DIXIE CHICKS HAVE BALLS!

I don’t know if you have been following the saga of the singing trio from Texas called the DIXIE CHICKS. I have and it is a story worth telling. I may even buy their album and I don’t usually buy Country & Western Music albums.

On the eve of our invasion of Iraq, one of the Chicks said on a London stage that she was ashamed that President Bush came from Texas. All hell broke lose in the South. Remember that at that time most Americans believed Bush and his reasons for the invasion - now we all know he was and is just a dirty ole’ liar.

The Chicks were called traitors and unpatriotic. Country & Western radio stations banned their music and still do. Fans denounced them and burned their CDs. The only apology was “for disrespecting the office of the president” but that’s all. Their careers were seemingly finished.

This week they released their first album since that fateful day. It is called “Taking the Long Way” and the hit single from that album is “Not Ready to Make Nice” or as I like to translate it: Fuck Y’all! The album and the single are number one on the charts and not because their old fans have forgiven them.

They were on CNN last night and they recounted the whole experience and described their feelings then and now and what they thought of the dramatic reaction to their London statement. Other singers have criticized the President and his war and not a peep about it. But their fans were so called Country & Western music fans and they don’t like people criticizing their president and therefore THEIR country. Many of their recording star cohorts (Toby Keith) denounced them but then they make their money singing patriotic songs and doing truck commercials.

I guess what intrigued me about this whole story is their courageous stand against all odds. They stood up for their beliefs and never wavered even with their careers at stake and now they are saying – see you morons, patriotism without brains is damaging to this country. We need to pay attention to what is going on instead of accepting things blindly. We need to speak up if we disagree, yes, even with the President. That is what Democracy is all about!

The Chicks said that their greatest shock was at how people, even people they thought they knew, could react with such anger and such hatred (and I may add such stupidity and ignorance).

Hooray for the Chicks! May they serve as role models for the new generation of Americans and a lesson to some older ones too?

Janusz