What struck me most was Joan's unwavering anti-war and anti-violence human rights activism. Combined with the music, it helped make a formidable force for change in the 1960s and early 1970s. She was an important part of the movement(s) which can claim a great degree of credit for ending both segregation and the Vietnam war.

I dearly wish there was a similar force around now, in these dark days of continuing war, long after the country became too cynical for folk music.