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After viewing 12 Years a Slave on Tuesday night, I returned home spellbound, to hear of Pete Seeger’s death. There was something quite coalescing about the true story behind Steve McQueen’s film, and Seeger’s prolific and enduring work as a courageous songwriter for freedom. Even if you never knew his name, you’re likely to have heard his song made famous by King’s civil rights movement and the struggle against apartheid: “We shall overcome, someday.” As long as human history continues, and our insatiable thirst for freedom is unmet, songs like these will remain relevant. And this thirst for freedom, and the hunger to be heard is everywhere. In Egypt this freedom may well be tested yet again, as Field Marshal Al Sisi presents himself as a candidate for presidential elections in a few weeks’ time. In Syria, hope of freedom has led to civil war, political deadlock and thousands of lives lost. And in Ukraine, the ferment of freedom, which exploded many weeks ago, recently brought down the Prime Minister and his cabinet. But it’s still not over. In a mood which one protester described as ‘positive but wary’, the agitation grows as the people continue to demand the President’s resignation. All of this reveals an inconvenient truth that, as Martin Luther King Jnr frequently reminded us, ‘The wheels of justice turn slowly.’ It’s a theme underlined in another famous message from Pete Seeger: For everything…. There is a season turn, turn, turn, These words first appeared in the ancient wisdom of King Solomon who also lived through the turbulence of conflict, before his prolonged reign of peace and security. In the Ukraine, Egypt, Syria and Thailand – to name but a few – a terrible political reality is at work. Freedom is costly. And in what Christians call, a ‘fallen world’, the road to freedom will always be imperfect. But in the relentless march for freedom, Christians also believe there is another biblical ideal at work: it’s the call for justice. And in order to deliver these freedoms, this call will always involve cheerleaders for justice from people of all faiths, and none. As Pete Seeger kept saying, “We shall overcome some day.”