"Chicks" that stick

You vote with your feet and your wallet.

I've heard those two aspects of choice a thousand times, easily. You express your likes and dislikes by being a part of, or buying into, the work and products of those you agree with. Or, whom you feel got a bum deal from others.

That having been said, I think I'll buy the Dixie Chicks' new CD when it comes out in April. Maybe lead singer Natalie Maines could have chosen her words more correctly, more politically, but with now a majority of American's leaning her way on the subject of President Bush, they don't look so "evil". (Although, on the cover of EW three years ago (at left) there is certainly some aspect or two of evil they bring to mind...)

I don't buy country music, never been a fan of the genre, there are a few exceptions...even at his most country, Johnny Cash ruled, and Randy Travis' "I'm Gonna Love You Forever" is one of the sweetest love songs I have ever been a sucker for (despite my aversion to nasal twangs). And, I have heard that this yet-untitled album is NOT going to be country, more Eagles-era rock (and the Chicks have shown the range to get there, and more power to them), so that makes it easier (plus, they are all much cuter than Eminem, to my tastes).

But also, it's my vote. They exercised their freedom of speech, and were tarred for it by people who seem to forget that what makes us different, the quintessential difference between the United States of America and the nations we're trying to "liberate" (besides their oil reserves and the fact that their ruler once threatened W's daddy) is that we have freedom of speech, of religion, of the press - you know "life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness". If you don't agree with them, don't listen, don't buy their books or records or magazines or movies.

But un-American for exercising the very rights our forefathers died defending? (And yes, some wars have been essential to our nation's liberation and survival...I still place my pacifist view of Christianity ahead of my country, as it should be, but I'm also a realist.)

America is not about hate. And those who lose sight of that need to sit back, relax, and reread their history books.

I remember during the Viet Nam era protests, a protestor getting beaten by a mob for reading "Communist propaganda" through a megaphone at an anti-war rally. He was actually reading the Declaration of Independence, verbatim, it turns out. If you haven't read and understood that document and the Constitution, you don't know what we ask out men and women in uniform to defend, to die for. You dishonor them and their sacrifice, far more than a petite country singer expressing her outrage with a minority-elected President.

America isn't about pickup trucks and hunting dogs, the NRA (who likes to stand on one of the Bill of Rights) and Coors beer. It's about ideas, including freedom. It's about daring to believe that the cream floats to the top in time and no amount of hate will win more than a temporary battle for history's perspective.

So when the sales figures come out the first week for their new CD, you can bet that one of the statistical mob will be me. That's my vote.