Old folkies never die

 Like most Americans (that includes Canadians and [of course!] Mexicans and other Latino-Americans incidentally--except Argentinians) we start trotting down to our local post offices this time of year to buy stamps. Most of us settle for convenient booklets of flag stamps, or Christmassy Santa Claus or Madonna images (the Saint--not the popular Sinner). I like to have the Post Office clerk haul out the album with miscellaneous themed stamps (while the people in line behind me loaded with packages are glaring)...

The clerks rather enjoy the break in routine as we flip past commemorative stamps galore celehrating all manner of obscure and no doubt worthy people and things. It's not yet Black History month--there seemed to be an unusual number of stamps with African-Americans on them. My clerk was an attractive black woman: I hesitated a split second over these thinking it might please her if I chose one...since Black women had the highest percentage of any voting block to support Harris in the recent election, my urge to pick those was motivated more by showing solidarity than other questionable motives like being patronizing (one can make life very difficult if you overthink things...)

I was frankly holding out for some of those pretty wildflower stamps that the Post Office seems to crank out pretty regularly (I just used up my last "Forget-me-not" stamp which looked far more like Eritrichium than Myosotis incidentally)

As if we don't have enough to worry about already, Philately is perhaps a doomed phenomenon. Two of my favorite countries: Argentina and South Africa, have effectively ceased to have a postal service. I suppose you could still mail letters to these countries, but they are unlikely to arrive. When countries descend to chaos (something some of do not entirely rule out happening in our Republic in the coming four years), agencies that seem duplicative and are "Governmental" are relatively easy to jettison. I can imagine a Governmental Efficiency task force consisting of two billionaires who would love nothing more than to slash all government agencies that don't directly supply vast sums of money to their special interest (I doubt Musk will touch the Department of Defense, for instance--since he's their largest contractor!)

I know, I know: the Constitution mandates a Post Office. The cynic in me (who has grown with Hulk-like dimension in recent weeks) believes the only articles in the Constitution held sacred by the incoming tsunami of Maggots are the 2nd Amendment and the Electoral College...

But I digress...Stamps. Yes! let's stick to stamps--I'm standing there I'm suddenly GOB-SMACKED: It Can't BE! How on Earth can the USPS, an agency headed by Louis DeJoy since June 16, 2020, appointed by Beelzebubba himself*, have permitted such a thing! But there it was: a stamp--a FOREVER stamp no less--honoring Pete Seeger!!!

How on earth could could an agency headed by a Postmaster General who has been a major donor to Donald Trump's elections have permitted a stamp of a man who has championed most of America's left-wing causes...who belonged to a band (the Weavers) who were hounded by the F.B.I. and was called upon to testify before the House Un-American Activities Committee during the Red Scare decade (1950's)?...

Of course, our Postmaster General lives in Greensboro, North Carolina (a mere 317 miles from Washington, D.C.) and serves on countless (no doubt paid) corporate boards, not to mention still being CEO of a large real-estate company: I doubt Louie baby has time to micromanage who's on the stamps under his watch. I'm sure he spends hours Zooming his offices in D.C.--hours! Hours and hours! Zoom! Zoom! Zoom!

{Were I conspiracy theory prone, I'd wonder if the demise of the Agency that handles the bulk of Mail-in ballots--making American's rely even more on Voting Machines manufactured by Republican owned companies wasn't a deliberate plan...but I'm not a conspiracy theorist! Honest.)

Back to Pete: I'm a big fan. I have a LOT of Seeger's records in vinyl (although I confess I haven't played them in decades). But as a young man, they were a significant element of the soundtrack of my life. One of my regrets (I have a few of these) is that of all the old folkies I loved, he is one of the few I never heard in concert. I have been to MANY Judy Collins concerts (a Denverite after all), several by Joan Baez, Emmy Lou Harris, Linda Ronstadt and of course two by Peter, Paul and Mary.  The list goes on and on...John Fahey, Gordon Lightfoot, Leo Kottke--I probably went to a dozen, two dozen concerts by Doc Watson for Heaven's sake! And others too obscure to mention...

But never Pete. Or Tom Paxton either--something I will rectify this evening at Swallow Hill. I bought two sheets--about ten dollars each--of the Pete Seeger stamps. I'm thinking of going back and investing in another dozen or so: what better way to commemorate the America I love--the America of Social Justice, reverence for Nature, Ecological responsibility (Seeger's been credited for cleaning up the Hudson River with his relentless campaigns along that river).than to put his image on every piece of mail I post in the Reign of Error and Beelzebubba.

By the way, I thought we'd have a reprieve until the Inauguration...but the shit-show's begun as he picks out his favorite flying monkeys for Cabinet Positions. I am looking into the future with more than a little trepidation. Don't be surprised if I delete this post some day...

Looking forward (mightily) to hearing Paxton in a few hours!

*Sticklers will point out LeJoy was appointed by a board of governors...go ahead and think that! While you're at it, believe we have fair elections when the electorate who votes is driven by fear and paranoia engendered by carefully crafted rhetoric and memes minted by fascist right wing stink tanks. God help us.