Petition seeks Nobel Peace Prize for Pete Seeger

[OneBlueSky]

http://www.recordonline.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080115/NEWS/801150313/-1/ENTERTAIN03

BEACON — If he had a hammer or a bell or his way, Pete Seeger would stop all this hoopla about a Nobel Peace Prize.

"I'm a little embarrassed," he said yesterday from his home in Beacon, where the phone is ringing every few minutes. "I think this is ridiculous."

At 88, the folk icon and political activist has been besieged by a grass-roots campaign to nominate him for one of the world's most prestigious awards.

Through an online petition at http://www.nobelprize4pete.org Seeger has racked up nearly 13,000 signatures, which organizers plan to forward to the American Friends Service Committee, or AFSC, a Quaker social-justice group whose headquarters are in Philadelphia. As a former laureate, the AFSC is granted one nomination per year to the Nobel Foundation. The deadline is Feb. 1.

- more . . .

http://www.recordonline.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080115/NEWS/801150313/-1/ENTERTAIN03

on a personal note . . . perhaps Pete's greatest contribution has been his impact on thousands of individuals he has touched through personal contact and the millions he has touched through his music . . . I met Pete in early 1969, and through him I learned about music history, civil rights, environmentalism, and non-profit organizations -- the latter a field in which I have spent most of my adult life . . . I still run into Pete on occasion, and he's always glad to see me and talk about the early days of the CLEARWATER . . . he is open and inviting to all, and has impacted the lives of many, many others in similar ways . . . Pete is an American institution whose lifetime of work is fully deserving of any honor accorded him . . . please join me in signing the petition at the above website . . .

[ayeshahaqqiqa]

1. Link to petition not working for me n/t

[MethuenProgressive]

3. there's an extra comma in there - good link:

On Pete's banjo: "this machine surrounds hate and forces it to surrender"

http://www.nobelprize4pete.org/

[Tuesday Afternoon]

6. got it, thanks n/t

[ayeshahaqqiqa]

7. Done!

Pete's book helped me teach myself to play the banjo. And his song "Snow" is a beautiful word poem.

[OneBlueSky]

11. sorry about that, guys . . . link has been fixed . . . thanx . . . n/t

[ClayZ]

2. K and R "This Land is Your Land"

"These days, Seeger shows no signs of slowing. On icy weekends, there he is, off the four-lane shopping strip in Fishkill, hoisting anti-war placards with teenagers. Next month, he'll teach a tune about Martin Luther King Jr. to school kids."

[NightWatcher]

4. I personally hated "Like a Rock". No award for him

:hide:

[madokie]

9. wrong seger there

[lildreamer316]

10. Come ON. Sarcasm tag?

Pay attention... (Bob Seger)

[Tuesday Afternoon]

5. K&R --link not working.

waist deep in the big muddy.

[Orwellian_Ghost]

8. K&R n/t

[OneBlueSky]

12. a personal story . . .

in early 1969, the construction of the Hudson River sloop CLEARWATER -- the "flagship of the environmental movement" -- was nearing completion at the Harvey F. Gamage shipyard in South Bristol, Maine . . . the launch date had been set for May 17 -- but the sponsoring organization (then the Hudson River Sloop Restoration, Inc., now CLEARWATER, Inc.) was tens of thousands of dollars short of paying off the construction contract . . .

I was in the living room of Pete's log cabin in Beacon the day he and wife Toshi decided to literally empty all of their bank accounts to pay off the construction contract so the the sloop could be launched, rigged, and put under sail on schedule . . . Pete was confident that the money would be forthcoming during the "New England tour," a 40-day hop-scotch down the New England coast to New York Harbor . . .

the crew -- mostly folksingers who had never sailed before -- had committed to doing 30 concerts in 40 days, each in a different town, and "passing the bucket" for donations . . . they'd rise early each morning, set sail for their next port, and generally arrive early evening . . . they'd grab their guitars and banjos and head for the local venue, perform a full concert, and return to the boat to tidy up and catch a few hours sleep . . . and then repeat the next day . . . all this on a flat-bottomed river boat (albeit with a huge centerboard) that was not designed to sail the Atlantic Ocean . . .

by the time they reached New York, sufficient funds had been raised to repay Pete and fund the operation for the rest of the season . . . but none of it would have happened without Pete's complete faith in the project and his staggering personal commitment . . . that kind of commitment is what makes him so special and so deserving of this award . . .

[hisownpetard]

13. Done. Pete Seeger - a true folk hero and life-long fighter for equality.

Thanks for the link!

[Lobster Martini]

14. Signed, and glanced through the list of signators...

Interesting bunch of people--Studs Terkel, Cindy Sheehan, Harvey Fierstein, buckets of musicians including David Crosby, Jesse Colin Young and Sarah Lee Guthrie...pleased to sign. The award would be well-deserved. Thanks for the link.

[troubleinwinter]

15. My 'first date', when I was 11, was a Pete Seeger concert in Berkeley.

1962!!??!!!!!!