I wore my Mr. Rogers cardigan today, a gift from my wife and a sweater that had garnered only praise and positivity since I first donned it several years back.  A close friend, Jill, began calling it my, “Mr. Rogers sweater,” and the name stuck.  Fred Rogers is one of two men named Rogers who I consider critical ancestral mentors and esteemed ancestors.  The other is Carl Rogers, a humanist psychologist, psychiatrist, and pedagogist who created person-centered therapy and pedagogy.  Fred Rogers, of course, ministered to children and families.  He considered children, all children, full people deserving of consent and imbued with the same human agency all of us adults have.  Fred also adhered, though perhaps not explicitly, to the tenets of Carl Rogers’ person centered framing. Namely, offering unconditional positive regard, informed and accurate empathy, and personal authenticity or congruence as he, a perceived expert and person with more power, influenced children and other perceived novices; those with less power.

This is my mission as well.  You might deem it a calling.  It is the only way want to be.  The only person I want to become.  I call the endeavor impact regarding, social, emotional, and sensory (IRSES); and it could be accurately described as applied person-centered therapy/pedagogy.  It is also neurodiversity-affirming, queer affirming, and trauma-informed.

My eclectic approach stands in direct opposition to what I call impact-disregarding, cognitive and behavioral endeavors.  Forced assimilation.  Compliance training.  Radical behaviorism.  Applied Behavior Analysis.  To these I stand, speak, write, and work in direct opposition.

This is the work I will continue moving forward.

I am now an elder.  I am a lineage holder of many who came before me working in opposition to the paradigms of forced assimilation, white male Christian supremacy, and the use of threat, punishment, and other abuse tactics to manipulate those with less power.

What I offer here, the first day of the rest of our lives, is a safe space.  A validating, accepting, kind, inclusive space.  Fred Rogers said to, “Find the helpers,” and universe knows I have encountered so many across my life.  Now?  It is my turn to be among the helpers of the targeted, vulnerable, and existentially threatened.  I will don this sweater and care deeply for myself so that I can be a true and effective guide, mentor, support, coach, or whatever is needed.

This is my promise and my commitment.  I am here for those who were abandoned and sacrificed to the whims and fancies of billionaires, capitalists, white Christian supremacists, racists, ableists, and fascists.  Moreover, we will need each other.  Mutual aid and support require full communities of care and kindness. 

That man and those who support and voted for him shall not have my, or our, compliance, assimilation, or humanity.  I would, and may eventually, die on that hill.

We are all we have.

We are many and we are strong. Together.

Know that I love and appreciate you, and that I am here for you.

-G