March 6 2000

ARTICLE TOOLS

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Reporting tragic and sobering stories can wear down a writer. CT associate editor Wendy Zoba says she was "emotionally drained" after she finished writing her article on how the Columbine High School tragedy changed America ("Do You Believe in God?" Oct. 4, 1999). Last year we also published Wendy's articles on the disastrous effects of a hurricane on missionaries in Honduras, the fierce pressures facing Ethiopian Christians, and Christian investigators who expose the abduction and enslavement of helpless people in developing countries. No wonder she was emotionally drained. While Wendy was in that state of exhaustion, she spotted a small photograph of Fred "Mister" Rogers in a magazine. Dying for a change of pace, she proposed the piece that appears as this issue's cover story (see "Won't You Be My Neighbor?" on page 38). Mister Rogers was an upbeat topic and a tonic for Wendy's soul. What she encountered on her trip to his neighborhood was a man of grace and humility who has a strong sense of being called by God and a deep belief that his television show is a ministry."There is nothing pretentious about him or his setting or the people with him," Wendy reports. The Pittsburgh headquarters of Rogers' organization is modest and cramped. The conference room is small. And the star of the show eats his lunch from a brown paper bag.To most of us, Mister Rogers' Neighborhood is a wonderful television show for children. Fred Rogers reached beyond the television set to write a book for parents (Mister Rogers Talks with Parents, 1993) that, says Wendy, affirms parents in their difficult role, "giving them the same feeling he gives to kids."But the reach of Family Communications Inc., the producer of the television show, is still ...