Many wonderful videos turn up on Facebook. Here is a video clip I found the other day. It features one of our country’s real heroes and inspirations, Fred Rogers.

Fred Rogers Inspires Us

This is a video of Fred Rogers testifying before the Senate Subcommittee on Communications in 1969 to save funding for public television stations. It was a masterful display of generosity and humanity.

He had 6 minutes to convince the subcommittee members that public television was worth saving. As you’ll see in the video, Fred Rogers faced an unfriendly, brusque, and cynical group of politicians … and easily won them over to achieve his goal of saving government funding for public television.

Mister Rogers (it’s hard to think of him any other way, since I’ve rarely heard him addressed otherwise) was a deeply compassionate man. His TV show was called “Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood” for a reason. He was a friend, surrogate parent, and virtual “neighbor” to millions of people.

The gentle, soft-spoken Mister Rogers used puppets and songs to impart lessons such as the importance of kindness, acceptance, and respect. In one of his most memorable episodes, the actress Margaret Hamilton appeared as herself. She reassured young viewers that, although she had played the Wicked Witch of the West in “The Wizard of Oz,” she was only pretending to be unkind because it was her job. In real life, she cared about children, and she would never even think of hurting anyone. Mister Rogers wrote that script (as well as all of the others) for his show, because he wanted to help children feel less fearful when they watched the classic movie. My guess is that it worked.

The Lessons We Learned From Fred Rogers

We could use someone like Mister Rogers today to help address the opioid crisis and pain-related problems. The wisdom of Fred Rogers during his testimony did more than earn him government funding. Since that hearing was televised, it taught millions of people a lesson in civility and how to treat others.

Now, it seems we have forgotten those lessons, and we need to learn them again. Words and actions seem to pit patients’ advocates and lawmakers against each other regarding pain and opioids. Many of us who are frustrated by trying to help people with serious medical problems need to recall the words and lessons of Fred Rogers.

Here are the opening lyrics of Mister Rogers’ song, “What Do You Do With the Mad That You Feel,” that he sang on his show:

What do you do with the mad that you feel
When you feel so mad you could bite?
When the whole wide world seems oh, so wrong…
And nothing you do seems very right?

You can find the rest of the song’s lyrics, written by Fred Rogers, here. They are about taking control of your anger and behaving in a constructive, decent way instead of harming anyone.

More of us should internalize those words.

Indeed, it should be obvious that civility, consideration, and thoughtful dialogue are necessary if we want to resolve our differences.

Mister Rogers taught us that we may not always see things from the same perspective, but that’s okay. We don’t need to agree about everything. But we must recognize that we all have feelings, and we need to treat each other respectfully.

The Power of Listening

Listening to each other might help us to find common ground.

Through listening, people might come to understand how devastating the disease of addiction is and why so many people are unwilling to hear the needs of people in pain.

And perhaps, through listening, family and friends of people with addiction could come to understand why opioids have played a key role in providing people in pain with a reason to live.

Our society has become a scary place, and to a great extent, our culture has become tribal. Respect, empathy, and the willingness to keep an open mind seem to have disappeared.

We need a helper or two to gain some leverage for people with chronic illnesses. Let’s expand the circle of those who are trying to help, and work harder to help everyone be heard and understood.

But we can’t get there via the “us vs. them” strategy. We must all be on the same side. Presumably, we all care about the forgotten members of our society — those who are ignored, lonely, and scared. If not, then that must change.

A few years ago, I realized that the topic of opioids was so polarizing that the opioid problem and chronic pain were going to require a non opioid solution.

Until we have those new therapies, perhaps we can all “stop, stop, stop” and listen, as Fred Rogers suggested, and do the right thing just because we know that it is the right thing.