Chicks

I never thought I was a Dixie Chicks fan. My sister swore by them, and I never had anything specifically against them. Then, in April 2003, responding to the Iraq War and Administration lies leading America into it, lead singer Natalie Maines told an audience in London, from the stage:

Just so you know, we're ashamed the President of the United States is from Texas.

So in response to outraged country music listeners, all these country music stations across our great nation (the one founded on Free Speech) pulled their songs off the air.

The Chicks got death threats galore but didn't back down, appearing on the cover of Entertainment Weekly magazine naked but with words and phrases -- some pro, some anti-Chick -- written across their bodies.

As further evidence that they stand by their beliefs, a lesson some D.C. Democrats could use, the first single they have chosen to release off their new record is the staunchly unapologetic, "Not Ready to Make Nice."

The video version is available on YouTube (big thanks to Mr. Looky Touchy for emailing me the link), and while it's shot in the most stylish of current music video production fashion, it's pretty hard-assed. The song has a great hook so it's pretty catch. Knowing the backstory, I actually found it quite moving by the end. Check it out here:

Hard-Ass Dixie Chicks

While other parts of the song can be read as a lover's quarrel, they make it crystal clear in this verse:

I made my bed and I sleep like a baby,
With no regrets, and I don't mind sayin':
It's a sad sad story when a mother will teach her,
Daughter that she ought to hate a perfect stranger.
And how in the world can the words that I said,
Send somebody so over the edge,
That they'd write me a letter sayin' that I better,
Shut up an' sing or my life will be over?

Nice job again, America.

All cynicism aside, okay some cynicism aside, this kind of principled defiance will probably end up increasing their audience, i.e. folks like me. And most of all, this is what real stars do, not manufactured mediocre talents or weakies, not a factory-controlled American idol. When the dust clears, and I think much of it has already, Natalie and her band will be examples to emulate rather than ridicule. Or threaten.

Someday, I wish someone would apologize to all those Hollywood actors and other entertainers who came out against the War before the invasion. All the things they warned have, to one degree or another, come true, including some sort of civil war. Meanwhile nothing that the GOP leaders predicted have -- no greeting with flowers, no cheap oil, no Iraq rebuilt on oil money, no safety and peace in Iraq, no WMDs.

So I'm with Natalie. I've spent some time in the great state of Texas, the only state in our nation that was once its own country, and while I don't expect to see eye-to-eye politically with everyone there, we call agree that ol' Salt Lick has terrific barbecue. So I'm ashamed as well. In fact, I can't think of a state I wouldn't be ashamed to know he was from.

As the women sing so tunefully:

I'm not ready to make nice;
I'm not ready to back down.
I'm still mad as hell,
An' I don't have time,
To go round and round and round.
It's too late to make it right;
I prob'ly wouldn't if I could.
'Cause I'm mad as hell:
Can't bring myself,
To do what it is you think I should.

Free speech is only free when you use it.