A few months before he passed away in 2003, a 74 year old children’s television host sat down in the same studio where he had filmed 895 episodes over 33 years and recorded one last message. It wasn’t for children. It was for the adults who had grown up watching him.

Fred Rogers hosted Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood on American public television from 1968 to 2001. For over three decades he walked into the same set, changed into a cardigan and sneakers, looked directly into the camera, and spoke to children as if each one of them was the only person in the room. He never raised his voice, never talked down to his audience, and never rushed a single moment.

In that final recording, he looked into the camera one last time and said “I’m just so proud of all of you who have grown up with us. And I know how tough it is some days to look with hope and confidence on the months and years ahead. But I would like to tell you what I often told you when you were much younger. I like you just the way you are.”

- gun nut insists 6 year olds getting shot in elementary school are a necessary sacrifice so that we can all have the 2nd amendment *gets shot at a school

- gun nut literally advocated for public executions to make kids stronger *gets shot in public in front of a bunch of students

- gun nut was an open racist, who constantly tried to incite race wars *got shot by a white guy in the whitest state in america

- gun nut insists empathy is fake *no empathy for him online, except from the same people who gleefully mock the deaths of trans people and Democrat politicians and anyone they don't like on a daily basis