We Must Overcome

My brother had two heroes: Martin Luther King Jr and Pete Seeger. Both were instrumental in promoting social change through non-violent resistance and protest. It was Pete who first caught our attention, because music was the message. I was a big folk music fan - Theodore Bikel, Peter, Paul and Mary, the Kingston Trio, etc. Nearly all of these acts entertained on one level, and informed at a deeper one. Woody Guthrie and Bob Dylan weren't on my radar screen until a few years after folk had been replaced by the British invasion.

Pete Seeger is a folk-singer of a wholly different order. He did a stint with the Weavers, a pioneering group in traditional music, and then set out on his own. He is a contemporary of Woody Guthrie, Ledbelly, Joan Baez, and so many more. His songs are timeless, his voice unique. Our Dad bought his first album for us and we listened to it over and over again. Written on his banjo head were the words "This machine surrounds hate and forces it to surrender", a motto that grabbed Wes more than me. In fact, it was part of what formed his humanistic value system, and opened his eyes to the injustices in this world. I was too self-involved to care, and it wasn't until the Vietnam war and my fear of the draft that I participated in the anti-war movement. Wes took a stance early on as a conscientious objector, which led him to Friends World College and eventually to Cesar Chavez and the United Farm Workers where he organized for worker's rights. Through it all, he continuously wrote songs, many of them inspired by Pete Seeger. "He Had A Dream", one of Wes' best works, is an homage to MLK Jr as well as a reflection of his own aspirations.

Recently, while searching for a CD, I came across a collection of some of Pete's best. I popped it in my player, considering it no more than background music. My attention soon turned to the tunes and I starting resonating with his banjo and his homey, yet powerful voice. The songs are as relevant today as they were forty years ago. The words emanating from the speakers brought back vivid memories of those turbulent times, messages for the common man from a very uncommon one.

One track in particular took me by surprise; Pete's version of "We Shall Overcome". Perhaps because it had become so familiar an anthem that inspired generations, including my own, and that I had not heard it in decades, I listened with one ear. The more I listened, the more it commanded, no demanded my attention. Here are the opening lyrics just to jog your memories:

"We shall overcome,
We shall overcome,
We shall overcome, some day.

Oh, deep in my heart,
I do believe
We shall overcome, some day".

And the following verses begin with similar declarations of inter-dependence:

"We'll walk hand in hand", and

"We shall live in peace"

But what really stopped me in my tracks was Pete's introduction to the final verse. He'd obviously picked this verse in particular to give extra emphasis to it's meaning. I hadn't noticed it before, most likely because the song had been sung so many times in support of so many causes, "kumbaya moments" around the campfire, that I had relegated it to the dusty shelf of musical history, seldom opened for serious consideration.

Yet on his seminal version, Mr. Seeger had chosen to break the cadence to re-enforce the gravitas of the subject matter. He said, and I quote:

"The most important verse is the one they wrote down in Montgomery, Alabama. They said "we are not afraid", and the young people taught everybody else a lesson, all we older people who had learned how to compromise and learned how to take it easy, be polite and get along and leave things as they were.The young people taught us all a lesson:

We are not afraid,
We are not afraid,
We are not afraid, TODAY

Oh, deep in my heart,
I do believe
We shall overcome, some day"

When I look deep down in my heart, I AM afraid. Afraid to even give voice to my own fears and misgivings. Not because they are so numerous, but because they are so potentially dangerous and damaging to my status quo. Big Brother is watching me, at least I'm convinced of it, and I'd better not rock the boat or I could be disappeared, renditioned or worse. Afraid that my every word can and will be used against me in a court of martial law. Afraid of the boogie man du jour. In times past, Jews were made the villains by those seeking to control their populace, and now, many years after our "liberation", those former tormentors are part of a European Union whose currency and standing in the world are far exceeding our own. Then it was the Communists. Better dead than Red. Hatred fed by fear of the bomb. Now we are completely dependent on them for commercial goods and capital support. Turnabout is unfair play. No longer a threat but a debt holder of unimaginable proportions, they had to be replaced with a new devil, and conveniently we were re-focused on one of the largest religious and ethnic groups on earth. A war not against terrorists but terror. Nothing to fear but fear itself.

On this infamous day in American history, let us hope that there are younger people and, perhaps, even some older ones who are brave enough to pick up the torch from those of us who've compromised and learned how to take it easy, be polite and get along and leave things as they are.

Pete would be proud, and the memories of Martin Luther King, Jr and his followers would be honored.