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I received a postcard from Pete recently. On the cover it said, "How To Build a Community." A few quotes that I loved were - "Think of no one as a them." "Look at the moon and imagine someone else, somewhere else looking at it too" and "Know that no one is silent, though many are not heard. Work to change this." Everthing Pete does is to make the world a better place. Cecilia St. King

My brother Pete for the Nobel Prize? Oh yes. Any prizes for Pete will get my support and a bucketload of hoorays. His work has been seminal and inspiring - and singable! He has worked with his wife Toshi untiringly for six decades. His songs are sung all over the world. But to me he is more than all that - he is the brother who came down to our childhood home several times a year with his banjo and with new songs and with an everlasting willingness to sit down and teach everything he knew at anytime to whoever would listen. His presence has informed my whole life. His cheer, his optimism, his creativity, his generosity and his dedication to a just, peaceful and lasting future for mankind make him an eminent candidate for the Nobel. It warms me to think that other people feel he is THEIR brother too. Peggy Seeger, Pete's sister

I am writing in support of Pete Seeger's nomination for a Nobel Peace prize. In my opinion, it is not only his tireless work over the decades for peace, or touring internationally talking about peace, or supporting various candidates and organizations, or writing songs that get sung by others, it is also the tremendous effect he had on a generation (even 2 - 3 generations) of people who have gone on to do good work. Pete is my uncle, and I am also a folk musician. I sing with the group the Short Sisters, and have been singing with them for over 25 years. We sang at the first QUIT conference at Guilford College a couple of years ago. Almost every concert we do, someone comes up to me and talks about how important Pete was and is to them. Often it is way he changed their lives, and how the ideas important to him became important to them. (peace, civil rights, human dignity, the environment, thinking globally and acting locally, etc.) And when they talk about Pete they get a glow in their eyes, an animated energy not unlike the glow Pete projects when he's talking about a new idea or song. I can'thelp but think - if Pete got the Nobel Peace prize and talked (as he would) about going out and doing your bit to help the effort , what a wonderful trickle down effect, and what a positive sign this would be in these troubled times, even as change is on the horizon it's not here yet. A reason why I think it would be wonderful for Pete to get the Nobel Peace Prize NOW is that without Toshi Seeger, his wife, Pete would not have been able to accomplish all that he did. She was the organizer, clear thinker to bounce ideas off of, # 1 champion and equal partner in all of his efforts. She is getting more frail now, and I think it would be wonderful if this sort of honor could come now, while they are both still able to appreciate it. It would be even more wonderful if it could be a joint prize, Pete and Toshi Seeger. Kate Seeger, Pete's neice, in a letter to the AFSC

I met Pete when he became involved in the Albany Movement during the Civil Rights Movement. I was a student leader in that campaign and had been jailed and suspended from college because of my actions. I was also a songleader and as I learned about Pete's life, I found another way to be a working singer. His life has modeled using song and singing as a way to reach out to those of us struggling to find a way to be effective for change under oppressive conditions. He was and is a working singer, very much like any other worker, because he has been tireless, and open to all levels of ages and communities he has shown so many of us, that you can give your life for what you believe and you can make a difference and you can provide hope and nurture for the work of peace and freedom in the world for the people, and the planet and the future. Bernice Johnson Reagon

The songs of Pete Seeger taught me about peace, love and justice when I was growing up... Dr. Carina Ramirez

There is no candidate more worthy. Pete has dedicated a lifetime to the betterment of mankind through folk music and the preservation of traditional ways. His campaign for peace and justice has always been at the forefront of his many projects, recordings, and performances. In his lifetime he has inspired several generations to follow in his path. Pete Seeger is one man who has by example, launched a movement. Grammy Award Winner Tim O'Brien, Nashville TN

As the 'General' I.L.G. East Coast Union Organizer [I was] a body guard for Pete and Coretta King on various Peace Demonstrations during the 60's. There was a serious threat on Coretta King's life on a NYC demonstration, and I witnessed Pete turn a potentially explosive situation into a sing-a-long in Central Park after the power was cut and he (with me holding a megaphone as we stood on the barricades) got the first row singing which then reverberated like ripples in water till thousands were singing 'All we are saying is give Peace a chance', calming a potentially disastrous situation. This after Coretta was whisked away, at my insistence. This scene was repeated in Washington D. C. when Nixon had gassed the entire hotel staging area and was poised with armed troops and helicopters ready to turn the million Peace demonstrators into a panicky blood bath if the thousands of Underground Weatherman had captured the stage. In both cases Pete had the ability to save the day and the Peace movement from dire catastrophe. If anyone deserves the Nobel Peace Prize -IT MUST BE PETE - who really put his life on the line and, with his charisma, kept the peace! Walt DeYoung, New Smyrna Beach, FL

