Happy Fourth of July!

A little patience, and we shall see the reign of witches pass over, their spells dissolve, and the people, recovering their true sight, restore their government to its true principles. It is true that in the meantime we are suffering deeply in spirit, and incurring the horrors of a war and long oppressions of enormous public debt. If the game runs sometimes against us at home we must have patience till luck turns, and then we shall have an opportunity of winning back the principles we have lost, for this is a game where principles are at stake. Thomas Jefferson, in a letter to John Taylor, June 4, 1798. (via Andrew Sullivan)

I woke up this morning and listened to part of an interview Democracy Now! had with Pete Seeger back in 2004. The last time I saw Seeger my friend Roz and I had been attending a Bread & Roses Conference at NYU — I had just heard Sue Coe talk about her time spent in an abbattoir and her unsettling love of mice — and as we were leaving Seeger was coming through the doors with Studs Terkel, both bouncing with energy. Roz starting chatting them both up — I don't even recall what she said any more — and then before they were out of earshot she said, "Well! They're getting old!" (Roz, I should add, was not that far behind them, and moving just as fast.)
That must have been 20 years ago, at least. Seeger, in the Democracy Now! interview, sounded just as hopeful and energetic as ever, despite acknowledging loss in hearing and sight, and memory lapses. As I sit here tonight and watch JoJo and Jason Alexander and Jo Dee Messina and Michael Bolton and so on and so on celebrating the Fourth, I am sad I don't remember Seeger and his example often enough, one that is needed now more than ever.


During the interview they touched on Bruce Springsteen's recently released Seeger Sessions and that sent me scrambling to YouTube to find Seeger's ebullient version of "Bring Them Home" — what Diana Vreeland might have made of those legs! — introduced by an obscenely young David Steinberg. Springsteen's own rather dour version, not included on the Seeger Sessions, can be found on YouTube as well. And while you're there, you can also check out Seeger singing "It Takes a Worried Man (To Sing a Worried Song)" with Johnny Cash. I love YouTube.