Inspired by Pete Seeger; 'We Shall Overcome' -- But How?
Why bother? What's the point? What difference can I possibly make?Ever felt that way? Many do.
Yet others keep at it, whatever the odds, staring down defeat. What sustains them? What keeps them going?
One of those people was Pete Seeger. His example, commitment, and endurance was an inspiration to me as a young man -- and to millions of others during the past sixty-plus years. He was an icon, larger than life, and lots more fun.
I never dreamed in those days that I would someday be sharing a stage with him at rallies, enjoying a private, quiet dinner and evening's conversation with Pete, and his wife, Toshi, in their Beacon, New York, home overlooking the Hudson River he was fighting for, or that he would be providing support for the National Citizens Committee for Broadcasting, for which I was the chair.
What a life he led! Past tense because, as all but cave dwellers are by now aware, he died last Monday, January 27, at the age of 94.
Memories of Pete Seeger flooded back again a couple of days ago as I read an email from a discouraged young man I know. It was going to require a response, and it got me to thinking about why it is that some are able to keep going for 94 years, while others give up after years and years of frustration.
Here is our exchange of emails: http://fromdc2iowa.blogspot.com/2014/02/pete-seeger-and-antidote-to-apathy.html