After returning to America from the hell that was Viet Nam, I heard Pete Seeger singing. His voice was the first ray of healthy sunshine I heard and felt in a very dark world. Pete LED young Americans of all colors, genders and religions on the path of peace and freedom. He is recognized all over the world as the voice of tolerance and understanding. Pete Seeger should be awarded the Nobel Prize as well as be honored by heads of state for his contributions to humanity. Rabbi Dr. Marc Jordan Ben-Meir, Fort Worth, Texas

I would be delighted to support the campaign to nominate Pete Seeger for the Nobel Peace Prize. I can think of no comparable figure alive today who has done so much in so many different cultural fields for the cause of peace and international understanding. His life and work are a model for us all. Andy Croft Smokestack Books

If I can offer any memory that would be relevant to a peace prize, it might be from ... the first time I ever heard Pete sing. The Claremont Colleges were not hotbeds of activism or pacifism in 1958, which was I think the year. Still, Pete's music effortlessly led us all to unexpected places. I wish could quote accurately what he said when, as we neared the end of the concert, he introduced the song "Careless Love." He pointed out that a LOT of the songs we had shared that evening had dealt with careless love --"careless" in the sense of selfless love acted upon with no care for the risks one might run by doing so. Whatever his exact words, his introduction transformed the familiar chorus into an athem to idealism. The entire audience sang along with a depth of emotion I shall never again hear that almost-too-familiar chorus elicit. We sang together remembering all the music we had heard that night -- songs like The Bells of Rhymney, like the song created from the final letter that Vanzetti wrote his son. Even if I could recall the introduction accurately, of course, the words might not carry the same impact set down on paper or a computer monitor. It probably was one of those situations where you just had to be there. Pete's own passionate idealism awakens others, changes others, in a way that is close to magic. I don't think I'm the only one who, almost half a century later, still recalls the vistas he opened to us that night. Alice McLerran, Long Island NY

The year was 1972, and I was a new young sixth grade teacher in the Port Ewen Elementary School. Since I had a great interest in the environment, and our Hudson River, I thought it would be important to share and bring my class down to the Rondout for a Clearwater festival. When I asked my principal for permission, he retorted that it would be inappropriate because Pete Seeger was a "card carrying Communist". I don't remember how I got away with it, but we did get down to the river, and my class did enjoy the singing, the fish activities, and the "stone Soup", and 15 years later Clearwater activities became part of the curriculum at Kingston City Schools!! I taught elementary school for 32 years, always with emphasis on the environment, conservation, and sharing. My classroom welcome back display every September was a big map of the US with the lyrics "This Land is Your Land" in banner letters & musical notes; and each year I would teach the song, and its meaning, incorporated in studies of geography, history and culture. Joanne Engle, Rhinebeck NY

I had the opportunity and honor to be the sound technician at a couple of Pete Seeger concerts in New York City in the 1980's. What a pleasure to do the sound for Pete! (And Toshi advised us on the sound the first time I worked with Pete. Thank you Toshi.) He was a thorough gentleman and professional and was exceedingly easy to work with. No "attitude" except positive. His voice and instruments were clear and well articulated. And of course his message was always that of make peace, share your humanity, and build a better world. In recent years a few pop/rock stars have done excellent work for human rights and the environment. But it was Pete who paved the way for them. Howard Herrnstadt, Silver Spring MD

My personal memories of Pete began over 50 years ago, when we 1st met at a rally in a DairyWorkers hall in Detroit, when I was brought there to see "the guy you liked from 'Goofin' Off Suite". That was my initial exposure to his music, but by the end of that songfest I was "hooked"! My personal "parochial" upbringing had left so many questions unanswered, but thru Pete's music & words, many "taboos" became clear. As a result, when I moved to New York a few years later, I looked Pete up, co-founded a Brooklyn Clearwater chapter, and joined the Hudson River Sloop Singers -- a loosely-knit affiliation of 5 or 6 dozen singer-songwriter-environmentalist-activist-humanist-people of all races, origins, trades and faiths, who were all privileged to be a part of Toshi & Pete Seeger's "extended family". Some day I'll write a book detailing some of the more memorable moments with this extraordinary man and his impact on the global community, but NO ONE has EVER deserved to receive the Nobel Peace Prize more than Pete, for a litany of reasons. Ned Treanor

