Hey RMoney, I grew up on Sesame Street and hung out in Mr. Rogers' Neighborhood. I learned to love the world, its infinite possibilities and the never ending opportunity for discovery and imagination through programs like Nova, 3-2-1 Contact, Wild America and Reading Rainbow. I still have a hard time cracking open a book without humming, seeing butterflies in the sky and recommending said books to others with the disclaimer, "But you don't have to take MY word for it." I developed my love for world history and my future college major while watching programs about World War II with my dad and asking questions about the 50th anniversaries of the attack on Pearl Harbor and D-Day.
My older siblings still periodically bring up the story of when our parents took the 2-year old version of myself to see "Follow That Bird" at Madison's Eastgate Theater and I bawled my eyes out, along with the rest of the little kids in attendance, when Big Bird turned blue. After hearing that Jerry Nelson, the voice of the Count, had recently died, I felt a sense of loss that the next generation of children wouldn't learn that when verbally counting, the number 1 is always immediately followed by the phrase, "ah, ah, ahhhh..." Barney reminded me that some things in this world consist of pure evil and, hell, my good friend Travis even got his nickname, "Tink," from the Teletubbies. You want to defund PBS as part of your "budget balancing" agenda because you don't think it's important enough to keep?? With all due respect to Bob Ross and his happy, little trees, I have a message to deliver that I'm sure ol' Mr. Conductor, George Carlin, would approve of: FUCK YOU, Mitt.