Dixie Chicks

This morning on my morning radio talk show the hosts were talking about the Dixie Chicks, their comments about Bush, their new album, and their new-and growing, apparently-fanbase. The new single, "Not Ready to Make Nice," has been banned from a bunch of radio stations, (which is unfortunate, because it's a great song), so hearing it twice on the same station within 20 minutes was really a treat. Anyway, it got me all fired up, so I'm going to try to be diplomatic, since I know some people who read this blog are considerably more conservative than I, but I'm still going to write about it.
When the Dixie Chicks first made their comment about Bush, (Natalie Maines said that she was embarrassed to be from Texas, because that's where he's "from", although he's actually from Connecticut-don't let the accent fool you), I was really impressed. It took a lot of guts, particularly since, at the time, about half the US supported him. But what I think is really great is that even when people came down on her for the comment, she didn't backpedal. She stood by what she believed. To be completely honest, if I'd been in a foreign country at that time, I probably would have done something similar; I may have been born and raised here, but I didn't vote for Bush, I don't have to agree with the things he does, and I don't have to think he's a great person and that he's doing a great job running the country. This is what America is about. The founding fathers were a bunch of raging liberals, and what they said to England was basically the same thing as what Natalie Maines said about Bush: "We don't agree with what you're doing, and we want the world to know that we're not a part of it."
I'm very lucky right now to be living in a state where almost everyone I come into contact with is liberal. It's extremely validating to be surrounded by people who share your opinions (although how we came to have a Republican "governator" is beyond me). But regardless of whether you're liberal or conservative, standing by your beliefs is really important. (Even though conservatives drive me crazy sometimes, I realize that they're just as important to the future of the nation-and the world-as liberals. You need a balance.) And I don't think there's anything wrong in disagreeing with what the government is doing, particularly if they're not the administration you voted for. We are, after all, a "free speech" country, whatever that means now.
And that's all I have to say about that.