenomen a. 0:17:54.680 --> 0:17:57.480 Grammy winning singer of opera and jazz. He founded the 0:17:57.520 --> 0:18:03.200 Harlem Spiritual Ensemble, which preserves and performs traditional American Negro spirituals. 0:18:03.400 --> 0:18:05.880 Francois was part of Mr. Rogers neighborhood for more than 0:18:05.920 --> 0:18:10.480 twenty years, but that footbath episode in nine made him 0:18:10.520 --> 0:18:14.040 an icon. I had no idea that scene would have 0:18:14.160 --> 0:18:19.600 that kind of an effect. Everywhere I went, people wanted 0:18:19.640 --> 0:18:24.600 to tell me their private story about that scene, somewhere 0:18:24.640 --> 0:18:29.000 having discussions in their homes and that scene came on, 0:18:29.080 --> 0:18:32.199 they said, Mom, look, mom, Dad, look dad, there's Francois 0:18:32.400 --> 0:18:35.119 and Mr. Rogers with their feet in the same pool. 0:18:36.119 --> 0:18:42.480 One's black and one's white. Yes they are, aren't They 0:18:42.840 --> 0:18:48.320 and their friends. But long before he met fred Francois 0:18:48.440 --> 0:18:50.160 was like a lot of the kids who would eventually 0:18:50.160 --> 0:18:54.920 grow up watching Mr. Rogers, He was lonely. Francois told 0:18:54.920 --> 0:18:57.840 me that his parents were clinically depressed. So we learned 0:18:57.920 --> 0:19:02.080 to look to other people for affection and care. Some 0:19:02.119 --> 0:19:03.919 of the things people say, Oh, there's nothing like a 0:19:04.000 --> 0:19:08.600 mother's love, Oh there's nothing like family. I questioned that 0:19:09.280 --> 0:19:14.040 from a very very young age, when my parents did 0:19:14.040 --> 0:19:17.560 not act right in the sense of trust and love 0:19:17.800 --> 0:19:22.960 and nurturing. I turned to a teacher, or to a 0:19:23.000 --> 0:19:27.000 social worker, or to a parent of one of my peers. 0:19:27.720 --> 0:19:30.440 They responded to me in a way that I thought 0:19:30.480 --> 0:19:33.600 my parents should have. But some of that care was 0:19:33.640 --> 0:19:37.480 a little bit more like charity than love, and growing 0:19:37.560 --> 0:19:40.000 up in America in the eighteen fifties meant that help 0:19:40.160 --> 0:19:44.040 was sometimes suffused with racism. The truth is the simple 0:19:44.080 --> 0:19:48.439 answer is I was two people in one and that 0:19:48.600 --> 0:19:52.119 was the one that was very sad. And to know 0:19:52.240 --> 0:19:54.879 that there are people who disliked me, who pushed me 0:19:54.920 --> 0:19:58.639 away simply because of my color, I could not deny it. 0:19:58.680 --> 0:20:01.120 I didn't try to deny it. But then there were 0:20:01.119 --> 0:20:05.000 those who said, oh, you need a new suit. Come 0:20:05.080 --> 0:20:07.040 come with us. We're gonna go buy you a new suit. 0:20:07.960 --> 0:20:11.000 Or they said, look at that boy's shoes. Come on, 0:20:11.000 --> 0:20:12.960 we're gonna we're gonna take you downtown and buy you 0:20:13.000 --> 0:20:18.240 a pair of shoes. It would have confused the average kid, 0:20:18.280 --> 0:20:20.720 but since my parents weren't doing it, and I knew 0:20:20.760 --> 0:20:23.840 that I needed a new suit, I had a sense 0:20:23.880 --> 0:20:29.199 of wanting to dress decently and be clean. So in 0:20:29.280 --> 0:20:32.359 my mind I said, I have to wait and see 0:20:32.400 --> 0:20:35.560 what they're gonna do. Who these people? Are they gonna 0:20:35.600 --> 0:20:38.320 push me away? Are they gonna see to it that 0:20:38.400 --> 0:20:42.359 I have a winter coat. Francois was singing at a 0:20:42.440 --> 0:20:46.120 church the first time he encountered Fred. When he invited 0:20:46.160 --> 0:20:50.359 me to come onto the program and to have a 0:20:50.440 --> 0:20:54.560 regular singing part. I said, Fred, I will be very 0:20:54.640 --> 0:20:58.560 happy to be on your program as long as it 0:20:58.600 --> 0:21:04.840 doesn't interfere with my singing. And he looked at me 0:21:04.920 --> 0:21:08.879 and he told me, lady, He said, Francois, that is 0:21:08.920 --> 0:21:14.480 the moment that I loved you, because you were not 0:21:14.560 --> 0:21:18.320 gonna kiss my ass, and that's what everybody else was doing. 0:21:19.720 --> 0:21:22.960 Those are his words. Officer Clemens first appeared in the 0:21:22.960 --> 0:21:26.720 neighborhood in August of nine. He says it took a 0:21:26.760 --> 0:21:29.400 while for him to get used to working with Fred Rogers. 