Pete is still an inspiration. When you inspire, you want to carry on your message through others. He wants us to write songs that say something positive about the human condition and sometimes controversial. He wants all of us to be his legacy. He is still as sharp as a tack. He is up on what's going on in the world. The important thing is to paraphrase him, we used to think that
the world would change by sweeping movements and expansive ideas. Now the time has come for small groups to organize and not be co-opted by big movements that are too general. Maybe just planting a tree or a growing garden to feed a hungry family. Maybe just getting a group together to talk to your congressman about bringing our troops home. Small groups of commited people can do amazing things.

When Pete first started, the folk music movement was small. When I grew up in Los Angeles, I had to search for a teacher to show me anything on the five-string banjo. Pete provided his book. It sold a few copies. I was thrilled to get it. There was a small group of us included were Derroll Adams, Dave Zeitlin, Sid Berland, Ry Cooder,Guy Carawan, Bess and Butch Hawes, Ed Michel, Ed Pearl, Odetta, Jimmy Gavin, Will Geer, Vern Partlow, Sam Hinton , Bill Olliver, Bart Van der Schilling, Jerry Atinsky, Dave Arkin and his talented son Alan, Cisco and Woody. The Folk Scare hadn't kicked in yet. Nobody in the general public cared about folk music in those days.
But there was this small group of people and they kept on meeting together.

When the Weavers were blacklisted, a small group of supporters carried them through into college concerts. Then that magic one at Carnegie Hall.

The point is, we are all Pete's children. We are his legacy. He lives on through all of us.

Frank Hamilton