Not Ready to Make Nice

In 2003, President George W. Bush and his administration started an illegal war in Iraq. The Bush Administration has given many reasons for the war, all of which have turned out to be false—most of which turned out to be blatant lies. One of the few public figures who was willing to decry the war from the outset was Natalie Maines, of the Dixie Chicks, who said on the eve of the war that the group was ashamed Bush was from their home state of Texas. (She later said that she regretted the phrasing of the remark, although she kept her stance against the war.)

The Dixie Chicks got a lot of flack for that. Country music stations all over the States boycotted their music, and they even received death threats. In 2003, it was practically the Dixie Chicks against the world; now, in 2006, after it’s been revealed that there were indeed no justifiable reasons go to into Iraq, after it’s been revealed that the Bush Administration is guilty of numerous violations of the Geneva Conventions—torture being the most obvious—and after it’s been revealed that the Bush Administration is even illegally spying on their fellow Americans, the rest of America is starting to come around to the Chicks’ point of view.

As I said in a previous entry, I think a certain country owes a certain band an apology. But I’m not holding my breath: I saw a clip from CNN about the new Chicks album, in which they wondered out loud “if America is ready to forgive the Dixie Chicks”. People like to believe that Fox News is the conservative station, and that CNN is the balanced one, but all of the news networks are conservative, unfortunately.

So now, on their latest album—Taking the Long Way—they’ve put out a new song, Not Ready to Make Nice, in which they respond to the controversy. And, frankly, I like the way they did it. To me, it strikes just the right tone.

Forgive, sounds good.
Forget, I’m not sure I could.
They say time heals everything,
But I’m still waiting

…

I’m not ready to make nice,
I’m not ready to back down,
I’m still mad as hell
And I don’t have time
To go round and round and round
It’s too late to make it right
I probably wouldn’t if I could
Cause I’m mad as hell
Can’t bring myself to do what it is
You think I should

Words aside, I also happen to like the song. (There’s some great acoustic guitar.) And tonight I saw the video, and liked that too. So, for any other potential Dixie Chicks fans out there, I present the video for Not Ready to Make Nice, from YouTube.


Enjoy!