If you haven't heard already, South Africa's Sesame Street will be introducing an HIV positive muppet. This scandalous fact seems to be on everyone's lips lately, and I just don't get it. Maybe I am missing something here, because I'm really having a hard time wrapping my brain around why this is such a big deal.

It is estimated that one in nine people in South Africa have HIV. One in nine. With numbers like that, an HIV positive character is far more socially relevant than wether or not the Cookie Monster will learn the value of sharing, and the significance of the letter B. For many children the specter of HIV won't be some far off boogeyman, but instead their reality. One of their friends will have it, one of their parents, or relatives, or teachers, or maybe it will be them. When 40% of adult deaths in South Africa are attributed to HIV, it's no longer about the dangers of needle sharing and unprotected sex, or the tragedies of contaminated blood supplies - it's about a population trying to come to grips with what is now everybody's problem.

Nor do I understand the outrage about Sesame Street's supposedly "PC" attitude towards modern programming. This isn't new and it isn't news. If you hadn't noticed this until recently, you've been watching the wrong show. This latest brouhaha is just Sesame Street doing what Sesame Street has always done. Ethnic diversity, multiculturalism, and tolerance - along with a host of other "liberal" mores - have been a mainstay of the show since it started. This is PBS. Broadcasting with a social conscience and a liberal political bent is kinda what it's all about.

'Course, I could be wrong, what the hell do I know - I love Sesame Street.

Who said that every wish would be heard and answered
When wished on the morning star?
Somebody thought of that, and someone believed it,
And look what it's done so far.
What's so amazing that keeps us stargazing
And what do we think we might see?
Someday we'll find it, the rainbow connection,
The lovers, the dreamers, and me.

(And yeah, I know the Rainbow Connection is from The Muppets. Sometimes we must make do. )