The trolley stopped

When the Columbia broke apart during reentry, I didn't cry.\nWhen hundreds died in a Chinese earthquake this week, I didn't cry.\nWhen Mr. Rogers died Thursday morning, I cried for this man I've never even met. Men aren't supposed to cry, especially for something as seemingly trivial as the death of a children's television show host. But Mr. Rogers would have understood my tears, accepted them and then told me that "there's only one person in the whole world like you."\nThat is why a few tears were allowed to escape down my cheeks. That is why I mourn. Because there will never be another Mr. Rogers.\n"I have never really considered myself a TV star," Rogers said in a 1995 interview. "I always thought I was a neighbor who just came in for a visit."\nI don't think we would accept a Mr. Rogers anymore. The idea that any "TV star" could show the exact same love and caring in real life as he does on television is a ludicrous idea to many. The American public wants to find skeletons in "The Neighborhood of Make-Believe." They want to hear about the secret love affair between King Friday XIII and Lady Elaine Fairchilde and her Boomerang Toomerang Soomerang.\nThe networks aren't helping any.\nChildren's programming has turned into a cash puppet for network executives. They hide behind a giant purple dinosaur suit of "education" while reaping in money. Merchandising rules shows like Teletubbies and Blue's Clues. Steve Burns, who quit hosting Blue's Clues, is a good example of why there will never be another Mr. Rogers.\n"I took this about as far as I could, I guess," Burns said in a posted message on his Web site. "It was a really difficult decision, too, because on one hand, if I wanted to, I could do this for a really long time. The show is extraordinarily popular in several countries. I could be like Fred Rogers, which I consider a very noble profession. But I thought, 'Well, is this really what I came to New York to do? Why not quit right when I'm at my peak.'"\nMr. Rogers didn't quit when he hit his peak. He used it to spread his message of loving one another even farther.\n"We live in a world in which we need to share responsibility," he said in 1994. "It's easy to say 'It's not my child, not my community, not my world, not my problem.'"\nChildren's problems were Mr. Rogers' problems. He used his prestige to set up a playroom at a state prison in Pittsburgh for children visiting their parents. Steve Burns used his prestige to form an indie rock band.\nThe residents of "The Neighborhood of Make-Believe" will surely miss Mr. Rogers' visits via Trolley as much as us.\nI imagine Henrietta Pussycat saying, "I meow loved meow meow Mr. Rogers. He meow was my best meow friend meow."\nMy favorite character was Daniel Striped Tiger, who was afraid of, well, everything. As a kid who was convinced that his pet cat was a vampire, it was nice for me to know a fierce tiger could be afraid too.\n"I think everybody longs to be loved and longs to know that he or she is lovable," Mr. Rogers once said. "And consequently, the greatest thing that we can do is to help somebody know that they are loved and capable of loving."\nWe love you Mr. Rogers.