Zitat des Tages von Pete Seeger:
I think these are very improper questions for any American to be asked, especially under such compulsion as this. I would be very glad to tell you my life if you want to hear of it.
I decline to discuss, under compulsion, where I have sung, and who has sung my songs, and who else has sung with me, and the people I have known.
I believe that my choosing my present course I do no dishonor to them, or to those who may come after me.
I came along and was a teenager in the Depression, and nobody had jobs. So I went out hitchhiking, when I met a man named Woody Guthrie. He was the single biggest part of my education.
Again, I say I will be glad to tell what songs I have ever sung, because singing is my business.
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.
Historically, I believe I was correct in refusing to answer their questions.
I love my country very dearly, and I greatly resent the implication that some of the places that I have sung and some of the people that I have known, and some of my opinions, whether they are religious or philosophical, make me less of an American.
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.
I feel that my whole life is a contribution.
Some of my ancestors were religious dissenters who came to America over three hundred years ago. Others were abolitionists in New England in the eighteen forties and fifties.
I have sung for Americans of every political persuasion, and I am proud that I never refuse to sing to an audience, no matter what religion or color of their skin, or situation in life.
I like to say I'm more conservative than Goldwater. He just wanted to turn the clock back to when there was no income tax.
Songs won't save the planet, but neither will books or speeches.
I try to sing many different kinds of songs. If I sing a batch of humorous songs, I'll throw in a deadly serious song. Or if I'm singing too many serious songs, I'll throw in a ridiculous song, to mix it up.
I have sung in hobo jungles, and I have sung for the Rockefellers, and I am proud that I have never refused to sing for anybody.
I've found that festivals are a relatively painless way to meet people and make a few points that need making, without having to hit them over the head with too many speeches.
One of the things I'm most proud of about my country is the fact that we did lick McCarthyism back in the fifties.
But I decline to say who has ever listened to them, who has written them, or other people who have sung them.
I fought for peace in the fifties.
