Pete Seeger Nobel Prize Effort Continues
May 20, 2008
Even though this year's February 3rd deadline has past, the website www.nobelprize4pete.org is still collecting signatures to have his name put on the ballot for the Nobel Peace Prize. One of, if not the most, prestigious awards in the world, the Nobel Peace Prize is given out annually in December in Oslo by the Norwegian Nobel Committee. Nobel Prizes were established in the will of Alfred Nobel (1933-1896), a Swedish chemist who invented a powerful dynamite. By the end of his life, Nobel had become concerned about the use of his invention in modern warfare. Along with international acclaim, the Nobel Prize carries a hefty monetary reward.
According to Eleanor Walden (who is heading the effort), "Pete Seeger is an ambassador for Peace and Social Justice and has been over the course of his 89-year lifetime. Using his prowess as a musician he worked to engage other people, from all walks of life and across generations, in causes to build a better and more civilized world: His work show up wherever you look in the history of labor solidarity, effort to end the Vietnam war, ban of nuclear weapons, work for international diplomacy, support of the Civil Rights Movement. He spread the Civil Rights Movement through promotion the SNCC Freedom Singers and making songs such as We Shall Overcome knows all over the world.
Pete Seeger taught Peace through song all his life; he used a cultural medium to promote social justice. His life proves that cultural workers are not just performers. We can help nominate him for the Nobel Peace Prize so that the whole world is aware that a man with unassailable integrity, doing cultural work, can shape the hearts and minds of his generation."
When choosing nominees, the Nobel Committee solicits, among other sources, former award recipients. So, after you sign the online petition, you can always drop a line to Al Gore and Jimmy Carter.
Posted by Ann VerWiebe at May 20, 2008 1:40 PM