0:21:30.280 --> 0:21:36.120 He was a very unusual positive energy. It was not negative, 0:21:36.320 --> 0:21:39.399 but it was just so damn unusual. And by that 0:21:39.520 --> 0:21:44.840 I mean those puppets caused me a lot of hours 0:21:44.920 --> 0:21:49.879 of thinking, what on earth was a grown man doing 0:21:49.960 --> 0:21:52.800 plan with those puppets. I'm a ghetto boy, that was 0:21:52.960 --> 0:21:56.199 I knew some black men who well halfway trying to 0:21:56.240 --> 0:21:59.680 act right, but I never knew none who could play 0:21:59.720 --> 0:22:03.119 with no puppets, you know, so I could. I just 0:22:03.119 --> 0:22:05.639 couldn't wrap my head around it. And so I was 0:22:05.680 --> 0:22:09.040 looking at him. I was looking at him carefully. But 0:22:09.160 --> 0:22:13.560 ultimately Francois found in Fred a kindred spirit, a willing, 0:22:13.680 --> 0:22:17.040 creative collaborator, and a true friend who loved him in 0:22:17.040 --> 0:22:21.800 a way that Francois hadn't quite experienced before. Fred raw 0:22:21.960 --> 0:22:27.199 just recognized something in me before I did. When I 0:22:27.240 --> 0:22:30.000 got with Fred and he began to do these little 0:22:30.080 --> 0:22:34.919 extra things, that was over and beyond the call of Judy. 0:22:35.040 --> 0:22:38.640 I I was confused by that. Why is this white 0:22:38.640 --> 0:22:42.520 guy sticking with me? Why is he so persistently wonderful? 0:22:43.640 --> 0:22:48.200 So when he said, you're special, and you know how 0:22:49.560 --> 0:22:57.240 just by being you and I like you, whow just 0:22:57.480 --> 0:23:01.439 the way you are, and you make every day a 0:23:01.560 --> 0:23:07.320 special day. One instance in particular stands out to Francois. 0:23:07.400 --> 0:23:10.679 Many years later. Mr Rogers was rapping the show the 0:23:10.680 --> 0:23:13.640 way he always rapped the show, changing his shoes, removing 0:23:13.680 --> 0:23:16.159 a sweater. You've made it a special day for me, 0:23:17.440 --> 0:23:23.960 you know how, by just your being yourself. Yeah, there's 0:23:24.000 --> 0:23:27.960 only one person in the whole world like you, and 0:23:28.080 --> 0:23:31.639 I like you just the way you are. See you, 0:23:31.680 --> 0:23:33.639 Tom I. I don't even know how to explain it, 0:23:33.680 --> 0:23:36.840 except we had locked eyes all the way across this 0:23:36.960 --> 0:23:41.080 big studio, and I dared to say to myself, he's 0:23:41.119 --> 0:23:45.520 talking to me, But he talks. He says that every day, 0:23:45.640 --> 0:23:48.200 every time I come to a show that he's filming, 0:23:48.440 --> 0:23:52.040 he's saying that. Why was he saying that to me today? 0:23:52.680 --> 0:23:56.440 There was something in his voice, something in his eyes. 0:23:56.840 --> 0:24:00.240 It was important to me to ask him, Fred, h 0:24:01.600 --> 0:24:06.919 were you talking to me? I had never had somebody 0:24:07.000 --> 0:24:10.480 say that to me in my whole life. Oh Lord, 0:24:10.560 --> 0:24:14.360 I can't tell you. When he said, yes, yes, I've 0:24:14.400 --> 0:24:18.600 been talking to you for two years and you heard 0:24:18.760 --> 0:24:27.960 me today. That was such a divine explosion. I can't 0:24:28.000 --> 0:24:31.280 explain it any other way. It was inside of me, 0:24:31.320 --> 0:24:33.359 it was outside of me, it was in him, it 0:24:33.480 --> 0:24:37.880 was in our eyes. I saw divinity. That's the only 0:24:37.880 --> 0:24:41.640 thing I can tell people. I have never experienced anything 0:24:41.680 --> 0:24:46.159 like it since. And I just collapsed in his in 0:24:46.240 --> 0:24:58.280 his arms. For Francois, the prospect of being accepted fully 0:24:58.480 --> 0:25:03.399 and completely was a near religious experience, but it was 0:25:03.440 --> 0:25:08.560 also a complicated one because Francois had a secret, a 0:25:08.680 --> 0:25:11.840 big secret that he had been keeping from almost everyone. 0:25:12.840 --> 0:25:16.120 Would Fred accept him even if he knew that secret too? 0:25:16.920 --> 0:25:20.080 Would Fred truly like him just the way that he was. 0:25:24.000 --> 0:25:26.359 I remember calling Fred on the telephone. I said I've 0:25:26.400 --> 0:25:30.800 got to tell you something and he said yes, And 0:25:31.000 --> 0:25:34.680 that's when I really said to him, I'm gay. Fred. 0:25:38.920 --> 0:25:42.680 He said to me, I will always love you, Francois. 0:25:44.840 --> 0:25:49.320 So that's not what we're discussing. What we are discussing 0:25:50.280 --> 0:25:52.240 is the role that you will be able to play 0:25:52.880 --> 0:25:58.640 on Mr rogers neighborhood and what does it mean if 0:25:58.680 --> 0:26:02.800 you choose to come out. Fred Rogers loved and accepted 0:26:02.840 --> 0:26:06.359 Francois Clements and in ninety nine it was a radical 0:26:06.400 --> 0:26:08.320 act to show a black man and a white man 0:26:08.440 --> 0:26:12.320 sharing a footpath, but having an openly gay man performing 0:26:12.320 --> 0:26:16.359 on a children's show that felt to Fred even riskier. 0:26:17.080 --> 0:26:22.480 And the thing that he impressed upon me was the advertisers. 0:26:23.240 --> 0:26:28.400 There would be enormous pressure on them from certain corners 0:26:28.440 --> 0:26:33.240 in our society that condemn homosexuality. And the thing he 0:26:33.280 --> 0:26:36.800 said to me, Fransoile, They're going to say terrible things 0:26:36.880 --> 0:26:46.439