Singing strength

According to Pete Seeger (emphasis mine):

People ask, is there one word that you have more faith in than any other word, and I'd say it's participation. I feel that this takes on so many meanings. The composer John Philip Sousa said, 'What will happen to the American voice now that the phonograph has been invented? Women used to sing lullabies to their children.'

It's been my life work, to get participation, whether it's a union song, or a peace song, civil rights, or a women's movement, or gay liberation. When you sing, you feel a kind of strength; you think, I'm not alone, there's a whole batch of us who feel this way. I'm just one person, but it's almost my religion now to persuade people that even if it's only you and three others, do something. You and one another, do something. If it's only you, and you do a good job as a songwriter, people will sing it.

-from The Protest Singer: An Intimate Portrait of Pete Seeger by Alec Wilkinson, page 106