Posts like this one are hard to write.  At best, they’re dripping in nostalgia; at worst, they make you acutely aware of your own mortality.  Like many baby boomers, I grew up experiencing Pete Seeger.  From the unfair persecution by Sen. McCarthy to standing beside Bruce Springsteen at the Obama inaugural celebration, Pete was a part of American political life.  More than that, of course, his lyrics, voice, and banjo launched the folk song revival of the sixties.  He created songs that moved us, from “Where Have All the Flowers Gone,” a quiet but powerful indictment of war mentality so popular to Vietnam War protestors, to “We Shall Overcome,” the anthem for the Civil Rights Movement.

The McCarthy era was a black blight in American history where anyone left of the Rotary Club was considered a Communist.  McCarthy destroyed individuals like Oppenheimer and Chaplin; he and the paranoia he nurtured launched the careers of right-wingers Nixon and Reagan, and even the so-called “liberal” Kennedys.  Somehow, Seeger survived, stood tall, and sang out to millions of us who knew the U.S. could be better.  The man who pissed off both the John Birch Society and NBC (their censorship of the Smothers Brothers is all but forgotten now) was an instant folk hero to us as we marched against the fascist and oppressive forces on the right who were trying to tear America down.  We weren’t communists or Communists—we were progressive pacifists who knew in our hearts there’s a better way.

In today’s political environment, we’ve lost that way again.  I wonder what Pete thought of the greedy, non-compassionate plutocracy that now controls our country, that infamous 1%, its lobbyists, PACs, and other special interest groups leading the charge under the mystic cloak of righteous conservatism.  I wonder what he thought of the gap between those rich elites and the poor and middle class, a gap that Congress is hell bent on increasing, as they have done for the last thirty years.  I wonder what he thought of an NRA that refuses to budge from its dogma even though across our land every other day a child dies, from school shootings, inner-city gun violence, or just some stupid adult who left a gun in the house that the child could find—in short, a proliferation of guns and ammo that needs more government control.

There’s some progress, but not enough.  Perhaps other generations will lead the U.S. somewhere near to its true potential.  Or, will it all spiral down to a frightening fascist capitalism as rich elites put profits and power above their own humanity, thus ensuring their own demise as their numbers dwindle and the exploited rise up against them.  Pete, you led us, and we failed.  America has lost its way and has become almost as frightening as this oppressive winter caused by our climate spinning out of control, the consequence of ignoring what we’re doing to Gaia as corporate profit trumps logic and human compassion, as it does on many other fronts as well.

What’s left for now is music—folk music.  From blues to blue grass, from spirituals to protest songs—folk music lives.  That old progressive anthem from the late nineteen-forties, “If I had a Hammer,” has always been in error, because Pete Seeger always had a tuneful hammer, his music.  In many ways, he assumed the mantle of Woody Guthrie more successfully than Woody’s own son.  Arlo’s “Alice’s Restaurant” is a funny and cutting indictment of the Vietnam War; Pete’s “Where Have All the Flowers Gone” is much more profound in its criticism of all war, not just the Vietnam conflict.  The only song I know that’s more profound is the old warhorse “Johnny I Hardly Knew Ye,” as recorded by The Clancy Brothers and Tommy Makem (old only in the sense that its origins date to the 1800s).

While many popular artists have been influenced by Pete Seeger—Dylan, Baez, Simon and Garfunkel, and many others—he also introduced many other talented singers now lost in the sandstorms of time.  For example, a favorite duo of mine is Hedge and Donna.  Pete introduced them on a PBS folk music show, if I recall correctly—young singers looking for a break and a chance to succeed.  Their incandescent harmonies were a real treat for me.  Pete always seemed to be a modest, caring man, who recognized human goodness and stood up against human stupidity.  We are blessed that he had a long life.  He will be truly missed…and always remembered.

And so it goes….

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