In 1969 the supreme court of the United States ruled that it was unconstitutional to segregate public places. Swimming pools were included as public places. In some States people who were black and brown could not use the same pool as whites, even on hot Summer days. The courts decision changed that.

After the verdict, on a hot Summer day, everyone jumped in, no matter the colour of their skin. In some places this did not go well. Integration was still evolving. In one pool at a hotel, when black and brown skinned people jumped into the pool with white skinned people, one irate hotel operator was photographed yelling for them to leave. When they did not leave, he began to throw bleach in the water to purify it. It was an ugly and hateful scene, and it was illegal.

When I see this kind of ignorance, I want to protest and advocate for justice, I bet you do too. We want to make our voices known, that we do not tolerate this kind of behavour.

Yet in the following weeks after these racial conflicts, "Mr. Rogers", protested in a different way. On his children's show he brought a wading pool and filled it with water. He got comfy taking his shoes off and talking about how good it felt to put his feet in the water on a hot day. When officer Clemmons walked by he invited the policeman to join him in the pool. Officer Clemmons said he did not think he could join Mr. Rogers because he did not have a towel. Mr. Rogers invited him to share his towel. So Officer Clemmons (his real name), sat down and took his shoes off and got in the pool with Mr. Rogers. Rogers splashed the pool water around and squirted the hose water at Clemmons feet. The both said how great it felt to share cool water on a hot day.

When Clemons was interviewed 50 years later, he said that he initially thought the 1969 scene was "kind of light" because he was expecting it to involve Martin Luther King Jr., who was assassinated the year prior, or even the president at the time, Lyndon B. Johnson. He thought that Rogers being white and he being black was not enough to teach people that racism was wrong.

But Clemmlons said, that the sharing of a towel and the cool water of the pool were powerful images. He said, It was transformative to sit there with Rogers as he thought to himself, 'Oh, something wonderful is happening here. This is not what it looks like. It's much bigger.'"

Clemmons continued to say, "Many people, as I've traveled around the country, shared with me what that particular moment meant to them, because Rogers was telling them, 'You cannot be a racist, if you share.

Clemmons said, “one guy ... I'll never forget, said, ‘When that program came on, we were actually discussing the fact that black people were inferior. And Mister Rogers cut right through it.' ... He said essentially that scene ended that argument."

Neighbourlyness is what Mr Rogers was doing. He did it simply and without the strident and brittle words of protest. And with words of invitation, sharing and listening he demonstrated Racism was something we could all simply let go of. Listening, sharing, inviting, in a spirit of respect are often more important than outrage.

One of my favorite poems is by Victoria Stafford and is called "Hope". It goes like this.
"Our mission is to plant ourselves at the gates of Hope — not the prudent gates of Optimism, which are somewhat narrower; nor the stalwart, boring gates of Common Sense; nor the strident gates of Self-Righteousness, which creak on shrill and angry hinges; nor the cheerful, flimsy garden gate of “Everything is gonna be all right.” But a different, sometimes lonely place, the place of truth-telling, about your own soul first of all and its condition, the place of resistance and defiance, the piece of ground from which you see the world both as it is and as it could be, as it will be; the place from which you glimpse not only struggle, but joy in the struggle. And we stand there, beckoning and calling, telling people what we are seeing, asking people what they see."

This is what Mr Rogers wisely did many times in his simple show for children. He included everyone without being shrill, without blaming, and without being outraged. I'm sure we can do the same.