Where Have All the Flowers Gone?

This evening I watched the documentary, “Pete Seeger: The Power of Song,” which not only entertained and educated, but moved me in a way I’d not expected. Seeger, a pioneering folksinger and political activist, paid a price for his activism, as he was blacklisted during the McCarthy Era for his involvement with the Young Communist League at the age of 17, despite having drifted away from the party and serving in the U.S. Army during World War II.

In the Sixties, he was an opponent of the arms race and of the Vietnam War, and in 1967, when he was invited to appear on the Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour, he performed “Waist Deep in the Big Muddy,” a song later cut by the network for its anti-war/anti-Johnson sentiment. There’s a clip of this song in the documentary, and he performs it so fervently that I could not help but turn to Steve and say, “I can’t take it anymore.” Eyes welling, I got up and walked away. Here is a portion of that song:

All at once, the moon clouded over,
We heard a gurgling cry.
A few seconds later, the captain's helmet
Was all that floated by.
The Sergeant said, "Turn around men!
I'm in charge from now on."
And we just made it out of the Big Muddy
With the captain dead and gone.

Well, I'm not going to point any moral;
I'll leave that for yourself
Maybe you're still walking, you're still talking
You'd like to keep your health.
But every time I read the papers
That old feeling comes on;
We're waist deep in the Big Muddy
And the big fool says to push on.

Seeger is 89 now, moving more slowly and singing more softly, but the desire is still there – to make the world a better place through music and through song. Who will make the rallying cry once he's gone?