Happy Birthday, Pete

Pete Seeger is 93 today. Singer, songwriter, and long-time activist, he's still performing and still making us think, still wanting us to be better... In 2010 he co-wrote and performed a song "God's Counting on Me, God's Counting on You" with Lorre Wyatt, commenting on the Deepwater Horizon oil spill. It's below...

"I still call myself a communist, because communism is no more what Russia made of it than Christianity is what the churches make of it."

in front of HUAC: "I am not going to answer any questions as to my association, my philosophical or religious beliefs or my political beliefs, or how I voted in any election, or any of these private affairs. I think these are very improper questions for any American to be asked, especially under such compulsion as this."

"Most of my life I have assumed that the kind of songs I sing would not normally get played on the airwaves. I pointed to examples like Woody Guthrie's song, "This Land Is Your Land" to show that they don't have to get played on the airwaves. If it's a real good song, it will get spread around anyway."

On "Waist Deep in the Big Muddy" and the Smothers Brothers show incident: "Of course, a song is not a speech, you know. It reflects new meanings as one's life's experiences shine new light upon it. (This song does not mention Vietnam or President Johnson by name.) Often a song will reappear several different times in history or in one's life as there seems to be an appropriate time for it. Who knows."