Frank, You are totally correct. Dizzy hit the nail on the head! And "No Pete, no me!" is my story all the way.

Ron, To my way of seeing this, to say that Pete was a a "political singer" is so far off the damn mark that it comes perilously close to being completely misleading in that it mis-educates all the generations out there that have no clue about what went down.

Pete was a social singer! ---------------- The positions taken were about inclusion, not exclusion. They pushed for the betterment of the human condition. Pie in the sky was none of it. It was here-and-now sharing the proceeds, and opening eyes to the light of rhetorical enlightenments that said, "Yes, if we can just get together, we can show the truth of it!" Political compromises and smoke-filled-rooms, with bribes paid and debts owed and redeemed, had little to do with it. It was simply wrong to keep someone in virtual chains because their skin was a different color. 'WE Shall Overcome' wasn't just a song. It was what happened.

It was a clear case of what Pete felt was right and wrong. It was ethics to the enth degree. You couldn't hear the messages in his songs and not say to yourself, deep inside, those are pretty much true things that the man is saying. Those are rules of the road-less-traveled that I can live by! And, by God, or whatever, I will strive to incorporate some of those humane ways of seeing this world we are in even if they are, right at this moment, only ideals, and sometimes not seen as terribly practical. -- In time, they may become parts of hearts and minds---and we will be better for it!

Art Thieme