What Do You Do with the Mad that You Feel?

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"What Do You Do with the Mad that You Feel?"
Song
Released1968
Fred Rogers testifies before the Senate Subcommittee on Communications on 1 May 1969, and recites the lyrics to the song (beginning at around 4:50 into this video).

"What Do You Do with the Mad That You Feel?" is a song written and sung by PBS personality Fred Rogers in the PBS children's television program Mister Rogers' Neighborhood . Rogers recited the song in testimony before the United States Senate in 1969, early in the funding process of PBS, during an exchange with Senator John Pastore. [1] Footage of the hearing was included in the 2018 documentary about Rogers, Won't You Be My Neighbor? [2]

Rogers gave several stories for the origin of the song, but when he testified to the Senate, he said that the title and first line came from a question Rogers received from a concerned boy, who asked "What do you do with the mad that you feel when you feel so mad you could bite?" [3]

The song first appeared on his program in 1968. [3]

References

  1. ↑ Heaps, Jonathan R. (2019-10-15). "Feelings, Mentionable and Manageable". In Mohr, Eric J.; Mohr, Holly K. (eds.). Mister Rogers and Philosophy. Open Court Publishing. p. 65. ISBN   9780812694819.
  2. ↑ American Rhetoric: Mr. Rogers - Testimony Before the U.S. Senate on Funding for PBS transcript, americanrhetoric.com
  3. 1 2 Long, Michael (2015-03-13). Peaceful Neighbor: Discovering the Countercultural Mister Rogers. Westminster John Knox Press. p. 50. ISBN   9781611645699.
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