A sort of tapestry ...... Well, this story has some odd bits that kind of fit together, and I wish I had written more things down so that I could fill in more details. Like so many others, I first heard Pete sing on records we bought in the early '60s. For me, Pete's music defined the middle third of that decade, from the death of John Kennedy through the deaths of Martin Luther King and Bobby Kennedy. Pete filled those years with so much hope and love, and he kept on singing when all hope seemed to be lost in 1968. I didn't really then believe any more that peace-and-freedom music could change the world; I needed to hear louder, stronger, angrier music, because at that point the enemy had guns, lots of them, rather than billy clubs and fire hoses. As I said, however, Pete kept on singing anyway. I was in Oberlin, Ohio sometime around 1970 or 1971, and my sister and I went to hear him, in a local church perhaps, I don't quite remember. I do remember that we got there late and were told that we could sit on the stage just behind Pete or to one or the other side. So there I was, looking up from floor level at Pete with his guitar or banjo, singing songs I'd heard many times before and some new ones too. I can honestly say that I have never, ever felt so much love radiating from another person in all directions. And something in me responded with a feeling of warmth and love, in the agape sense I think, that I did not feel again until the births of my two children 15 or so years later. Extraordinary. That was the only time I saw/heard Pete in person, but as you probably know it's not difficult at all to come across links to previous (and future) experiences in unexpected times and places. In 1977 I went to China with a bunch of young people, as a "study group" we supposed, not mere tourists. The group was led by none other than Myles Horton, the founder of the Highlander Folk School in Newmarket, Tennessee. Myles was there when his wife Zilphia and others transformed an earlier inspirational song into "We Shall Overcome" as we know it now. Pete learned the song there at the school, added verses of his own from time to time and over the years helped to make it into the most widely- and well-known anthem of peace and freedom around the world. We met people in China who knew the song both in Chinese and in English, and they were astonished to learn that Myles had been there when the song evolved into the version they had heard. Myles had known Pete for years by this time, of course, but I don't remember hearing any Pete stories from him. He did talk about riding freight trains with Woody Guthrie, getting disgusted when the labor unions kicked out all of his socialist friends, and struggling with his conscience to conclude that the war against Nazi Germany had to be fought but that the war in the Pacific was different--two competing imperialisms fighting over the resources and bodies of native peoples. He also told me a long, involved story about something I'd never heard of before, the epidemic of tri-ortho-cresyl phosphate poisoning among (primarily) Southern men who drank adulterated extract of Jamaican ginger ("Jake") during Prohibition. For a pittance you could buy a bottle of Jake and a Coke in the drugstore and have yourself a legal 150-proof toot. Unfortunately the adulterated Jake caused severe and usually irreversible nerve damage, causing the victims to walk with a peculiar high-stepping, foot-slapping gait that Myles referred to as the "Jake-leg". When I became an epidemiologist some years later I came across this story in the medical literature and learned that "Ginger Jake" and the "Jake leg" is one of only a few diseases/disorders memorialized in blues and folk songs--some 15 such are known. I have no idea whether or not Pete knows any of these songs; it wouldn't surprise me though, given that he has hung around the Highlander School and many other parts of the South over the years. There's one other thread in this story, and I still find it hard to believe myself. When we were in China Myles arranged for our group to meet an American couple who had gone to live in China permanently after the revolution in 1949. I don't remember how Myles knew these people; I imagine they had been at the Highlander School before becoming Chinese citizens. They came to one of our hotel rooms and talked at length about their lives as (more or less) Chinese peasants. I have one or two photos of them, and they look about as much Chinese as they do American, which is to say that they had been through rough times. Anyhow, when I returned to the U.S. I visited my Aunt Anne in Bennington, Vermont, and compared my China stories with those of my aunt and uncle who had gone there shortly after Henry Kissinger did, in about 1973. I showed her my photographs, and--get ready, here it comes, would you believe it?--the American/Chinese woman who talked to us in the hotel room had been my aunt's roommate at the University of Wisconsin before the war. This has nothing to do with Pete or Myles, but as I said at the beginning, this is just a story about threads of various kinds. I'm not sure I can see a real point in all this. Perhaps we can simply observe that because of who Pete is and what he does, his music draws so many people together that there will inevitably be vast numbers of single threads that end up binding us all into a beautiful tapestry. I have no way of knowing whether or not something like this will fit the Nobel Committee's template when they consider who's worthy of a Peace Prize. I suspect, however, that as much as those who've been touched by Pete would like to see this happen, it's probably not all that big a deal to him. Pete just does what he does, among large and small groups of ordinary people, and he will keep on doing it to the extent he's able until he dies. He already knows how much he's accomplished in his lifetime. In fact, if I remember correctly a song he copped from someone and liked a lot, he'd really like to be buried under an apple tree somewhere so that people can go on partaking of him as long as that tree continues to bear fruit. Jonathan M. Ramlow, PhD, MPH Midland, Michigan, USA, North America, Western Hemisphere, Planet Earth

