Art-For-Art’s-Sake Theatre: Remembering Pete Seeger (1919-2014)

Time once again for our usual midday Wednesday feature, which is running later than usual. Then again, there is little that is usual about this segment.

There is much that could be said (most of which cannot be done justice in this venue) about the American folksinger-activist Pete Seeger, who died peacefully in his sleep last Monday evening at New York's Presbyterian Hospital, surrounded by members of his family. He was 94. Seeger had just been out chopping wood only ten days before, and a few days after that was admitted. We should all be so active right up to the end.

Seeger's American roots can be traced back to the Colonial era, and a prominent New England family. His father was an eminent musicologist, his mother a prolific classical violinist, and nearly all of his siblings were involved with music in one form or another, most of it in the Anglo-American folk tradition. He was among the first of a long line of upper-crust bourgeois bohemians assuming the hard-scrapple appearance of the downtrodden, and who were the staple of the early- and mid-20th century folk revival (which preceded the over-commercialized "folk scare" of the late-1950s and early-1960s). Most people are aware of Seeger's advocacy of communism, and of his blacklisting for defying the American political system, which to some extent made possible the very way of American life about which he sang. Some might even remember how he visited North Vietnam in 1972, and extolled the virtues of their way of life, even as American servicemen were being held prisoner there. Very few people would remember that he equally despised the variety of communism promoted by Soviet Russia (his dalliance with Hanoi notwithstanding), that he regretted his association with the movement in later years, and that he performed at a 1982 benefit concert for the decidedly anti-communist Polish Solidarity labor movement.

On a personal note, this writer first taught himself to play the banjo in 1979, using Seeger's classic instruction book “How To Play The 5-String Banjo” first published in 1954 by Folkways, and revived in 1992 by Music Sales America.

The music that Seeger made popular, whether his own, or picked up along the way, experienced a resurgence in later years, especially at the behest of Bruce Springsteen and his famous “Seeger Sessions” in 2006. The first clip is one of Seeger singing "Michael Row The Boat Ashore" for college students in Melbourne, Australia, in 1963, a time when he was rarely seen on American television. The second is a one-hour live performance by Springsteen and his Seeger Sessions Band at the London Symphony Orchestra's Music Education Centre ("LSO St Luke's") in London.

This man who despised injustice in America was prophetic in some respects, and hopelessly naive in others. In the end, he was only a man, who returned to the dust of the earth, as will all of us who remember him, and who appreciate what he left us.

Rest in peace, old traveler. May God have mercy on you.
 

The Reverend Doctor King: A Footnote

While researching something else entirely, I came across the following at the website for The Martin Luther King Jr Center for Nonviolent Social Change (aka “The King Center”), located in Atlanta, Georgia. It received very little attention in the press at the time, possibly overshadowed by events related to the end of a millennium:

After four weeks of testimony and over 70 witnesses in a civil trial in Memphis, Tennessee, twelve jurors reached a unanimous verdict on December 8, 1999 after about an hour of deliberations that Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. was assassinated as a result of a conspiracy. In a press statement held the following day in Atlanta, Mrs. Coretta Scott King welcomed the verdict, saying:

“There is abundant evidence of a major high level conspiracy in the assassination of my husband, Martin Luther King, Jr. And the civil court's unanimous verdict has validated our belief. I wholeheartedly applaud the verdict of the jury and I feel that justice has been well served in their deliberations. This verdict is not only a great victory for my family, but also a great victory for America. It is a great victory for truth itself. It is important to know that this was a SWIFT verdict, delivered after about an hour of jury deliberation. The jury was clearly convinced by the extensive evidence that was presented during the trial that, in addition to Mr. Jowers, the conspiracy of the Mafia, local, state and federal government agencies, were deeply involved in the assassination of my husband. The jury also affirmed overwhelming evidence that identified someone else, not James Earl Ray, as the shooter, and that Mr. Ray was set up to take the blame. I want to make it clear that my family has no interest in retribution. Instead, our sole concern has been that the full truth of the assassination has been revealed and adjudicated in a court of law ...

My husband once said: ‘The moral arc of the universe is long, but it bends toward justice.’ To-day, almost 32 years after my husband and the father of my four children was assassinated, I feel that the jury's verdict clearly affirms this principle. With this faith, we can begin the 21st century and the new millennium with a new spirit of hope and healing.”

If this writer has learned one thing in more than thirty years of living and working in the Nation's capital, it is never to put anything past anybody. For the right price, for the right incentive, most people will do anything, anything at all, and sleep like a baby that night. Some of the "nicest guys" I ever met in this town, are guys I wouldn't trust farther than I could throw them (which is an option I have considered in those cases). It is a sad commentary on the human condition, and yet, if you ever doubt the ability of man to do unspeakable evil without regret, tell that to nearly half a million people who will converge on this city the day after tomorrow.

They don't need convincing. Do you?
 

FAMW: (The Middle Class Liberal) Well-Intentioned Blues

With the impending 50th anniversary celebration of Dr Martin Luther King's "March on Washington" and his famous "I Have A Dream" speech, we take you back to the late 1970s, when the National Lampoon Radio Hour, and this tribute to the caring and sharing of all those who strive to solve the Nation's problems with someone else's money. Lead vocal and guitar by Christopher Guest, back-up vocal and banjo by Mark Horowitz, music by Christopher Guest, lyrics by Sean Kelly, produced by Bob Tischler and Christopher Guest -- all that for this week's Friday Afternoon Moment of Whimsy.
 

Aaron Swartz (1986-2013)

Everyone who works on or uses the Internet (including yours truly) owes a lot to this man. Today was his funeral.

In 2010 and 2011, Aaron Swartz downloaded a lot of academic documents from JSTOR (the online library of scholarly articles) with the intent to distribute them because he believed more information in more hands would make the world a better place. A noble idea, but the Department of Justice decided to make an example of him. Aaron faced 35 years in jail and $1 million in fines before he decided to commit suicide. Watch this moving talk from 2012 about how he helped stopped COICA and SOPA, two congressional bills that would have essentially created a great American firewall and made it easy to censor the Internet.

Writer and internet advocate Mischa Nachtigal has provided the above content, and has also furnished time-coded highlights of his friend's testimony. If you have 23 minutes to spare, if you use the internet (kinda like you are now), and you prefer that the government not be in your business any more than it absolutely has to, you owe it to Aaron, to Mischa, to say nothing of yourself, to give ear to listen.

Thanks, Mischa. Rest in peace, Aaron.