More Pete Seeger

Dahlia Lithwick has the full transcript of Pete Seeger's testimony before a subcommittee of the House Un-American Activities Committee in 1955 Slate.  Reading it all these years later it almost sounds like a joke although it was anything but back then.

My one memory of Pete Seeger is seeing him with Arlo Guthrie at Arizona State University in the mid-80's.  I can't say that I recall anything specific except that I enjoyed the music and I am pretty sure we sang along and clapped.  A few years earlier I had seen fellow member of The Weavers, Roni Gilbert, when she appeared at ASU with Holly Near.  Between the two shows, it felt like seeing the folk tradition passing from one generation to another.

Along with these personal memories, I and the rest of the world have Pete's music and activist legacy to give us encouragement.

Pete Seeger, 1919-2014

Pete Seeger's life speaks for itself.  So do his words.

“I call them all love songs,” Mr. Seeger once said of his music. “They tell of love of man and woman, and parents and children, love of country, freedom, beauty, mankind, the world, love of searching for truth and other unknowns. But, of course, love alone is not enough.”

In his memory on this day.




Godspeed, Pete.