My Daddy sang me “If I had a hammer” when I was a girl sitting on his knee….. he still sings it at 83 ! You have touched many lives…….. you voice will echo through the mountains and trees for ever!

Keep on singing
Carolyn

I think that you’ve done for the Hudson and her species is the most important thing: we’ve got a lot of work to do in these times to defend our mother and pay our rent on earth.

But preserving true history is also an important. I know I’m only one of thousands of children to whom your music made a difference.

Gracias a Pete. The documentary was fanatastic and I’m still humming through my days in my mind.

Norm

I have just finished watching the PBS Special, and I was Blown Away!!
I just attended the Minn Caucus yesterday, where the spirit you’ve been behind was definitely alive and well. Much Like our beloved Paul Wellstone!
I was never aware that One Man was reponsible for much of the way that I formed my beliefs until I saw the PBS Special.
I grew up in the 60’s and went to Hootenany parties at friend’s homes, where we sang Your songs. I never realized that YOU wrote so many of the songs that framed my Life!! I didn’t know that You were responsible for songs by the Kingston Trio, Peter Paul and Mary, and songs that I associated with Martin Luther King Jr!
I Cried the day that Martin Luther King Jr died, and didn’t realize that Your songs had helped him achieve his Dream.
I remember being 9 years old and feeling so sorry for our neighbors, who had been denounced as “Communists”. I thought it was so unfair to discriminate against someone without any proof that they were “UnAmerican”!
I remember being 18 years old, and not having any 18 year old men in town because they were all gone to War, or Canada or to College. And, realizing that our government was Lying to us about what was happening over there!
I have watched the last 7 years of the Bush Administration, and the disastrous events that our children will have to live with for so many years.
I have never missed our beloved Paul Wellstone more than I have in the last 6 years! BUT, I can tell you that there is a resurgence of the Spirit that You have inspired, and I am SO grateful that it STILL LIVES!!
There was a swelling of emotions and purpose that I haven’t seen since the 60’s, and I’m positive that Your presence and that of so many other people who grew up with Your Music in their ears will not fail us again!
Thank You so Much for all you have given to the American People, and to all the People everywhere!
Not only are You a National Treasure, But a Treasure for all Mankind!!

I Applaud You, and Your Family for their support of your efforts!
Thank You!!
Susan

Pete, you are right! It DID sound like a eulogy…I had to go online and find out you are still here with us, breathing in and out, heart still singing loud! Whoo-hoo!!

Thank you thank you, thank you! For a lifetime of cheers and tears and thoughts put to song…I rememer hearing “I Come and Stand” the very first time…eight years old, mom brushing my hair and crying, me standing there and crying as she told me what the song was about, wondering for the first, but not the last time “how could such a thing be?”. The despair that could have enshrouded me dispelled by your lovely voice, your healing songs, the knowlege that the world is sprinkled with folks like you who work every day to lift the despair and right the wrongs and also filled to the brim with folks who can hear the songs, hear the message, work for change and pass it all along till the sky becomes blue again as we get one step, one person farther away from such things ever happening again.

You are our national treasure!

After watching the show last night I was inspired to write a few lyrics:

The Ballad of Pete Seeger

(To the air “John Hardy”)

Pete Seeger is a string bean of a man
He strums his ol’ five string
And plays guitar like nobody can
With his head up he really can sing
With his head up he really can sing

His family they were musical
He grew up with notes in his ears
He went down south and heard them there
Them mountain folk had plenty to share
Repeat

He went to school and played his “uke”
And found that people wanted change
He did commit to the workin’ folk
And sang for the union age
Repeat

The war did come and he served right well
For he loved his country true
He sang for workers for he could tell
They needed a leg up too
Repeat

A singing with the Weavers on the air
He really made a hit
But it was the beginning of the Commie scare
In front of the House he had to sit
Repeat

Now Ole Pete he stuck to his guns
“My opinions are my affair”
But the paranoia of those bums
Soon made him blacklisted from the air
Repeat

He jined up with the civil rights
Fightin for equality
He put Vietnam right into his sights
Knowing it was insanity
Repeat
Where have all the flowers gone?
While the seasons they do turn?
Still they push us into the muddy Mekong
When will they ever learn?
Repeat

His work it may now be local
He made the Hudson clear
But the time that he is most vocal:
When hammerin’ them strings in the air!
Repeat

Myself I have an old five string
It ain’t worth much I said
But to me it is a priceless thing
Since Pete, he signed on the head
Repeat

Now Pete he’s got a family fine
They’ve helped him and they’re proud
But it’s bigger than anyone can mind
For he’s touched a far larger crowd
Repeat

Now I am a man that gets teary eyed
When I hear the “Spangled Banner” play
But I know a star in Freedom’s Sky
Will bear Pete Seeger’s name some day!
Repeat

Pete Seeger is a string bean of a man
He knows the power of song
He is a true American
He’s been fighting for us all along!
Repeat

Brian Kennedy
Cranford NJ
March 7, 2008