Pardon the BloggEruption

Mr. Rogers Unwelcome in the Ivy Neighborhood?

According to this story, students at Dartmouth are upset that Fred Rogers of PBS and Mr. Rogers' Neighborhood fame will be delivering their commencement address. Apparently he went to Dartmouth for a few years. What a bunch of whiny, snivelling Ivy League kids. Check out this quote from a student:

``I had hoped for someone more awe-evoking,'' said Chris Moore, a graduating philosophy major. ``Some secretary of the U.N., or (Rudolph) Guiliani, or a human rights leader.

Wow. I know Kofi Annan would really evoke a lot of awe from me. (Oh wait, Kofi was on Sesame Street not so long ago.) Or how about Javier Perez de Cuellar? U Thant? Kurt Waldheim? (Oops, forgot the whole Nazi deal.) Hmm, what sort of "human rights leader" would evoke awe for Mr. Moore? What the hell is a "human rights leader" anyway? My guess is that he'd like to have Bono.

Fred Rogers has done more for the youth of this nation than any smarmy, pissant philosophy major at Dartmouth will likely ever do for anyone. He's also done a hell of a lot more good than any UN Secretary General, without wasting billions of taxpayer dollars. Hell, the introduction of a Russian version of Mr. Rogers' Neighborhood helped foment some of perestroika. I'm sorry that you can't have someone who inspires awe in you for your university commencement, Mr. Moore, but look on it this way -- at least you're not getting the Surgeon General. Now that was vomit-inspiring.