Pete Seeger 100 -- May 3, 2019

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Folk singer and activist Pete Seeger was born 100 years ago today, on 03-May-1919.

I came along after the folk music craze had lost steam. Groups like the Kingston Trio give me hives. Pete Seeger, on the other hand, was not just an element of a craze. He supported migrant farmworkers, union organizers, the anti-war movement (except World War II, he served in that and believed we had to "lick Mr. Hitler"), the environmental movement and the no-nukes movement. He joined the Communist Party and later drifted away. He was called before the House Un-American Activities Committee and invoked his First Amendment right of free association. He was blacklisted. He taught children.

He led a good life. When he died in 2014, Arlo Guthrie said "Well, of course he passed away! But that doesn't mean he's gone."