ALL APOLOGIES

Regarding the House Committee on Un-American Activities and the blacklist, letter writer Thomas W. Graham says he is “waiting for the day these ex-Reds apologize to America for supporting Joe Stalin” (Letters, Oct. 26).

I suggest he turn to Page 22 of my book “Where Have All the Flowers Gone: A Singer’s Stories, Songs, Seeds, Robberies” (published by Sing Out Corp., 1993). In it, I write:

“I’ll apologize for a number of things, such as thinking that Stalin was simply a ‘hard driver’ and not a supremely cruel misleader. I guess anyone who calls himself or herself a Christian should be prepared to apologize for the Inquisition, the burning of heretics by Protestants, the slaughter of Jews and Moslems by Crusaders. White people in the U.S.A. could consider apologizing for stealing land from Native Americans and enslaving blacks. Europeans could apologize for worldwide conquests, Mongolians for Genghis Khan. And supporters of Roosevelt could apologize for his support of Somoza, of Southern white Democrats, of Franco Spain, for putting Japanese Americans in concentration camps. Who should my granddaughter Moraya apologize to? She’s part African, part European, part Chinese, part Japanese, part Native American.

“Let’s look ahead.”

PETE SEEGER

Beacon, N.Y.