I love the great museums — the Smithsonian, the National Air and Space Museum, and the new National Museum of African American History and Culture.  

Lastly, I love the monuments.  Vietnam, Lincoln, the Korean Memorial, FDR, Jefferson, Martin Luther King.  They are all amazing.  The World War II monument sits between the Lincoln Memorial and the Washington Monument.  There is a special plaque that, whenever I am in Washington, I stop and read: “Here in the presence of Washington and Lincoln, one the 18^th century father and the other the 19^th century preserver of our nation, we honor these 20^th century Americans who took up the struggle during the Second World War and made the sacrifices to perpetuate the gift our forefathers entrusted to us:  A nation conceived in liberty and justice.”

The memorials inspire me, they educate me, they give me faith in the future of our country. The memorials make me feel proud to be an American.

As a country, we have been through a lot in the last four years.  I have never seen as much hate in this country as I have seen in the last year.  I think it is time we build another memorial in Washington.  This one, not dedicated to a president who saved the nation or who won a war, but for someone who taught us that it is better to give than to receive, that real strength is all about helping others, and that great “relationships require kindness and patience, tolerance, optimism, joy in the other’s achievements, confidence in oneself, and the ability to give without undue thought of gain.”  

Let’s build a national monument to Mr. Rogers.  Fred Rogers, who hosted a TV program, Mr. Rogers’ Neighborhood, for more than 30 years, helped preschool children learn about life, gently.  However, his words of wisdom are just as important for adults to remember, too.

And just like all the great memorials in Washington, let there be a statue of Mr. Rogers surrounded by some of his great quotes. I would suggest these 11 quotes make the list:

• “All of us, at some time or other, need help. Whether we’re giving or receiving help, each one of us has something valuable to bring to this world. That’s one of the things that connects us as neighbors — in our own way, each one of us is a giver and a receiver.”
• “As human beings, our job in life is to help people realize how rare and valuable each one of us really is, that each of us has something that no one else has — or ever will have — something inside that is unique to all time. It’s our job to encourage each other to discover that uniqueness and to provide ways of developing its expression.”
• “Forgiveness is a strange thing. It can sometimes be easier to forgive our enemies than our friends. It can be hardest of all to forgive people we love. Like all of life’s important coping skills, the ability to forgive and the capacity to let go of resentments most likely take root very early in our lives.”
• “If you could only sense how important you are to the lives of those you meet; how important you can be to the people you may never even dream of. There is something of yourself that you leave at every meeting with another person.”
• “In times of stress, the best thing we can do for each other is to listen with our ears and our hearts and to be assured that our questions are just as important as our answers.”
• “It’s really easy to fall into the trap of believing that what we do is more important than what we are. Of course, it’s the opposite that’s true: What we are ultimately determines what we do!”
• “Listening is where love begins: listening to ourselves and then to our neighbors.”
• “Love and success, always in that order. It’s that simple AND that difficult.”
• “Our society is much more interested in information than wonder, in noise rather than silence … And I feel that we need a lot more wonder and a lot more silence in our lives.”
• “The media shows the tiniest percentage of what people do. There are millions and millions of people doing wonderful things all over the world, and they’re generally not the ones being touted in the news.”
• “There are three ways to ultimate success: The first way is to be kind. The second way is to be kind. The third way is to be kind.”

As we move toward electing a president on November 3^rd, let all of us make Mr. Rogers proud and be kind to everyone:  To first responders, to Democrats and Republicans, to poll workers and most importantly, to all of your fellow citizens.