Fact #158777
When:
Short story:
Radio stations in the USA begin dropping Dixie Chicks tracks from their playlists because vocalist Natalie Maines recently stated that the group was ashamed of coming from the same state as President George Bush. Full article:
Roseanne Cash : I'm astonished and appalled at the way she (Natalie Maines of Dixie Chicks) has been treated in the press.
It is the people who scream loudest about America and freedom who seem to be the most intolerant for people with a differing point of view.
She was just expressing a feeling and an opinion, you know. She wasn't trying to incite a riot. I really cannot believe the backlash. It is as if we have not learnt anything from history. It is like McCarthyism all over again.
Merle Haggard : What knocked my hat off was the way people attacked them. My response didn't come until some time later. I let it all go down and watched it happen and thought, "Now, wait a minute. Is this not America? Are we not at war for freedom?"
It disturbs me that this country is so seriously divided over this war. I don't think since the Civil War have we been so divided about something. Since when is it new for grandma to be against war? These girls were against war, and only in today's times would we have enough nerve to jump on somebody like that. What's new about entertainers being against war? They've always campaigned against war.
Steve Earle : Their livelihood was actually threatened - and we're not talking about an act that normally deals in politics. They were just being citizens. I actually played Shepherds Bush Empire [where the Dixie Chicks had made their anti-Bush comments] ten days after and I had on a t-shirt that said F**k the War and I think I may have made the fifth page of The Guardian or something. I'm sort of a well-known pinko, so people didn't bat an eye when I did it, When Natalie [of the Dixie Chicks] did it, that shows you how much this war offended some people in my country. She was reacting as a citizen and a mother and of course she sells a lot more records than I do - that bothered a lot of people.
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It is the people who scream loudest about America and freedom who seem to be the most intolerant for people with a differing point of view.
She was just expressing a feeling and an opinion, you know. She wasn't trying to incite a riot. I really cannot believe the backlash. It is as if we have not learnt anything from history. It is like McCarthyism all over again.
Merle Haggard : What knocked my hat off was the way people attacked them. My response didn't come until some time later. I let it all go down and watched it happen and thought, "Now, wait a minute. Is this not America? Are we not at war for freedom?"
It disturbs me that this country is so seriously divided over this war. I don't think since the Civil War have we been so divided about something. Since when is it new for grandma to be against war? These girls were against war, and only in today's times would we have enough nerve to jump on somebody like that. What's new about entertainers being against war? They've always campaigned against war.
Steve Earle : Their livelihood was actually threatened - and we're not talking about an act that normally deals in politics. They were just being citizens. I actually played Shepherds Bush Empire [where the Dixie Chicks had made their anti-Bush comments] ten days after and I had on a t-shirt that said F**k the War and I think I may have made the fifth page of The Guardian or something. I'm sort of a well-known pinko, so people didn't bat an eye when I did it, When Natalie [of the Dixie Chicks] did it, that shows you how much this war offended some people in my country. She was reacting as a citizen and a mother and of course she sells a lot more records than I do - that bothered a lot of people.