In the late '50s, my youthful interest in rock & roll shifted toward folk.....and so began my activism in peace and justice......which rages strongly today. Pete Seeger and The Weavers were the progenitors......and gave voice to that nascent agenda. If anyone deserves the Nobel Prize for Peace.....Pete surely does. I imagine he has educated millions about iniquities and torturous acts....and elevated our collective conscience....as one of those 'Hundred Monkeys' might. Jay Hamburger, Photographer Founder - shalomsalaam@yahoogroups.com

I have a special fondness for Pete Seeger, not only because I admire what he has done with his life, but also because of the experience of meeting and talking with him when I was a child. He was performing in a festival of some sort and Dad brought me there. I was not deeply interested in most of what was going on and wandered around a hillside in the trees where I found him sitting at the foot of a tree with his banjo. He very kindly visited with me and I asked him a lot of questions about the banjo and he demonstrated a few techniques to me. I will always remember his kind smile and gentle manner. It seems to me when I see him that he hasn't changed a bit. Richard C. Williamson, Sunnyvale CA

I guess I first met Pete properly on the morning of Wednesday July 3rd 1985. It was about 9am. We were stood on the stage of The Royal Festival Hall in London where Pete had just arrived by taxi from Heathrow Airport. He had flown in over night at his own expense on the dreaded 'red eye' from Chicago where the previous evening he had been in concert with Arlo. The occasion was a concert arranged by The Chilean Cultural Centre and Victor Jara Committee in London under the slogan "USA hands off Latin America". With us along with Osvaldo Torres and Capri stood the members of Illapu and the sound engineer who was laying down the law about a 2pm sound check. I remember questioning the sound engineer why it was necessary for Pete to be there at that time; after all I reasoned he only needed to sound check two microphones and Pete needed some sleep. The sound engineer relented and agreed Pete could sound check at six. A few months previously I had written to Pete about the British coal miners who had been on a 15 month strike without pay fighting the closure of mines by Margaret Thatcher and her Conservative Government. The miners were eventually starved and beaten (in more ways than one - the British police had used much violence on the picket lines) back to work. Many had lost their homes and all, along with their families, had undergone much hardship. At the time I owned Britain's third largest folk label and I had asked Pete whether he had any old private tapes I could use to issue a long playing record in order to raise funds to help the miners in their dilemma, because although the strike was now over many of them were penniless and in dire need of help. Pete had written back suggesting we meet at the concert and record it. I met with the committee of The Chilean Cultural Centre and eventually set up a deal whereby I record the whole of the concert for them at my expense and issue a second CD of Pete's segment of the concert for the miners benefit. All in all it benefited everybody. On the night of the show backstage Pete suggested we should make yet another recording on the morning of Friday July 5th before he caught the plane back to Baltimore where he had another concert to do with Arlo that same evening. I was stunned but delighted at the idea. Apparently he intended to spend July 4th with Ewan MacColl and sister Peggy, but thought if I got him out of his hotel bed at 7am he surely had time to record a second LP before his flight left Heathrow at midday. A crazy idea but worth pursuing. And so it was that I found myself in Pete's hotel bedroom that following Friday at 7am. I had found a recording studio in Ealing (midway between Holborn and Heathrow) where after settling his own hotel bill we managed to put down 17 tracks in 90 minutes! Pete had a pint of English beer at the airport and bade me farewell. This little story shows the incredible generosity and work rate of the man. He was at the time aged 66 (exactly my own age today). I’m sure there are many similar stories. But in the space of four days he had packed in two concerts in America, one concert in London and recorded three long playing records. One of them on the morning of his flight back to the USA. He had made the flights from Chicago to London to Baltimore completely at his own expense and also paid his own hotel bill, not to mention the taxi fare from Heathrow to The Royal Festival Hall. He had laid down three long playing records, one to benefit Chile and the other two to benefit the British miners. He had completely put his faith in me to get him back to the airport in time. Had we stayed too long in the recording studio he would have missed his flight to Baltimore and along with it missed the concert with Arlo. The long playing records were issued on The Greenwich Village label in London under catalogue numbers GVR 228, 233 and 234. Regrettably they are no longer available to the public. Joe Stead

