Life from the left (Pete Seeger Interview, U.S.S.R. "not necessarily" the enemy of U.S., etc.)

The Dallas Morning News ^ | Saturday, July 16, 2005 | JEFFREY WEISS

[nickcarraway]

For people with a particular taste in music, Pete Seeger is still a cultural icon. For too many others, mentioning his name gets a blank look and a question: "Is he related to Bob?"

Well, no. Pete (he insists on being called Pete) was one of the creators of modern folk music. He's in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Songs that he wrote, helped write or helped make famous include "If I Had a Hammer," "We Shall Overcome," "Turn, Turn, Turn" and "Where Have All the Flowers Gone?"

Music is not Pete's only legacy, though. As he puts it, he was a lefty. Actually, he was a member of the Communist Party USA in the 1930s and early 1940s, and he sang at Communist rallies and events.

Fifty years ago this summer, on Aug. 25, 1955, he became a target for the House Un-American Activities Committee, a committee of the U.S. House of Representatives that was a creature of the Red Scare. HUAC called dozens of entertainers, politicians and businesspeople and grilled them about any contacts with communism.

Pete is 86. He's still a lefty, viewing with alarm the war in Iraq, dehumanizing technology and the power of oligarchies. He still lives on a mountaintop near Beacon, N.Y., that he and his wife, Toshi, bought 60 years ago. His singing voice is almost gone, but he's still performing.

And he's still happy to find an audience, whether it's a school full of kids or one inquisitive reporter who dropped in on Pete in Beacon, the day before his annual Strawberry Shortcake Festival.

Question: How did you learn that you had been called to testify?

Answer: I was standing out there in the parking lot of this little house and barn.

[avg_freeper]

"Turn, Turn, Turn"

Oh, I think he might of had a little "Ecclesiastical" help with that one.

[Rodney King]

"Is he related to Bob?"

I always figured he was his dad or uncle or something.

[Huck]

Question: But didn't Stalin turn out to be one of the worst despots of the 20th century?

Answer: Well, when it comes to big ones. But there's bad ones all over. And, you know, for 50 years, the United States has helped control the politics of Latin America. And they have the School of the Americas, they call it, in Fort Benning, Ga. Training military – Latin American military men – how to torture, how to massacre, how to assassinate.

[Argus]

Just another folksy old Stalinist, reminiscing about the good old days of gulags, terror famines and mass executions.

[popdonnelly]

Old Communists never die, they just fade away. Some of them should fade further and faster.

[Zionist Conspirator]

Pete Seeger is an atheist Communist SOB. The adulation of him by the American establishment would make good evidence of the claim that Communism is secretly run by David Rockefeller. Or was, at any rate. David Rockefeller turned 90 last month. I don't know who's secretly running the world now. I only know it's not me.

[geopyg]

"U.S.S.R. not necessarily the enemy of the United States"

Well not NOW anyway. And I think Russia is not necessarily our enemy either. And I think if we put a little more effort into it, they would be an even stronger ally in the fight against terrorism, China and North Korea.

[muir_redwoods]

There is no fool like an old fool

[gridlock]

I guess that whole "We will bury you!" thing was just a big misunderstanding...

[maestro]

.....Life from the left (Pete Seeger Interview,..... " ACLU "..... "not necessarily" the enemy of U.S., etc.)

/NEA

[TrailofTears]

Pete Seeger was a has been by the time most of those songs came into popularity. He basically faded away by the end of the sixties. He was more known for his banjo playing and banjo book, than anything other than anti-war activism.

[Santiago de la Vega]

Nick,

Thanks for posting this article.

It's a good time to remind ourselves that artists don't have a clue about reality.

Leave ol' Pete alone and just listen to the banjo.

No matter how loony he sounds.

[brooklin]

David Rockefeller certainly kept his running the world secret. I never once noticed him doing it. I know that I would have asked about it.

[Recovering_Democrat]

I grew up listening to Seegers famous Carnegie Hall concert. The folky, singalong style of his music is applaudable, if his politics are detestable.

I consider him to be a throwback to the idealistic but idiotic social liberals of the Depression/Post-WWII era. Not necessarily dangerous, and not all that influential anymore, if they ever were.

I still sing to my son one of his little ditties: "What did you learn in school today, dear little boy of mine?" Of course he put in some anti-Establishment claptrap, but who says we have to believe that? :)

He also sang a delightful old Woody Guthrie tune:

I'm Gonna Mail Myself to You

I'm Gonna Mail Myself to You
(Woody Guthrie)

I'm gonna wrap myself in paper
I'm gonna dot myself with glue
Stick some stamps on top of my head
I'm gonna mail myself to you

I'm gonna tie me up in a red string
I'm gonna tie a blue ribbon too
Climb up inside my mailbox
I'm gonna mail myself to you

When you find me in your mailbox
Cut the string and let me out
Wash the glue from off my fingers
Stick some bubblegum in my mouth

When you find me in your mailbox
Wash the glue from off my head
Fill me up with ice cream sodas
Tuck me into a nice warm bed.

I'm gonna wrap myself in paper
I'm gonna dot myself with glue
Stick some stamps on top of my head
I'm gonna mail myself to you

[Zionist Conspirator]

David Rockefeller certainly kept his running the world secret. I never once noticed him doing it. I know that I would have asked about it.

That's funny. I thought that everybody knew that David Rockefeller secretly ran the world!

Um, wasn't he the basis of Sauron in Lord of the Rings? Or was that John D. Jr.? Or maybe John D. Sr.???

[johnandrhonda]

Seeger traveled around with Woodie Guthrie in the 1940's. Guthrie wrote the song "This land is your land" which Seeger made popular during the folk music years--late 50's to mid 60's. Everyone thinks of that song as patriotic, but in fact it is a protest song against the private ownership of land--a communist idea if ever there was one.

[brooklin]

Other than the people that I work with, I don't know a thing about trolls and hobbits.

[sharkhawk]

The most amazing thing about Seeger and the other 30 lefties is their support of Stalin even when he was aligned with Hitler. Those facts never seem to make the MSM notes about this digusting person.

Pete Seeger

[sharkhawk]

30 lefties s/b 30's lefties.