Posted on 03/15/2003 10:30:50 AM PST by schaketo
Imagine: You're country music's hottest band, you just sold $49 million in tickets in a single day, and you hauled away enough Grammys to fill a long-bed pickup.
Then your wild-child lead singer up and shouts that she's ashamed of President Bush.
If the Dixie Chicks' Natalie Maines had to holler something really stupid in London, why couldn't it have been, "Thank you, Detroit?"
Now the Erwin sisters -- founders and fearless leaders of what began as a Dallas teen-agers' fiddle band -- will never get away.
Maybe it was simple grandstanding that inspired Maines, 28, a Lubbock native, to shout: "Just so you know, we're ashamed the president of the United States is from Texas."
Maybe, as she said, it was "frustration."
Now, she concedes that it was "disrespectful."
Whatever, Dixie Chicks fans across America -- not only in Texas -- are ready to put a boot in her sass.
Radio stations from Kansas City to Pennsylvania were dumping Dixie Chicks songs from their playlists Friday. Some even organized Chick-dumping parties for once-loyal listeners to burn their concert tickets and trash their CDs.
Fellow Chicks Martie Erwin Maguire, 33, and Emily Erwin Robison, 30, have not explained whether they agree or disagree with their lead singer.
In a prepared statement, the Chicks said anti-American opinion overseas is "astounding" and that they support American soldiers but find the idea of war "frightening." Robison's husband, Texas singer Charlie Robison, told a local radio audience that Maines' comments were her own.
Fine. War is frightening. It should be.
So is the idea that we should never go to war.
What's really frightening is that the British or anyone else might attach the least bit of significance to the political opinion of a 28-year-old music-school dropout and country singer from Lubbock.
As far as I can tell, Maines has had only one bit of experience that might qualify her to comment on global events:
Once, she sang at an Italian restaurant in Lubbock.
Otherwise, her resume lists no accomplishments in global diplomacy, unless you count her romance and marriage to actor Adrian Pasdar, an American of Iranian descent.
I'm proud of her singing accomplishments. And I realize that Bush has not sounded his notes as clearly.
But if you asked most of us which Texan we're proudest of -- Maines or President Bush -- I imagine most Texans would still go with the president.
This is not Maines' first foray into political comment. Last year, when country singer Toby Keith wrote his pro-America song Courtesy of the Red, White and Blue, Maines called it "ignorant" and said the tough-talking song "makes country music sound ignorant."
And telling a London audience that you're ashamed of the president sounds smart?
At KSCS/96.3 FM in Arlington, the station was polling its listeners Friday on whether to keep playing Dixie Chicks songs. The station's Web site included a picture of the Chicks with tape added over Maines' mouth.
"Natalie Maines is not paid to espouse her ideas on stage," veteran morning host Terry Dorsey said in an interview on sister station WBAP/820 AM. "A lot of people get up on stage and start talking about something they know nothing about."
Morning host Steve Harmon, now at KFWR/95.9 FM in Weatherford ("The Ranch"), saw the Erwin sisters launch the Chicks in the early 1990s when he worked mornings at KPLX/99.5 FM. He remembered watching the old band picking and grinning at an Italian restaurant on McKinney Avenue in Dallas.
"You're just surprised to hear this kind of comment from somebody that you love so much," he said.
"The Ranch" will play Dixie Chicks songs, he said, because there's "nothing wrong" with their music.
But he might have trouble explaining Maines' comment to his nephew, an F-18 fighter pilot aboard the USS Kitty Hawk.
"The timing couldn't have been worse," Harmon said. "And it wasn't just a dig at Bush politically. It was a dig at her home state and her own people.
"She took a role speaking not only for herself, but as a Texan. ... From all the calls and e-mails I've had, she does not speak for Texans."
His advice to the Dixie Chicks: "I love those guys because they are so traditional, so pure country. ... I remember when their music came with a side of spaghetti, not a side of politics.
"Get back to those days. Real quick."
Nobody says the entire band has to agree. The Erwin sisters can let Maines pop off.
But they should tell their fans whether they agree with her or not.
Otherwise, they might need to take advice from one of their own songs.
Be ready to run.
Moral equivilancy is not a pretty sight.
For the sake of our troops, I hope not.
My experience with military folks is they are dedicated professionals who learned through training (and perhaps sad experience) to isolate their emotions for the task that has to be done.
They don't look at things in terms of "kicking *ss," but "neutralizing the opposition", "taking the objective," and "enveloping the defense."
Most folks who think in terms of "kicking *ss" are those who haven't the slightest idea how to actually accomplish that unless the opponent is as drunk as he is.
Oh, wait, I forgot the latest "reality series." Never mind.
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