A Nobel Peace Prize for Pete Seeger

01.18.2009 | nobelprize4pete.org

NEWSLETTER Vol. 2 Issue 1 January 2009

Dear Friends,

We DO have NEWS! Barbara Lee, Congressional Representative from the 9th District, California, has agreed to carry the nomination of Pete Seeger for the Nobel Peace Prize.

They want us to supply specific examples of how Pete participated in work for Peace, social justice, and environmental movements. Send any data you have even if it seems small in consideration to what most of us know of Pete’s long and committed work.

The deadline for the letter of nomination is Feb 1st, so they need data within the next few day, indeed the next few hours. Send to:

Pete Seeger Nomination
Rep. Barbara Lee (CA-09)
1301 Clay St., Ste. 1000-N
Oakland, CA 94612
510-763-0370 ext. 16
510-763-6538 (fax)

Wayne dointern23.ca09@mail.house.gov

The petition has grown to over 21 thousand signatures. Go to our web site at www.nobelprize4pete.org to see what moving and sincere comments people have made about how Pete opened their consciousness in so many ways. I want to keep this petition open until the end of the year so that the final document will be sent to the Smithsonian Institution, or where ever Pete’s archives will eventually be housed, as a document for posterity.

That again brings me to emphasis that this campaign is not to make a hero of Pete. It has to do with creativity and community. Its meaning has to do with understanding that the arts are not frivolity, not a means to fame or entertainment, but for deepening the meaning of civilization. The “music biz” has distorted our interpretation of culture and this campaign is one effort to correct it!

The campaign has spread in exciting ways. Marie Goonan, an activist in Melbourne, Australia, suggested that May 3, 2009, Pete’s 90th birthday, be designated as “For Pete’s Sake, Sing!” with concerts coordinated around the world. She is producing a concert in Melbourne, another is being planned in Copenhagen, Denmark, and several are planned in the US of A. Big production is not the issue: just imagine what a thrill it would be to know that thousands of people around the world are coming together on one day to join voices for peace, justice, the environment, and honor to a model of personal integrity.

Here are a few things that must be done, they are by no means everything:

* Organize a group at your home or local folk club. Let me know where and when and I will have flyers and bumper stickers available for your group.

* Money to support the concert series may be available from our fiscal sponsor. Send me a budget of what you think you need for reasonable help. I will see what I can do. We also need contributions of money to help pay for computer workers. Tell people to send whatever they can afford.

* Join the song-writing contest. Write a song that in some way relates to the qualities that Pete has helped us realize. By Feb. 14th, lovers’ day, send me a copy of the lyrics, a melody line, a tape or CD of the song, and $1 bill. The nobelprize4pete committee will select their favorite song, the winner will get all the money collected, and publication of the song for For Pete’s Sake, Sing!

* Go on Craig’s List and write an announcement about the campaign, the concert series, and the song-writing contest to post in your area. Those postings expire after 7 days so you will have to mark your calendar to renew it as often as you can.

* Buy bumper stickers. They are $2 ea. $5 for 3, $30 for 20. You can pay for them via our website through PayPal or by check, payable to “Kendra Alexander Foundation”, memo “Nobel Prize for Pete Campaign” to: Kendra Alexander Foundation, 6422 Irwin Ct., Oakland, CA 94609-1123