i-sako.com

It’s been very encouraging to see that American celebrities are not allowing themselves to be cowed by political and big business pressures. The Dixie Chicks have asserted their right to have an opinion, which comes as a pleasant about-face after Natalie Maines’ apology (which I found more inappropriate than her original comment about being “ashamed” to be from the same state as George Bush—freedom of speech comes with a concomitant responsibility to stand by what you say, after all).

I see they’ve even got The Boss himself, Bruce Springsteen, in their corner:

“The Dixie Chicks have taken a big hit lately for exercising their basic right to express themselves,” wrote Springsteen—who has been touring overseas. “For them to be banished wholesale from radio stations, and even entire radio networks, for speaking out is un-American. The pressure coming from the government and big business to enforce conformity of thought concerning the war and politics goes against everything that this country is about—namely freedom.”

I couldn’t have said it better myself: Pressuring people not to speak out against Bush is downright un-American.

Tim Robbins, another celebrity whose courage has impressed me recently, made a similar point at a recent speech to the National Press Club in Washington, D.C. Among a great many other things that should give any freedom-loving person great pause, Robbins said:

A chill wind is blowing in this nation. A message is being sent through the White House and its allies in talk radio and Clear Channel and Cooperstown. If you oppose this administration, there can and will be ramifications.

From what we’ve seen happen to the Dixie Chicks, we know this to be true. It shouldn’t be. Thanks to the efforts of people like Springsteen and Robbins, our cultural heritage of freedom may very well survive the abuses of the Bush administration.