This is not a "Pete Seeger moment" that I have remmember clearly myself (I think I was about 8 or 9 at the time) but one my mother reminded me of.

We were hosting a Clearwater (that "project started by Seeger" Bill Hahn wrote of) fundraiser at our house. I was sitting on the ground and flinched at the sight of a large beetle walking nearby. When Pete saw that, he commented: "It's only a bug!" According to my mother, I was never afraid of bugs after that...

Okay. So it's not a big, earth-shattering, life-changing moment. But to my mind, it reflects his general attitude that all life is to be respected, and that which is different is not to be feared.

Oh, and I always felt happy when I saw the motto printed on the head of his banjo: "This machine surrounds hate and forces it to surrender."