Posted on 05/30/2006 10:12:40 AM PDT by RadicalSon2
They could have just shut up.
That's what's interesting. The thing had been said, the controversy had flared and faded, bygones were becoming bygones. They could have moved on, left well enough alone. Instead, they declare themselves, ``not ready to make nice . . . not ready to back down . . . still mad as hell.''
That's the refrain of Not Ready To Make Nice, the first single from the newly released first album by the Dixie Chicks in four years. More to the point, the first since that fateful night in March 2003, on the eve of the Iraq invasion, when lead singer Natalie Maines told a London audience the Chicks were ''ashamed'' the president of the United States hailed from Maines' native Texas.
Things for the Chicks swiftly went very bad after that. They had been one of the most popular acts in country music. Now there were death threats, vandalism, a radio station boycott of their music and, like something out of Germany circa 1933, mass gatherings where whooping crowds destroyed Dixie Chicks CDs.
Now it all seems quaint, so three years ago. As in, before the WMDs turned up MIA, before the bungling of Hurricane Katrina, before the scandal of Abu Ghraib, before illegal spying on U.S. citizens, before 20,646 U.S. casualties in Iraq, before at least 2,466 U.S. fatalities. These days, between 65 percent and 70 percent of us -- the polls vary -- have reservations about the leadership of President Bush. And Natalie Maines' assessment of this profoundly mediocre man seems almost . . . charitable. Indeed, in a Rolling Stone cover story, Princeton professor Sean Wilentz declares Bush a contender for the title of worst president, ever.
FULL OF FIGHTING WORDS
So yes, the Chicks could have accepted vindication gracefully, taken a demure victory lap and gone quietly back to country. Instead, they release a song full of fighting words and, in interviews, declare their lack of regret and disinterest in rapprochement with the red state musical establishment that made them stars.
What a bracing display of guts. Watching, you wonder when is the last time you saw anyone in the pop culture arena put their careers on the line for matters of principle. Surely, you don't have to go all the way back to Ali in '66 saying ''I ain't got no quarrel with them Viet Cong.'' Surely, it only feels that way. Surely, some singer, actor, athlete, has taken a risk for right since then.
But no names come to mind.
Yes, others in the pop culture pantheon have spoken against the current state of affairs -- Martin Sheen, Bruce Springsteen, Eminem, Neil Young -- but there was little risk in it. Their liberal fan bases would expect and second their opinions. With all due respect to those individuals, these are not exactly profiles in courage. The pop culture Zeitgeist seems more accurately reflected in what Michael Jordan -- equally beloved in red states and blue ones -- reportedly said when asked why he would not endorse a Democratic senatorial candidate: ``Republicans buy shoes, too.''
WILLING TO TAKE A RISK
You hear that and you realize that it's a long time since John Carlos and Tommie Smith accepted Olympic medals with black power salutes, since Marlon Brando marched for civil rights, since thousands of young people put their lives and livelihoods on the line for peace and justice, since any of us, celebrity or unknown, seemed willing to take a risk to say what we felt was right.
These are, should it need to be said, fearful times. Soldiers in harm's way, terrorism threats looming, government surveiling citizens. There is much cause for trepidation. But courage is only courage when fear is present. It only matters when something is at stake.
For what it's worth, the Chicks' new single bombed on country radio, putting their careers further in question. It's a problem they wouldn't have had if they'd kept silent.
Thankfully, they didn't. There's already too much of that going around.
Remember...only in the world of the Lunatic Left, a true patriot is defined as one that is willing to burn the American flag!
Courage? COURAGE?
Just stunning.
Then again maybe the song just stinks.
Courage? Oh, please, the Cowardly Lion had more courage!
(Records? Look at me....showing my age)
I believe Mel Gibson did exactly this just a couple of years ago.
If the fat chick would lay off the cheeseburgers, less guts would be displayed.
Some time ago,Lowell Weicker,a former "Republican" governor of Connecticut (he was really a RINO),got the award for having rammed through a state income tax to which a huge majority of CT's citizens were vehemently opposed.
To America's Royal Family,that's courage.
Who the hell are the Vichy Chicks?
If Natalie had never said a word against the POTUS, Toby, Reba, etc, I would still find her just as unlikable.
Natalie Maines drinks toilet water.
No matter how many radio stations are lobbied to play their records or how many journalists write sympathetic articles, it won't matter. In country music, these twits are DONE.
Courage is admitting when you are wrong - and trying to make amends.
Courage is seeing what must be done, and doing it, and never whining about the price you pay for it.
How do these *ahem* individuals' actions stack up against those two definitions?
Not well... Not well at all.
What in the hell does Leonard Pitts Jr know about country music? How about not a damn thing!!!
Since when is "I hate Bush because I just do (and am an asshat)" courageous?
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/1639598/posts
>>Boston's lone country music radio station WKLB-FM/Country 99.5 so far is ignoring the first two singles from the Dixie Chicks' brand new CD "Taking the Long Way" according to a news report on CBS4 News this week. WKLB isn't even paying attention to their summer tour by omitting their July 29th stop at TD Banknorth Garden on its concert section of its website
Both singles bombed. Not ready to make hits.
"Hi! We're the Dixie Chicks! And we think the millions of you who used to buy our records are, like, a bunch of ignorant hicks who support that stupid President! So we're moving our base of operations to
New York City and going after the adult contemporary audience!
Screw you, country fans!" :)
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