April 21, 2012 07:00 PM UTC

Don Rosier's Reading Rainbow

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• by: Colorado Pols

Jefferson County Commissioner Don Rosier should have little difficulty stepping in for LeVar Burton if and when Reading Rainbow comes back on air.

Rosier, after all, did a commendable job reading a bunch of books about fishes to pre-school students earlier this month at the Lakewood Library.

If you have 20 minutes to kill, and you really, really love public access television production value, you can check out the entire video on the Jeffco Business Guide TV website.

Rosier gets really into his storytelling. To be fair, of course, you have to be enthusiastic when you’re reading a story to children if you want them to stay put for more than a minute or two. He seems to take particular pleasure in retelling Ugly Fish, a story in which an abrasive, territorial pet fish eats any other fish which enter into his tank — until he’s devoured by a bigger, uglier fish. There’s got to be a political lesson in there somewhere.

We’re a little surprised Rosier was let anywhere near preschool children with that beard of his, but that’s neither here nor there. What’s important is that Don Rosier reading picture books to preschoolers is, at the very least, less controversial than, say, the ill-informed appropriation of public funds for bridge-building.