Pete Seeger, RIP

A great warrior who loved his country as well as its people died yesterday. His obit in this morning's NYT Pete Seeger 1919-2014 is worth a read if only for the window it provides on what Richard Hofstadter once called  the paranoid style in American politics. In the face of powerful resistance, he kept on singing with gentle and joyful strength about the best our country stands for. He wasn't perfect and never claimed to be. I always thought he missed the irony of Bob Dylan going electric at the 1965 Newport Folk Festival to howls of protesting "folk music purists" - an oxymoron if there ever was one. Nevertheless, he championed music that inspired and fueled an American Revolution and reflects values I learned even in my small, parochial midwestern home town. In his nineties, he was still on stage flanked by musicians he inspired like Bruce Springsteen, David Byrne, Dave Matthews, and Emmylou Harris. He was a giant and we will miss him even as we keep singing his songs. jpr