Planetfurry BBS

[Aslaug]

At last something positive to say about the world today.

Music has been a means for people to express their feelings ever since Ugh the Caveman picked up a rock and hit it against another rock for the first time.

During the Warring States period in Chinese history...a 2 century long civil war situation of varying seriousness...a ruler was still burried with a set of dozens of musical bells made from bronze that could better have been used for weapons and armor for his troops.

During the middle ages, minstrels brought secret messages between courts, disguised in music. In villages all over Europe, songs and music helped the toil of backbreaking work in the fields pass more easily.

In the age of enlightenment, music has been quantified and analyzed to the point where Johann Sebastian Bach wrote music based on a mathematical system, yet people to this day listen to his works as some of the most beautiful ever written.

During the second world war, English soldiers sang along to the song 'Underneath the Lamppost' while their German enemies sang 'Unter den lanterne' on the other side of the lines. Same song, different languages.

And on March 10th, 2003, Londoners heard an incredibly brave American, Natalie Maines, speak the words "Just so you know, we're ashamed the President is from Texas" in between two songs, during a concert at Shepherd's Bush Empire Theatre.

And, to paraphrase another famous and important songwriter, that was 'the day the music died'.

For speaking her mind, Natalie Maines and her friends Emilie Robison and Martie Maquire were treated like lepers in parts of the United States. Their music was boycotted, officially or unofficially, by radio-stations all over the United States. People sent them death-threats via letters. Protest were taken up. In one city, a radio station arranged for special trash-cans where people could dump these three young women's music.

In other cities, their music was simply destroyed publically.

In 1933, people threw books on bonfires all over Germany, because the content was considered dangerous, controversial or UNPATRIOTIC.

Seventy years later, Americans destroyed music.

In 1821, a book was published by Heinrich Heine, a German poet who is little known outside Germany today.

Amongst other things it said

"Dort, wo man Bücher verbrennt, verbrennt man am Ende auch Menschen"

"Where they burn books, there they will, in the end, burn people too".

Natalie Maines, Emilie Robison and Martie Maquire spoke their minds, and exercised the same free speech that they have a constitutional right to. The same freedom of speech that allows them to disagree with the powers that be at any given time. They did nothing that their opponents and critics hadn't done for generations whenever those -they- disagreed with were in power.

But they were not allowed to, for as one person of unfathomable stupidity said about them:

"Freedom of speech is fine, just not in public!"

America of 2003.

I leave that line without further comments on it, as I believe it speaks for itself.

There is still a boycott of their music going on. There is still hatred against them and they are still met by people who want to harm them.

America of 2007.

And I will leave that line for itself as well. It too speaks for itself.

Yesterday evening, Natalie Maines was vindicated, as were Emilie Robison and Martie Maguire. Yesterday evening, Dixie Chicks won five Grammys, amongst other things for the best song of the year, called 'Not Ready to Make Nice'...which, incidentally, is a slap in the face of all those who have made their lives miserable for the last four years.

I smiled when I learned this was the case.

Whether one agrees with what they say or not (and I most certainly do) they have the right to express their opinions. Wherever they are, whenever they are there. It makes no difference if they were in London when they criticized Bush, as their critics claim it does. The United States should not function on the principle that you can dislike your leadership at home but when you leave the country you must all love the current President, whoever that may be at any given time.

As a truly great American President said:

"Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent a new nation, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal."

Today, we acknowledge that all men and all women are created equal. What Abraham Lincoln was talking about was the certain unalienable freedoms that the American Declaration of Independence, possibly the greatest single piece of age-of-enlightenment writing in the world, speaks of. It says so in the socalled preamble part of the declaration:

"We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed, by their Creator, with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness."

In America between 2003 and 2007, the freedom of liberty was, in the opinion of a great number of people, conditioned by not using that freedom to disagree with the status quo.

But this is contrary to the pursuit of Happiness.

It may seem high minded to some, that I am pulling on the Gettysburg address and the declaration of independence to speak of the right of Free Speech for a political protest made by a country-musician in 2003.

So be it.

I'm not even American, and I've been offended by what was done to these women...

Simply because they didn't agree with the policies of George W. Bush.

I'm happy they won yesterday. I'm happy that someone finally realized that they had a right to say what they did.

Whether one agrees with them or not...they had the right!

End rant.

[Tigermark]

I will say, as I have always said. they have the right to speak their mind. We all have the right to voice our opinion. We all have a choice as to who's opinion we give weight to. If you don't like the message, ignore it, or speak counter to it.


But never, never try to silence it. The speech you dislike, that you attempt to censor today, can easily become the speech you hold dear, that is suppressed by someone else, using the policies or laws you cried for to be enacted tomorrow.

The saying is true. None are free, unless all are free.

Tigermark (who, underneath this white fur and black stripes, is true red. white, and blue.)

[Nameless]

[shadowjaguar]

I try not to think about it. One, if I think too far back into the past, my brain turns into pudding.
Two, I tend to stay away from that time period, it can be a touchy subject with some people. x_x
Three, It's all politics, and I hate politics.

[Teric]

I will paraphrase what an American army soldier said regarding freedom of speech:

"You have the right to criticize our country, our soldiers, and our leaders. As a soldier, I will go to war, bleed, and die to make sure you keep that right. But I also have the right to ignore or disagree with what you say."

I lived in Texas at the time (2003), and I for one was not ashamed that President Bush came from Texas. However, though I disagree with what Natalie Maines said, I also disagree with the public censure that followed.

[Aslaug]

See, Teric, that's an enlightened point of view. That's the intelligent way of disagreeing with someone.

If we all agreed on everything, the world would be bloody boring. The big issue lies in not exaggerating the differences, and what the three of them had to put up with afterwards was outrageous.

Hell...it's still going on...

[anthony]

I'm just curious...

That concert. Who set it up, and for what cause?

[Valaina]

I do not agree with what you have to say, but I'll defend to the death your right to say it.
~Voltaire

*smiles*