Sesame Street deemed inappropriate for children

We have come a long way as a society in the last half century, but unfortunately as I see it in recent years, much of it has been in the wrong direction. I hate to begin a posting with such negative sentiment, but I cannot help the feeling given the way our society has reformed itself around the "status quo", striving evermore to be politically correct in lieu of what needs to be said, censoring our children at an increasingly harmful rate. Never should this be more apparent than in a recent release of the first two volumes of Sesame Street on DVD, covering the earliest episodes of the childhood favorite television show, which have happened to be deemed, by the way, inappropriate for today's children. That's right, the earliest episodes of Sesame Street are for adult eyes only.

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/11/18/magazine/18wwln-medium-t.html?_r=1&oref=slogin

The Cookie Monster is a vegan these days, forced to conform to a healthier, less dangerous diet, as cookies have now been relegated to "a sometime food". And Bert and Ernie no longer share a bath together, because two naked muppets is obviously highly suggestive and harmful to the minds of four year olds. You can thank the religious right for that one.

I don't remember much about watching Sesame Street as a kid, though I do remember watching it frequently, or at least the memory of it, and it was positive. However, I can assure you that nothing naughty came to my mind when two muppets, who resembled myself in age at the time, took a bath together, singing about rubber duckies. I guarantee you I wanted as many cookies as I could get, and would have made like the Cookie Monster every day of the week and twice on Sunday had I the choice, but I did not develop poor eating habits as a result of his influence. I have my parents to thank for that, though mainly my Dad in hindsight. Though when Mom was in charge of dinner when Dad was out of town, it was normally a treat.

I just wish our children could be children again, referring to a time when there wasn't so much policing over what was acceptable or not. Let kids be kids, and if they are exposed to something that may or may not be harmful, then perhaps the parents should do a little parenting. It's not like Sesame Street had the final say over Dad in my household.

How cool it must have been to have accepted a reality inhabited by a Cookie Monster.