The Long Way Back

After a three year hiatus, the Dixie Chicks are back with a newly released album, Taking the Long Way. All three members have had children in the last few years and all are still dealing with the backlash of lead singer Natalie Maines’ comments about President Bush in early 2003.

At a concert in Texas while the U.S. was just on the brink of declaring war with Iraq, Natalie said that she was ashamed that President Bush was from Texas, the Dixie Chicks’ home state. That comment caused a lot of their country music-lovin’ fans to run and many radio stations to boycott the Chicks.

While I’m not a big country music fan, nor do I intend this to be a political rant, I’d like to give my support to this strong group of women who stood by their views that going to war with Iraq was wrong. Though the tide is turning ever so slightly and now expressing opinions is coming back into fashion, we’ve certainly learned that saying anything against the government can get you branded as an anti-American fascist. At the height of this repressiveness, the Dixie Chicks expressed their opinions and suffered for it.

I’m glad to see they are back and even if it was the Long Way for them to get here, I, for one, plan to purchase a copy of their new CD to show my support for their ability to proudly defend their beliefs.