Thursday, January 30, 2014

Fishkill Republican Assemblyman Kieran Lalor continues to attack Pete Seeger after his death

Assemblyman Lalor continues his attack as he meets with Cardinal Dolan today in Fishkill.

What a man, talks bad about the dead and does this photo op. I cannot stand people like this that use God in vain. Christians don't act like this.

Photo: With my mother and Cardinal Dolan at St. Mary, Mother of the Church in Fishkill, celebrating Catholic Schools week this morning.

https://www.facebook.com/kieranmlalor?ref=bf

The late folk singer Pete Seeger deserves praise for being ahead of his time in opposition to Jim Crow and for helping clean up the Hudson. However, there are some very inconvenient truths about Seeger most media reports of his passing have ignored. The Post points out:

"Songs are weapons," Pete Seeger used to say. For more than seven decades, he led America in sing-alongs, even as most of his audiences remained blissfully unaware of the messages behind many of his songs.

Take the now-iconic “If I Had a Hammer.” Today, it is admired as a call to justice. In fact, it was written for a 1949 testimonial dinner for top leaders of the US Communist Party, then on trial for advocating the violent overthrow of our government.
Such facts are missing from the tributes to the former Communist Party member, who died Monday at age 94. President Obama, for example, hailed him as “America’s tuning fork,” while Mayor de Blasio urged everyone to “sing a song for justice.”

Some will argue Seeger’s music should not be judged by the dubious movements he aligned himself with. But to Seeger himself they were inseparable.

Yes, he sang about “justice” and “freedom” and “peace.” But when Hitler and Stalin signed their pact in 1939, Seeger followed the party line, abandoning anti-fascism to sing out against “warmongering” by FDR — only to reverse himself, as the party did, when Hitler invaded the Soviet Union.

And yes, he protested US involvement in Vietnam. But he refused to join fellow singer Joan Baez in protesting the terrible abuses there after the communists won.

