The President, The Dixie Chicks & Troops on the Borders

I am 'feeling' the state of our nation this morning. It could be because I listened to NPR with talk about troops on our southern border, or opening up today's truthout editorial talking about the Dixie Chicks, Valerie Plame & Bush., or hearing about flooding in the eastern US, kids out of school because of impassable roads and that being a problem (the kids being out of school.)

I wasn't aware of the situation with The Dixie Chicks although the situation came about in 2003. Here's an excerpt from the editorial.

The Bush-on-the-sidelines cases are illustrated by what happened to the Dixie Chicks, a three-woman country-western band that has faced three years of boycotts because lead singer, Natalie Maines, criticized Bush as he was stampeding the nation toward war with Iraq.

During a March 10, 2003, concert in London, Maines, a Texan, remarked, "we're ashamed the President of the United States is from Texas." Two days later - just a week before Bush launched the Iraq invasion - she added, "I feel the President is ignoring the opinions of many in the U.S. and alienating the rest of the world."

With war hysteria then sweeping America, the right-wing attack machine switched into high gear, organizing rallies to drive trucks over Dixie Chicks CDs and threatening country-western stations that played Dixie Chicks music. Maines later apologized, but it was too late to stop the group's songs from falling down the country music charts.

On April 24, 2003, with the Iraq War barely a month old, NBC News anchor Tom Brokaw asked Bush about the boycott of the Dixie Chicks. The President responded that the singers "can say what they want to say," but he added that his supporters then had an equal right to punish the singers for their comments.

"They shouldn't have their feelings hurt just because some people don't want to buy their records when they speak out," Bush said. "Freedom is a two-way street."

This is pretty outrageous and I am sure not an isolated action.

Troops on the border feels like the next step towards blocking the incoming AND the outgoing -- everyone -- illegal or not. Military. It makes my stomach twist.

And the kids I had an idea for. What if under circumstances where schools are closed and kids are out and about, parents not at work either because of the kids or the circumstance -- what if we called it an 'alternative education day'? What could kids learn when school is closed because of floods? A whole lot, and it could be fun. Bottomline is it's an opportunity for creativity for everyone. I would like to see it.

And right now I'm thinking about what I can do right here where I'm at -- no acts of god happening (yeah, right!), gas still flowing, sun shining, food in stores and my fridge.

How can I make myself and my community stronger?

I have ideas......


Right now I'm working on Solari. Take a look at Solari.com. Who's your farmer? Who's your banker? Where's your money? Not idle questions but under the Solari model, the subject of projects of discovering the answers to. I'm working on it.




anais