There’s a line on the new civil rights mural in Downtown Valdosta.

The line is “Look for the Helpers.”

The late Fred Rogers, yes, Mr. Rogers, shared this advice.

When parents asked him how they could explain disasters and tragedy to their children, how they could spare their children some of the horrors of the world, he would advise them to look to the helpers.

“My mother would say to me, ‘Look for the helpers. You will always find people who are helping,’” Rogers said. “To this day, especially in times of disaster, I remember my mother’s words, and I am always comforted by realizing that there are still so many helpers — so many caring people in this world.”

In a 1986 newspaper column, he wrote:

“I was spared from any great disasters when I was little, but there was plenty of news of them in newspapers and on the radio, and there were graphic images of them in newsreels.

“For me, as for all children, the world could have come to seem a scary place to live. But I felt secure with my parents, and they let me know that we were safely together whenever I showed concern about accounts of alarming events in the world.

“There was something else my mother did that I’ve always remembered: ‘Always look for the helpers,’ she’d tell me. ‘There’s always someone who is trying to help.’ I did, and I came to see that the world is full of doctors and nurses, police and firemen, volunteers, neighbors and friends who are ready to jump in to help when things go wrong.”

Look to the helpers.

It’s excellent advise for children.

It’s excellent advice for adults.

Looking for the helpers will not stop disasters or tragedies, but looking for the helpers demonstrates there is still plenty of good in the world.

There’s still plenty of good in our fellow human beings.

Looking to the helpers is a reminder of what we can be instead of what we could become.

By looking to the helpers, more of us may be inspired to be helpers.

Despite the bitterness, the incivility, the anger, people still step forward to provide that help.

And the world needs all the helpers it can get.

There will always be disasters. There will always be tragedies. There will always be struggles. Bad things will happen.

But as long as there are helpers, there is hope in this world.