Freedom of Speech - Pete Seeger

Freedom of Speech seems to be important to a lot of people nowadays. You hear a lot about it. Which is good I suppose. If people weren't talking about freedom of speech, that would actually probably really mean that there was none!

A while back, Pete Seeger was on The Colbert Report. I was touched that these two great men, Stephen Colbert a conservative, and Pete Seeger a liberal, could sit down and talk together and get along so well. They actually have a lot in common. And I said I would post something else about Pete Seeger. So here it is.

There's a great video to watch. I hope it doesn't disappear after I tell you about it. (UPDATE: It has now disappeared. You can look for yourself, but it's gone. I hope they have it on PBS again.)  It is a PBS special about Pete Seeger - "Pete Seeger - The Power of Song (2007) by PBS American Masters."

It is long, so grab a bag of popcorn and watch it and learn and enjoy. We get to see his humble abode, maybe not as humble as when he first built it with his own hands. There's a neat weather vane that looks like a sailboat. We see later in the video that it is not just some random piece of metal art sculpture. It is a tribute to great accomplishments. We see a wall with his many instruments displayed. We get to watch him cutting wood for the fire just like he told Stephen.

Many musicians are featured talking about Pete Seeger. There's a neat story by Arlo Guthrie, a cute little trick. We find out how quickly fame can come and how quickly it can fade. If you don't have time to read history of the last 100 years, this is a great way to find out what was happening from the people who were making it happen.

Johnny Cash talks with Pete Seeger on his show. Tommy Smothers talks about the time when Pete Seeger was on his show - "The Smothers Brothers." Bob Dylan, Joan Baez, Bruce Springsteen. Mary Travers and many more musicians are featured sharing their stories of Pete Seeger.

Freedom of Speech is better when you sing it. It's more powerful and accomplishes much more.

Go watch that video. It will change your life.