BRATTLEBORO — Pete Seeger, 94, died on Jan. 27. His passing has been on my mind since then, but his songs and his legacy had been in my thoughts even before he died.
Our country is facing human rights crises - in health care, income equality, racism, and climate change - and Seeger in his last years was still singing about these issues.
Some of my earliest memories are of singing protest songs. I was born in 1963 and grew up in Lexington, Mass. My parents were both active in the Civil Rights Movement and, by the time the Vietnam War protests were heating up, I was old enough to participate in the gatherings, which included songs about freedom, justice, the environment, and peace.
Music was recycled from the Labor and Civil Rights movements. The songs made me think of open skies, green rolling hills, happy children, strength, hope, and unity.
For all the access to one another that the Internet can provide, something is missing. We see and hear one another, but we are separated by infinite space and missing a third dimension.
It is poignant that during the Arab Spring, which relied so heavily on Twitter, that when Internet access was blocked and people were forced to find one another in the streets, the uprising exploded.
Twitter, YouTube, Google groups, and Facebook are giving us all the chance to communicate. Power and energy are building, but something still has to happen. We are connected around the world through our iThings, but there are nuances about being human, things we need but don't completely understand that are not served just by photo, video, or email.
Scientists know that blood pressure drops from the human touch, but poets know more than that. There is a special connection we create to each other through art, especially the art of song.
The songs we sang against the war have been sung over and over in the ongoing fight for human rights. At 7, I barely understood these songs, but I knew they spoke some fundamental truth about justice and the meaning of democracy.
And most of these songs were sung by and/or written by Pete Seeger.
I wonder. I wonder when we will start singing again.