"The Voice of Pete", a song written for Pete 1. I dreamed I heard the voice of Pete singing strong and free Says I, "But Pete, you lost your voice," "It never died," said he "It never died," said he. 2. You used it up at concert halls, and all those picket lines Says Pete, "I lost my vocal cords, my voice is doing fine My voice is doing fine." 3. "Though some would say my voice has died, it's never been as strong As when it comes back amplified by those who sing along By those who sing along." 4. "For I am like the shantyman who stands before the gale And helps us pull together so we all can raise the sail We all can raise the sail." 5. And just before my dream was o'er he left me with these words "When what you sing comes from the heart you always will be heard You always will be heard." Repete first verse. Words: Paul Kaplan (Paul Kaplan Music ASCAP) Music: Earl Robinson ("Joe Hill")

On January 24, 2003 I sang with Pete. I was part of the Syracuse Community Choir and we did a huge concert at the Landmark Theatre in Syracuse NY. "A Peaceful World is Possible". Pete headlined with other wonderful entertainers. I loved loved loved doing this except that almost every time we started singing one of Pete's songs I would weep, to be on the same stage with the man who wrote these incredible, simple yet powerful songs of peace and justice. And in addition to crying during Pete's songs, I really cried the night he told us the story of how the composer of "Amazing Grace", John Newton, was a slave trader, who one night in the middle of the ocean in a violent storm, suddenly had a "deliverance" that caused him to rethink his slave business and treat his passengers humanely. (too bad it didn't cause him to stop slavetrading!) But still, what an inspiration. Yes, that is what I would say about Pete Seeger. He is an inspiration who never quits. Friends at whose home he stayed during the concert time say he was last up every night, strumming his banjo and singing his tunes. What a gift to the world is this man. Thanks Peace for everyone, Marie Summerwood

When I worked as a counselor at Camp Webatuck in Wingdale, N.Y. in the 60's, Pete would come by a couple times each summer. He would sing and laugh and talk of peace and understanding. and he chopped a log with an ax as he sang some of the working songs. Now he's a lot older, and so am I, but the memory brings me back to those days of great energy, optimism and an undying commitment to the planet and its people. He had it, and so did we. While the world has changed in so many ways, some for better and some for worse, Pete has not changed his world view about peace, tolerance and understanding of all peoples. I know that many of us are still right there with him, and as a group we can show him no greater honor than to support him in the nomination for the Nobel Peace Prize. Now that would really be something to celebrate! BTW, as a young teacher, and member of a progressive teacher's group, we held a fundraising program in the 60's. Pete was invited to participate, but could not attend. I still have the letter he sent Toshi, which she forwarded to me, sending his regrets for not being able to perform for us that evening (he had another commitment). We were, however, fortunate in having Ossie Davis with us, who was another 'giant' in the progressive circle of artists. Shalom! Nina Lazar, Cedar Grove NJ

When I was very young I saw Pete on TV and he made a big impression on me. My brother Bill at the time was active in the Civil Rights movement. He wound up working for Dr. Martin Luther King in his office. My brother told me that the show "Rainbow Quest" wouldn't last long because of the anti-war songs Pete was singing. Years later a fellow came to me for banjo lessons. He played a video of Pete teaching the banjo and I was brought to tears because I realized how much Pete has given the world. I proceeded to write a song about him. My brother John and I recorded it and asked our friend Tommy Makem sing on it it's called "The Man With The Banjo". I sent it to Pete and he responded almost immediately. I was thrilled that he acknowledged me. He has done so much for so many. Joe Dady, Dady Brothers