Hey fpl -

I've got an old college roommate (RM) who was a producer on the film that was done about Pete Seeger's sloop Clearwater (a key part of Seeger's efforts on behalf of the Hudson River.)

RM once asked Seeger why he was a Communist before he left the Party.

And he said that this is what Seeger told him - that he grew up knowing a lot about Native American culture and that in most if not all tribes, when a hunter brought back game, it was shared - it didn't just go to the hunter's family.

So Seeger said he (like Woody Guthrie) never paid much attention to the complex discussions at the party meetings they attended - because to them "communism" was just kind of an expression of a basic human instinct to help and shate.

I think this story goes to your point about the word "community" being around for a long long time.

Also - glad you read the Sandburg all the way thru (or at leasat you seem to have, since you quoted the last two lines.) As I said to jo, tnat poem "nails" US society more than any other I know, and folks should remember that the "hard times" which it reflects can come back at any time - they may already be on the way.