Can you tell me how to get, how to get to Sesame Street?

No one can deny that it’s been a rough week both nationally and here in Northeast Ohio. The news has been unrelenting, reporting the negative side of the human condition with little respite to allow for any sunshine to slip into our consciousness. To be truthful, it’s been hard to feel optimistic about our impact on this little blue and green world. But there is no doubt that compassion, caring, and fellowship still thrive all around us; they just don’t seem to make for good press when tragedies and inhumanity abound.

There are a couple of items in the news this week that are particularly apt examples of the better side of our collective nature. One is the 20^th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall. The other has been flying a bit further under the radar with everything else going on, but one that’s near and dear to our hearts here at The Music Settlement - the 40^th anniversary of the premiere of Sesame Street, and the advent of the Children’s Television Workshop (now the Sesame Workshop).

Sesame Street, to me, is humankind at its very best. You can talk about Michelangelo’s Sistine Chapel ceiling, or Beethoven’s 6^th Symphony, or Shakespeare’s Hamlet, but give me Big Bird and Cookie Monster every time. In my mind, there is no better example of the few impacting the welfare of many in a stimulating and creative way than the efforts of Joan Ganz Cooney, Carroll Spinney, Frank Oz, the late, great Jim Henson and company. For more than two generations now, they have been opening the minds of young and old alike to the lessons that can be learned from the world around us in the simplest terms possible.

But make no mistake - there is nothing simple about it. From day one, the creative geniuses behind (and literally under) the scenes created exacting work that appeared to be effortless. They made brave and innovative choices; they took the age-old villain of children, monsters, and made them lovable heroes. They set their happy world in a location considered by most people at the time to be anything but happy - an inner city neighborhood - and populated it with a broad array of ethnicities and ages, all of whom had the same problems, experiences, and joys as we did. Best of all, they infused every lesson and story with color, humor, and creativity. They passed on to many of us from an early age the joy of self-expression and used it to diffuse our youthful anxiety of learning concepts like math, reading, language, social justice and equality. It didn’t judge and it didn’t appeal to a narrow truth. It was brilliant and it was fun, and we all knew it implicitly from the first moment we saw it.

But there is more to the Sesame Street story. I had the opportunity a couple of years ago to see a wonderful documentary at The Cleveland Film Festival called The World According to Sesame Street, which shows a side of the Sesame Street story that few of us know. It relates the continuing efforts by the Sesame Workshop (SW), the parent company of Sesame Street, to create programming for children in countries torn apart by conflict and war that was custom designed for their own lives and realities. The SW folks are portrayed setting up shop in South Africa, Bangladesh, and Kosovo, and partnering with local artists and performers to create a children’s television show that regularly deals with the horrors of everyday life through sensitive and caring approaches. An example that remains vivid in my memory for its sensitivity and boldness was a featured Muppet character on the South African show named “Kami,” who was young, female, and HIV-positive. Imagine the powerful message this sent to children and communities in a region where HIV infection was widespread and those afflicted were shunned as modern lepers. It is a testament to SW’s sensitivity and vision that this character became the most popular Muppet on the show, beloved by millions. This is the legacy of a group of artists who are truly focused on changing things for the better, and starting the process with those who are most vulnerable - the very young. For me it is very special that the folks who showed such courage and vision 40 years ago are still doing so today and into the future. What a very special, sunny day it was on November 10^th, 1969, and what a debt we owe to those visionaries who made the magic happen.

By the way, don’t you think it is just the perfect cosmic tribute that the 40^th anniversary of the premiere of Sesame Street occurs on 11-10-09? The Count must be so proud…