Pete Seeger:The Power of Song

Pete Seeger stirs my soul. Listening to his songs and thinking about his life just challenges and blesses my heart. I am grateful to God and the spirit of life and love and justice that Pete Seeger walks the earth, breathing the air and making music.

Blessedly,I saw the documentary in New York City last week about Pete's life and love and song and struggle. The movie,"Pete Seeger:The Power of Song" gives energy and joy to our struggle--because it reveals so much of the life of a humble and happy and courageous and gifted human being.

Pete Seeger and the power of his songs and singing has lifted up the hearts of millions. Let us sing and take courage. Let us sing and in singing believe that we shall overcome. Let us sing the refrain about the troops in Vietnam--bring 'em home, bring 'em home. Pete wrote a song about the Vietnam War, called "Waste Deep in the Big Muddy." The song tells of an officer who leads his soldiers into the big muddy river and as it deepens, the officer, the big fool, can only say march on, march on. The officer marches on to his death and then the troops turn and seek to escape the morass of the big muddy. Seems like we better start singing those songs again. Sounds like a reality we know today all too well.

While Pete Seeger was being blacklisted for his prewar membership in the Communist Part and his associations with people like Paul Robeson, his musical group the Weavers recorded the hit song "Goodnight Irene". Later,desperate for work, the group agreed to do a commercial for a cigarette company over Pete's strong objections on ethical grounds. He left the band. .

The movie includes rousing scenes of Pete leading groups in singing justice songs. I was on a retreat with Pete Seeger at Kirkridge Retreat Center in Pennsylvania several years ago. Maybe sixty of us sang "We shall overcome" with both nostalgia and renewed energy. Whatever kind of personal or political mess we were in, we had hope, because of one another, because of Pete and his witness, because of the power of song, because of our faith that the Lord will see us through.

Pete was asked about the song "We shall overcome", since he had written some of the verses and done so much to share the song and energize it. Who is the 'we' in the song. Who is going to overcome? "Well,the we is everybody--finally, we are going to overcome together." That's what he said.

O deep in my heart I do believe that we shall overcome someday.

The justice movement urgently calls us to start singing together again--to lift up our hearts, to mellow our souls, to give joy and clarity to our minds and courage to our lives.