I do NOT like to promote political talk here. Although I love a good debate! I made the mistake of wandering across that line in my last post and I would like to address some of the responses here. People are free to rant in the comment section here, but after this, we will let this subject lie, like a sleeping dog. Maybe. Probably.
Brad K. said:
About the Dixie Chicks... I served in the US Navy. And it seems to me that making a statement against the President, overseas, from an entertainment stage, ignores a lot of lessons learned. Natalie's statement surely created confusion among allies, weakened the President's ability to serve and protect America. She also increased the probability that foreign forces would shoot and kill American soldiers, and increased the number of Americans in uniform and civilian that would be killed overseas.
There are ways to prosecute attacks and complaints about our government that don't endanger American service men and women. The Dixie Chicks didn't use one of them.
I would expect no other opinion from an ex military man. You can take the man out of the military, but you can't take the military out of the man.
I grew up in that environment and I know it very well. I do not at all agree with what Brad K. says. I also don't agree with Sornie and Soccer Mom that you must vote in order to have the right to complain. I believe just the opposite is true. If you agree to participate in the voting process, then you agree to accept the outcome. If you remove yourself from that process, then you are not bound by that acceptance clause. But I will defend to the death anyone's right to speak their own passionate conscience. (When my children were at home, they were welcome to disagree with me. But all complaints had to be in writing. This cut the complaints WAY down! Hehehe.)
I would never begrudge someone their right to be strongly supportive of the war and George W. Bush. I would also never begrudge someone their right to be strongly against the war, as well as George W. Bush, etc.
My point was not that we should agree or disagree with what someone believes (and says in public or private, in country our out of country) but to stand beside them as fellow humans and say, "Give me liberty, or give me death!"
You may view my short article from some time past here ~
The Dixie Chicks
21 comments:
Hey, what happened to the other post?
And FWIW, I love the Dixie Chicks and, as someone who was in the Navy for 9 years, think they had every right to say what they did. That's the same right that evangelical preachers have to say that 9/11 was a punishment from God. It's still a (mostly) free country!
I like the Dixie Chicks, too! They had some awesome ballads.
I love the Dixie Chicks, too! Let's have a party and play their music all night long! :)
Oh, and Jammie, I just tried to tweak something about that last post, and fucked it up, so decided to delete it! Because I can!
Brad ~ Don't they still have some awesome ballads?
Amen. God gave us voices. Let's use them. I love the Dixie Chicks.
OK, thanks. I just wanted to make sure that it had actually been there or if I needed to up my meds a little.
Oh please don't get me started on our political process. I only just stopped bitching about ...well pretty much every thing that ever happened in the world, yesterday. (and that's just cause I got really tired. LOL) Menopause. It's ugly. Happily the testy part is passing again and all I did this time around was slap an old lady. WOOT!
Ah politics - the bread and butter of my existance. And I truly wish it would all go away sometimes!
Those Dixie Chicks are right on! And they put their money where their mouths are to the tune of $Millions of lost earnings.
They are from Texas, they saw what he did to Texas as governor and now what he is finishing doing to the whole US. RAPE, big time!
I've served five years in the Army myself. This man is a farce and doesn't do a bit of good as Commander in Chief. [The U.S. Constitution gave him this title, as it gives you and me the right to freedom of speech. That freedom is pulled into the realm of the Dixie Chicks as well.]
Hope today ends this matter, it is a nasty topic that non-political blogs should avoid.
You pull a cheapshot too by disallowing a lot of anonymous comments. You can be anonymous on my blogs any time you wish.
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Hey hon, you are starting to get heavy and doing some real thinking here, I like that. But don't forget to keep us entertained also.
"About the Dixie Chicks"
Um, I've heard of them, but I seldom find time to listen to much music. Sorry, but I prefer going out to live music and dancing with Goddess as if we are one.
Well, I would prefer that, but she hasn't showed up so I just go listen to the music and visit with the other people there. Hugs.
Jami.... 9/11 was a strike at capitalistic greed. But there was a lot of innocent folks that died that day. What a mess.
As an ex-pat who has lived overseas for 20+ years, I admit to having my perspective skewed. But it irks me to no end to have people making assumptions about what the "rest of the world" thinks about the US. As if we have this great "image" we have to defend and no one knows how screwed up things are in our own backyard. Believe me, none of the US Allies are in any way confused about that!
The Dixie Chicks were demonstrating one of the great American freedoms that most of the world doesn't have, namely the right to speak up about something you disagree with, even if it is the President! It disturbs me deeply to have it seem that this freedom is not appreciated in the US itself and that some folks want to limit this liberty. That to me is a form of insidious terrorism that is as dangerous as anything from the outside.
Well CT, you sure stirred things up this time didncha!
I stopped discussing politics when it became dangerous to do so. In the past decade or so it seems a whole breed of political junkies has been born who hate you if you don't believe in everything they believe in. Sad really. Doesn't really make it easy to speak freely.
It's kind of the new racism of the 21st century.
Anno: Amen, sistah!
Crabby: We'll try to stay far, far away from you right now!
Ms. E: That bread and butter is sometimes a bitter pill to swallow, eh? (Do you mind if I mix my metaphors?)
Jim: Welcome. I don't allow anonymous comments because if you can't even be bothered make up a name to claim your words, then I don't give a shit about reading them.
BBC: I'll try to continue to imagine you singing, "Here are now... entertain us!"
Fourier A: Yes! Stirrers-R-Us!
Dan: That is correct. It is becoming harder and harder to be ones own self out loud.
Forgot the "we" for BBC ~ but you all know the song, right?
Remember how I told you that I use profanity in my private life, but not so much on my blog?
Well, the same goes for politics. There's a lot of it in my private life, but I don't go there in my blogging so much.
Interesting how readers can get turned off by it, or, as it happens on my blog sometimes, get frustrated that it ISN'T there enough!
I certainly take exception to Brad K's remark. The whole point of democracy is that you get to say what you believe. The president is just some guy (or maybe gal) who got elected. It's not like he/she is the fucking pope, touched by God!
I applauded their stand when they took it regardless of where they took it. And BTW I'm a former military officer myself. And I think GWB should be prosecuted by the international court for invading innocent countries. But, I'm not going to hold my breath! LOL
Take care, it's dangerous out there.
Nice to see I was the opposite of the "don't talk bad about US" guy. I see voting like massive group therapy, or purge. [Lack of affordable health care aside] If people are only going to complain when they are sick or hurt but not take care of themselves, why get sympathy. Voting is a way to fix a sick or hurt society.
A watched government behaves differently. If people vote, show up for meetings and take notes and write letters to the editors of newspapers (instead of on their blogs) the government is more responsive.
O.k. I'm dragging the soap box back into the basement.
In any event, thanks for the post. :-)
I thought I posted a comment here, but now I don't see it.
And now I can't remember what I was going to say.
I think I'm getting old.
in response to someone's comment, yes stop thinking and just be pretty dammit. HEEHEE
Ok, I really don't know what all the fuss was about with the whole comment thing. I swear the media makes a fuss out of the most trivial of things.
I don't think it is possible to make statements about what Natalies actions caused, because frankly that would need to be a research study with real numbers to back it up. It's a reach for sure to claim all those things that will come of her comment. I could make my own predictions but they don't hold water unless they are backed up by facts. Otherwise it's just an opinion and you know about those
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