The Dixie Chicks ride again, down the same trail as before

The Dixie Chicks are back in the news now that they've released a new album and the first single, titled Not Ready to Make Nice, is climbing the charts. But the furor over what happened three years ago hasn't fully died down. First, the background: During a show in Germany in 2003, lead singer Natalie Maines said she was ashamed to be from the same state as President Bush. The result?

When Maines made her comment on March 10 2003, 10 days before Operation Iraqi Freedom unleashed "shock and awe" over Baghdad, the Dixie Chicks were probably the biggest act in country music. Yet within days, their music vanished from the charts and the airwaves, apoplectic rednecks crushed piles of their CDs with tractors, and the FBI was feverishly monitoring death threats against the trio. It was the most heinous pop-star outrage since Ozzy Osbourne urinated on the Alamo.

For me personally, it wasn't so much what she said, it was where she said it, and how they reacted to the response. Let me be clear: I do not condone threats of death, bodily harm, vandalism of property, or any other action that is against the law. If you disagree with something someone said, you have no right to threaten a crime, let alone commit one. However, much of the response was entirely legal. Many radio stations stopped playing their music. Sales of their records went down. People even destroyed Dixie Chick's CD's as a sign of protest. All of these acts are perfectly legal and legitimate reactions.

What got me was that the attitude of the Dixie Chicks was that these legal actions constituted censorship. At no point did any government entity do anything in response to Maines' statement so no censorship existed. Nobody is under any obligation to buy their albums. Radio stations are under no obligation to play their songs, unless they have a contract which says they are. The Dixie Chicks failed to realize that, even though you have freedom of speech, you do not have freedom from consequences. And the thing is, I think they still haven't learned.

The Chicks can't hide their disgust at the lack of support they received from other country performers. "A lot of artists cashed in on being against what we said or what we stood for because that was promoting their career, which was a horrible thing to do," says Robison.

The only country artist I know of who made his opinion public was Toby Keith. There may have been others, I don't know. And Natalie certainly didn't sit there and take it, wearing a shirt with the letters "FUTK" on it during the Dixie Chicks' performance at the Country Music Awards. Ultimately Toby decided he just didn't want to deal with it anymore and backed off. As for other artists not supporting them, well I guess that depends on your definition of support. If they disagreed with her statements, then they were certainly under no obligation to support her opinion. On the other hand, they certainly should have spoken out against the more extreme reactions that some people had, such as the death threats. Whether they did so I can't say; I don't remember one way or the other.

The next two paragraphs in the article are probably the most important in understanding just why things happened the way they did.

"A lot of pandering started going on, and you'd see soldiers and the American flag in every video. It became a sickening display of ultra-patriotism."

"The entire country may disagree with me, but I don't understand the necessity for patriotism," Maines resumes, through gritted teeth. "Why do you have to be a patriot? About what? This land is our land? Why? You can like where you live and like your life, but as for loving the whole country… I don't see why people care about patriotism."

I need make no additional comment.