In 1969 the US Senate had a hearing on funding the newly developed Corporation for Public Broadcasting. The proposed endowment was $20 million, but President Nixon wanted it cut in half because of the spending going on in the Vietnam War. This is an video clip of the exchange between Mr. Rogers and Senator Pastore, head of the hearing. Senator Pastore starts out very abrasive and by the time Mr. Rogers is done talking…
—Won’t You Be My Neighbor? (YouTube.com)

While you wait for that 6-minute video to load (it took a long time, but it’s worth it), you might want to check out “It’s a Didactic Day in the Neighborhood” and “A Sudden Case of ‘Routine Maintenance’ in the Neighborhood of Make-Believe.”

This clip is like a real-life “David and Goliath,” except that Rogers, in his simple eagerness, doesn’t defeat the powerful adversary. He does something even more heroic — he wins him over.