Large Bird

Back when Senator Ted Cruz was watching Sesame Street at the tender age of 2, an episode of the famed children's show featured a eight-foot-tall, effete, gangly bird stumbling upon a vaccination stand. This bird can not fly, and he encountered several children patiently standing in line to receive a measles vaccine. 

The measles vaccine was developed and tested in the late 1950's before being licensed in 1963 and eventually combined to the MMR vaccine in 1971. The "Don't Wait - Vaccinate" campaign, aided by the absolute abomination pictured above, was featured on season 3 of Sesame Street in February of 1972. Measles persisted for several years until cases dropped precipitously in 1981 thanks to the effectiveness of the vaccine. By 2000, the disease was considered eliminated in the United States. 

But in 1972, measles was still affecting millions of people, including children. Sesame Street was quite young when this campaign was aired, but had already made a positive impact on young boys & girls across the country. Sesame Street sought to reach & educate children, to better equip them to face the challenges we all face as we age, and to breed kindness. Kindness is a central tenet of the show's core philosophy. We shouldn't overlook it. 

Sesame Street does not set out to replace parental advice, or usurp the authority of parents, but to aid families raising children. Which is why they capably tackled issues like HIV/AIDS, divorce, military deployment, and autism awareness. Not all families are prepared to address sensitive topics, and Sesame Street offered an alternative to help facilitate these conversations. Families are free to simply not watch the program if they so choose. 

Big Bird (what a name) stepped in it this week when his Twitter account announced he was vaccinated against Covid-19. This ghastly act - telling children he's vaccinated and that it's safe for everyone - was condemned across the right wing spectrum, with a sitting US Senator leading the charge. Ted Cruz condemned Big Bird's tweet as "government propaganda....for your 5-year-old!!" Naturally. 

The implication here is that Sesame Street has a political angle, and always has. Maybe he's right. Big Bird is an apex predator by definition with eye placement in the front of his face and with the intellect of a Kindergartener, perhaps he isn't to be trusted. Is Big Bird spreading government propaganda? 

The "measles vaccine" episode of Sesame Street aired just eight years after the "Mississippi Burning" murders of 1964, seven years after the Selma march, and just four years after Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated. Sesame Street debuted shortly after the assassination, and in lieu of naming a primary host they cast a broader group of presenters that were primarily black. If the word "woke" existed in its current nomenclature in 1969, I presume the showrunners of Sesame Street would be deemed as such. In fact, Mississippi decided not to air Sesame Street in 1970 because of its "highly integrated cast of children" which a state commission deemed the general public was "not quite ready for." 

Sesame Street was routinely ahead of the curve, and ready to challenge prevailing prejudices in a country teeming with them. Big Bird didn't have a sudden epiphany, and wasn't courted by the deep state to brainwash American children into conformity. Helping & educating kids is what Big Bird has always done, because Big Bird is a friend. He's your friend, and he's my friend. He'll be my kids' friend, too. 

But Big Bird, if you haven't noticed, is a fucking muppet. He has no soul. He can't fly or walk. His strings are pulled the same way Ted Cruz's are. The same Ted Cruz who watched a man shred his wife's looks publicly before graciously licking that same man's boots. Ted Cruz is a whore. He perpetuates a culture war for the purpose of self-preservation. Cruz isn't on some libertarian crusade for personal freedom. He's lobbing grenades of hate & derision to feed his voter base, both statewide & nationally. He seeks to keep in line with those who now rule his political party, no matter their faults, all to remain relevant. What's worse is that the man is brilliant, and does it anyway. 

Sesame Street has been on the right side of history far more than it hasn't. If you dislike the direction it's taking in promoting content, which is the same direction its always been pointed in, it is within your rights as parents to ban it from your household. One day, you can gather up the courage to tell your children why.