Did You See the “We Are One” Celebration at the Lincoln Memorial Today?

Yeah, I did too. It was an amazing production. And from the lineup of speakers and entertainers, it is apparent that Hollywood is on vacation for a few days.

Here is the list of performers courtesy of Billboard:

Beyonce, Mary J. Blige, Bono, Garth Brooks, Sheryl Crow, Renee Fleming, Josh Groban, Herbie Hancock, Heather Headley, John Legend, Jennifer Nettles, John Mellencamp, Usher, Shakira, Bruce Springsteen, James Taylor, will.i.am, and Stevie Wonder.

I watched it with friends over a late lunch. We were all amazed when Garth Brooks sang three songs, not one of which was either Country or Western,

But the final event really wowed me. Pete Seegar joined this star-studded cast and sang his signature song, all 87 verses of “This Land Is Your Land.”

Well, I exaggerate a little, the Woody Guthrie song doesn’t have 87 verses.

But it very nearly does.

Pete Seegar.

You know, I made the observation to my friends that Pete Seegar was an old man when he became famous in the 60’s when he was an icon in the anti-war movement along with Joan Baez and all of those other old commies that helped to get us out of another unjust and illegal war.

And really, he doesn’t look much different now than he did then.

This coming May 3^rd, Pete Seegar will turn 90.

I looked on You Tube to see if anyone had uploaded today’s performance, and all you can find right now is footage of Shakira (naturally) and a video taken from the video phone of some of the event attendees singing along with Pete. So I thought I’d settle with someone’s paean to Pete – they used a cut of the song that was made when Pete Seegar was a much younger man.

When he was about my age.