A Time to Every Purpose Under Heaven

As much as I respect him. the late Pete Seeger was never one of my favorite musicians. He was, however, very much a hero to me. When confronted by the House Un-American Activities Committee, he didn't use the 5th Amendment - Constitutional though it may have been to invoke his right to avoid self-incrimination. Rather, he struck a more pertinent point by referring to the 1st Amendment and the principle of freedom of association.

Simply put, Seeger told the committee that it was none of their business what groups he belonged to, communist or otherwise. For his trouble, he was indicted for contempt of Congress and would spend several years dealing with the fall-out of that exceptionally principle decision.

Seeger told me about this in a phone call a little over five years ago. The ostensible purpose of the call was to clarify some rights questions about the release of one of his old concerts, but that took up maybe 3 minutes of the 20 minute phone call. For the rest of it, Seeger (I can't pretend a sufficient level of familiarity to call him Pete) gave me an unsolicited history lesson.

He told me about the world tour he and his family undertook once the HUAC situation had finally been put to rest. He talked about the Soviet Union and his belief that the post-revolution circumstances had made the emergence of someone like Stalin almost inevitable. Most memorably, he related an anecdote about Eleanor Roosevelt and the eminently graceful way in which she engaged one of her husband's mistresses after his death.

It's hard to recall another instance where such a brief slice of time left me feeling so much more enlightened and just in much in awe of someone. There's a school of thought that one should never meet their heroes, because of the seeming inevitability of disappointment, and perhaps Pete Seeger was the exception that proves the rule. He was never talking down to me - at least I never felt he was. Instead, he gave me lots to ponder and, now that he's gone, a very personal story to tell. I can only imagine how many lives he touched through music or conversation and will always be grateful that I was one of them.

A Perennial Soap Opera Bowl Contender

One of the nice things about being a football fan who's a transplant to DC rather than a native is that it allows me sufficient detachment that I can enjoy "The Burgundy and Gold" for what they are without any hang-ups about what they once were. What they are - and have been since the mid-90s - is a generally poor football team that despite the occasional good season is more entertaining for what happens off the field than on it. This week's firing of head coach Mike Shanahan following several weeks of drama is simply par for the course and only surprising for the way this end result seems absolutely obvious in retrospect.

Four years ago, the tandem of Shanahan and GM Bruce Allen was meant to signify that the lunatics were no longer running the asylum. Four seasons and a playoff loss later, it would seem that Shanahan was the coaching equivalent of the splashy free agents that made the Redskins less - rather than more - competitive. Perhaps the only saving grace relative to other free agent signings is that the $7M owner Dan Snyder will have to pay Shanahan not to coach the final year of his contract doesn't count against the team's frquently shaky salary cap situation.

Allen, for his part, has come out of this season without doing anything remarkably embarrassing, but you can't help but feel that's more a function of how little he seems to have done. Amusingly, for all the flak that Kyle Shanahan has gotten about being the head coach's son, it seems clear that Allen is the true standard bearer for nepotism in the organization. If he didn't have the same last name as one of the few great coaches in team history, Allen would surely have been part of Monday's walk of shame.

If he had a genuine say in the team's roster, then he's part of the problem. If he didn't have any say, it raises the dual questions of why he didn't leave and why fans should have any faith he can improve things. In either scenario, it's hard to accept his continued employment as anything more than the owner wishing to maintain a link with a happier chapter of the team's story. The more things change...