07.09.03 - I Double Dog Dare You
A lot of people have been saying to me, "Dude, you need to update your section of the website, it's been like six months." The fact is, I didn't really have anything to say, and with all of the other crap floating around in cyberspace I didn't feel compelled to add to it. But you asked for it, so here it is.

Ladies and gentleman, We the People of the United States of America, find ourselves in a very sad state of affairs and I, for one, am mad as hell. For the last 2 years we have been engaged in a full fledged War on Terror (the parallels with the highly successful War on Drugs is a topic for another time). We've been fighting in Afghanistan for over a year and in Iraq for a few months now. In Afghanistan we're going cave to cave after thugs with grenade launchers in a country still largely ruled by warlords; in Iraq we're down to going village to village, house to house, looking for enemies that are largely indistinguishable from the general population, while reports of civilian casualties pile up and the troops become more unpopular everyday (sound familiar?). Justified or not, that's not the topic of this rant. My beef is with what is going on right here. Just the other night the Dixie Chicks played a concert at the Fleet Center. Standing outside the arena was a small group of protestors holding signs condemning the aforementioned Chicks for a disparaging statement made on foreign soil. Granted, the small number of protestors looked more like the assholes that stand out in front of the Planned Parenthood offices telling people how much Jesus loves the babies (Jesus thinks you're a jerk!). But down South, thinks were way different. When Natalie Maines told her London fans how ashamed she was that George W. Bush was from her home state, you would have thought she said something about being more popular than Jesus. Their records and concerts were boycotted (unfortunately the plastic packaging of the CDs prevented a good old fashioned record burning), and their songs were removed from radio station play lists, effectively cutting off a source of income for the Dixie Chicks, their band, crew, management, concert promoters, and the thousands of people who work in the venues where the Chicks play, from security to the guy who makes $5.15 and hour to sweep up cigarette butts in the parking lot. All because Natalie doesn't like the President. They have since apologized. Its 2003, people, and this is America. How did this happen?

One word: Vietnam. Or is it two words? Anyway, I wasn't there, but from what I've heard, it got pretty ugly. I'll spare you the details but essentially the government has since had to have a really, really strong case to send the young men and women of this country to go fight in a place nobody's ever heard of. Likewise, the American people, the antiwar movement in particular, has had to be extra careful about we say about such fighting. Spitting on 19 year old veterans coming home from watching their friends get killed remains a sore spot on America's conscience. We have since come 180 degrees. That's good, right?

Well, the situation we find ourselves in suggests the contrary. Today, the Congress, Senate, White House, and Supreme Court are all run by the same political party. We do not currently have a functioning system of checks and balances. We have one guy at the top calling the shots and everybody following right along. The issue on the table here is that we find ourselves in a social and political climate where we cannot voice concerns about the actions and decisions of our current regime without being shouted down as un-American, unpatriotic soldier spitters. How can this be? It is our job, our obligation, as musicians and artists to question what is going on in our society. Part of what we do is holding a mirror up to society to point out blemishes as well as beauty. We need to be free to exercise our constitutional rights without the fear of losing our houses. The emperor wears no clothes, and he has a sagging ass.

Please don't email me to tell me how fortunate I am to live in a place like America and not somewhere like Iran, or China, or Rwanda. I know. That's not the point. Put George Steinbrenner next to Joseph Stalin and he looks like a really nice guy. We have set down, on paper, in front of the whole world, a set of ideals we have since traveled the world to defend. I am daring you to honor those ideals. I double dog dare you.