Petition seeks Nobel Peace Prize for Pete Seeger [View All]

[OneBlueSky]

http://www.recordonline.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080115/NEWS/801150313/-1/ENTERTAIN03

BEACON — If he had a hammer or a bell or his way, Pete Seeger would stop all this hoopla about a Nobel Peace Prize.

"I'm a little embarrassed," he said yesterday from his home in Beacon, where the phone is ringing every few minutes. "I think this is ridiculous."

At 88, the folk icon and political activist has been besieged by a grass-roots campaign to nominate him for one of the world's most prestigious awards.

Through an online petition at http://www.nobelprize4pete.org Seeger has racked up nearly 13,000 signatures, which organizers plan to forward to the American Friends Service Committee, or AFSC, a Quaker social-justice group whose headquarters are in Philadelphia. As a former laureate, the AFSC is granted one nomination per year to the Nobel Foundation. The deadline is Feb. 1.

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http://www.recordonline.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080115/NEWS/801150313/-1/ENTERTAIN03

on a personal note . . . perhaps Pete's greatest contribution has been his impact on thousands of individuals he has touched through personal contact and the millions he has touched through his music . . . I met Pete in early 1969, and through him I learned about music history, civil rights, environmentalism, and non-profit organizations -- the latter a field in which I have spent most of my adult life . . . I still run into Pete on occasion, and he's always glad to see me and talk about the early days of the CLEARWATER . . . he is open and inviting to all, and has impacted the lives of many, many others in similar ways . . . Pete is an American institution whose lifetime of work is fully deserving of any honor accorded him . . . please join me in signing the petition at the above website . . .