However brilliant a musical artist Pete Seeger may have been, honesty requires acknowledging that “America’s national treasure” was a tarnished gem.
  • 78 people like this.
  • Bill Leo Many songs are song without the listener truly knowing the meaning behind the artist intent. I remember singing if I had a hammer in Church as part of folk Mass. The Sisters interpretation was much different. Thanks for the additional insight on Pete.
    • Kieran Michael Lalor You are right Bill Leo, I could be wrong but I believe at one point the Beatles Let it Be was being embraced by churches because of the refrain, "Mother Mary comes to me, speaking words of wisdom, let it be..." Then they realized the Mary in the song was marijuana not the Blessed Mother.
    • Jon Rothberg The truth to this is... Mother Mary is a play on words that Paul's Mother was named Mary and Paul's lyrical concept gave the public a feel for the Virgin Mary and for respect for his own Mother. The marijuana reference was gov't media propoganda and not true... again
    • Kieran Michael Lalor Thanks for the info Jon!
    • Sally Angela Fazio-Rotundo I knew all of this but some people just sing along and do not really listen or get the meaning, like myself. We were at a restaurant and club one night on Route 44, across from the Trooper barracks. After dinner, we went to the bar to listen to a very good band but after the 2nd or 3rd song, my husband nudged me to get up and leave as they were singing Anti-American songs and I was not even listening to the words, just the music!! Live and learn!
    • F Eric Johnson Those of us that paid attention to Seegar lyrics and his political motivations knew what he was about I will leave that just where it is ..... Thank yu again Kieran for speaking up ...
  • Diane Santangelo Bagdy I REFUSE to listen to John Lennon's "Imagine" no matter where I hear it or when it gets turned off and tuned out!
  • Barbara Tocco Varian I have read all about him and his being a communist....not someone I admire.....
  • Noel Todd Dillon It's funny how politicians and the media can change the perception, and shape the image of the nearly departed to reflect someone that is historically inaccurate. Just look at Mandela...
  • Deb Cole Townsend Thank you for posting this. I knew about his alignments, but didn't know the history of "If I Had a Hammer." I'll never sing it again.
  • Kathleen Daly Dickman Well finally someone speaks the truth. Thanks Kieran. We have such a tendency to sugar coat history. What is next Saint Jane Fonda.
  • Greg Lyder I agree... Who in this world isn't tarnished? Everyone has faults and do stuff they regret but believed in at that moment. I take ppl as I take myself.. When I die, what have I left the world? Is it something good? Did I say something that made someone think outta the box? Did I teach just 1 person something? Everyone has faults and I guarantee a lot of ppl don't agree with my views... It doesn't make me bad... Just makes me/me and you/you
  • Evan Schwartz Shame on you, Lalor. Your attempt to use Pete Seeger and his lifetime of service, in a partisan attack on Obama and de Blasio is nothing less than disgusting. your life won't amount to a hangnail on Pete's little finger. Pete would have simply ignored you... I'm not as strong as Pete. But I recognize that. can you ?
  • Frank Landi And they want to name the new TZ bridge after a commy, name after a true American CMH winner.
  • David Davenport He was a member of the Communist Party......a philosophy responsible for untold human suffering once it was put into practice.
  • Michael Panessa The beauty of song is that sometimes the music transcends the personal biases of the artist themselves . The best songs are victim to this and we are the better for it.
    • Jon Rothberg Yup at the end of the day "Hammer" is a song about becoming active, whatever Seeger or anyone believes in. If I had a hammer I'd hammer. If I had a bell I'd ring it. A good lesson for the pre-schoolers I heard singing this song yesterday. A lesson more Americans need to embrace
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  • Jon Rothberg Very good points and another great example how the American public prefers well crafted fable over proven facts and the truth. A bell always sounds better with a little tarnish anyway
  • Robert Tuttle I personally would like to ask Pot Head Pete, What took so long, I wished you dead back when I was getting spit on in the subway in NYC when I went in the Army in 1972.
  • Tom Gannon Agreed Evan... But we also have free choice as Americans about what we consume...
  • Evan Schwartz Pete's version of 'Communism' is not the evil doctrine that you were brainwashed to believe by a substandard, post-McCarthy era education... or for that matter, our latest dirty word...'socialism'. with nearly 50% of Americans near poverty and the 85 richest humans having the same wealth as the poorest 3.5 billion... maybe it's time to ask yourself how 'capitalism' is working out for you.
    • Chris Covucci Evan, no Pete's version of Communism was a blind commitment to ideology. His unquestioning allegiance to that ideology led him to support Nazi Germany briefly while the Soviet Union was aligned with Hitler. Up until Sept. 1939 he had been an ardent anti-fascist, but when the Soviet Union and Germany signed the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact he started turning out anti-war songs, labeling FDR as a warmonger. Nazi Germany was no threat Pete said. 

      While Pete was trying to keep America out of the war, on orders from the Communist Party, Germany had begun the Holocaust. Then, when Germany invaded the Soviet 
      Union, Pete changed his tune again and finally supported the war. 

      Blind, unquestioning commitment to ideology took Seeger down that road. That's sad because his legacy is tarnished despite all the other good he did. But, that's the lesson of the death and destruction wrought during the 20th Century - blind commitment to ideology can take us down a dark road.
    • Evan Schwartz what you call 'blind commitment' I call 'impassioned dedication'. I live in Beacon, NY. I would see Pete often in the post office and supermarket. A kinder man you've never met. He tried to keep us out of the war because it's 'War'... his message was 'War' is no match for peace, love, empathy and compassion. The crony capitalism, neo-feudalism, puppet theatre congress that we're experiencing now is what Pete was warning us about.
  • Kate Devany Yes Kieran ... I do know ... But thanks for the reminder and making the public aware!
  • Pearse Columb Takes some brass balls for a politician to come out with this. Especially in Dutchess. I guess not every politician is full of shit after all.
  • Mary Kate Kirmse Pendergast Thank you, Kieran, for boldly stating a very unpopular truth!

1 comment:

  1. ..great comment WHO ISNT TARNISHED?.. Read this weeks Southern Dutchess Newspaper letters to find out!.. i still cant figure out what this guys does?.. Besides writing journals for bucks.. Running to and fro to one event after another for press.. Shoots his mouth off like temper tantrums..BUT HIS OWN TOWN OF FISHKILL IS RUNNING THE RESIDENTS INTO THE POOR HOUSE AND HE HAS NOTHING TO SAY?.. WHO NEEDS YOU? stop picking on dead people and do something about fishkills $$$$.. We`re waiting?..

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