danajohnhill.org

Right now the windows are open because it feels like autumn tonight, and Miriam’s in the kitchen making dinner and the smell is wafting into the office.

Saturday night I watched a documentary called Shut Up and Sing, about the Dixie Chicks, and the fallout following Natalie Maines’ negative public statements about George W. Bush. The film was simultaneously enraging and engrossing.

I recall that at the time of the incident I was acutely aware that the backlash against the Dixie Chicks was part of a wider campaign by right-wing, pro-war factions, to silence anyone who opposed them. The Frank Riches and Paul Krugmans of the world were one thing, as they represented a distinctly intellectual, progressive mindset. They were dismissed and insulted on radio and television talk shows and in conservative blogs with regularity, but with far less contempt and outright hostility than the Dixie Chicks were in late 2003. It is clear that Ms. Maines’ reproach of the president–hilariously mild compared to the vitriol spewed at the Clintons every day for the last fifteen years–struck a sore spot in rednecks across America. These so-called people were the same legion of hicks who boycotted France–as though they would ever have sought to expand their cultural horizons beyond NASCAR meccas of the deep south–and waved flags at Toby Keith concerts. That some bitches might have something to say against our commander-in-chief–whom you should obey without question, or else go live in Russia–really irritated these folks. So, following the marching orders given to them in daily talking points, they crushed their Dixie Chicks CDs and threatened to kill Natalie Maines.

Shut Up and Sing presents a montage of ill-informed people holding jingoistic signs and offering Ms. Maines friendly advice, like how she should just shut up, go to hell, etc. If it weren’t so sad, and weren’t so symptomatic of a very serious challenge facing our country, the idiots shown ranting about how angry they were that anyone would oppose the Iraq War would almost be laughable. Lamentably, it appears that about 25% of Americans seem to now be curled up in a fetal position, rocking back and forth, denying all the indisputable evidence that they were deceived, and protesting against anyone who points out how everything they believed in with such conviction was a lie, and they were merely pawns in the games of masters of war.

Meanwhile, there is plenty of good music in Shut Up and Sing, and the beautiful Natalie Maines is shown frequently without any makeup. One highlight for me: a clip of the Dixie Chicks’ performance of “The Star-Spangled Banner” at the 2003 Super Bowl, which must be counted as the best I have ever heard by pop artists. Our national anthem is defiled before sporting events every day, all over America, twisted and insulted with vulgar displays of warrantless vocal melisma. To hear the Dixie Chicks respect the song’s dignity with straight three-part harmony is, to me, indicative of their love for our country.

(Closeups of athletes spoil this footage, but the audio is good.)