I was going to nominate Pete Seeger as well and so I will second the nomination. Pete Seeger sings (and gets the whole audience singing) about an America - and a world where diversity is celebrated and where every person has a story to tell. He gets us to believe that we can actually clean up a polluted river; that when ordinary people join together we can accomplish great things. He sings the songs of Americans - those who have been here for hundreds of years and those who arrived yesterday. I met him once - and he listened to me and talked with me with so much attention and respect, I felt as if I was a person whose opinion really mattered. He is connected with important people all over the world and yet, he spent a few hours talking to me, at the time a college student who was concerned about the environment. He invited me to spend a day on the Hudson River sloop. His whole body of music inspires us to a better America for the ordinary person. Before Pete, we had Woody Guthrie was listened to and sang of the common American. Pete was born in 1919. I can't think of anyone who will carry on in Pete's style: listening even more than speaking, encouraging people to sing as a way to raise our spirits to believe that we can overcome, reminding us that every person has something to say and a song to sing.