The Urban Elf

The jack-booted christianist extremists are on the march again and this time they plan to bring their own version of Kristallnacht to Sesame Street. A house subcommittee recently voted in favor of drastic reductions in federal financial support for public television. I don’t know about you, but… from Sesame Street and the Electric Company teaching me letters, numbers and reading (and that Rita Moreno was fierce) to Mr. Roger's Neighborhood providing a voice that lives deep in my heart saying "you are special" and continuing, at nearly forty, to bolster my self-esteem when the world seems an otherwise hopeless place to Zoom showing me that kids can accomplish so much if they work together to Masterpiece Theatre awakening me to the nuance and intrigue of society and sending me to the library shelves to read great literature not just for school, but on my own time to Julia Child who taught me the basic principles and language of cuisine and set me on the path to being a pastry cook at the Ritz Carlton to Bill Moyers helping me to know when it was time to change directions and investigate another career and maybe life path, PBS has been an important part of my life. We cannot afford to lose this valuable part of our media landscape, this essential part of our culture. We owe it to our children to continue the good work begun by the late Jim Henson, Fred Rogers, Alistair Cooke and Julia Child. Please don’t remain silent.