With their country audience and previous history of relative non-controversy, The Dixie Chicks were perhaps not the most obvious contenders for the position of first sacrifice for the concepts of free expression and political dialogue to be offered up during this new war, but they have proven to suffice all too well.

The trouble all began with a startlingly honest and direct statement from lead singer Natalie Maines at a performance in London earlier this month (before the outbreak of fighting), in which she admitted that she was “ashamed” that President George W. Bush was a Texan.

While it’s true that such a statement is perhaps not as open to misinterpretation as some analogous remarks of previous times (most famously John Lennon’s assertion that the Beatles were “bigger than Jesus,” a deft and complex analysis of popularity that provoked hostility, anger and outright hatred from right-wing and fundamentalist American Christians when quoted out of context), Maines’ remark was certainly a brave and seemingly sincere cry from the heart.

She later, under illegitimate pressure to “justify” her remarks, explained that she was thinking of the future of a world in which her own young child would grow up.

But, in these hysterical times, this statement provoked immediate and significant outrage from conservative Americans and many (though by no means all) in the country-music establishment, who immediately condemned the previously revered Chicks as, essentially, a bunch of anti-Americans whose albums (all three of which are multi-platinum) were only worthy for steamrolling and banishment. (This condemnation was continued even after Maines’ public apology.)

Even as the Bush administration suggested that the lack of free speech and expression in Iraq was a primary reason for invading the nation, avid Bush supporters were literally trampling on that very right in an unabashed and often crude process. It’s worth noting, though, that investigation of these protests has suggested that they are often driven far more from above than from the “grassroots.”

Most disturbing about this already disturbing process was the simple and complete disregard for anything else that the Chicks have said, through their music, for the past several years. It is highly ironic, sadly so, that the Chicks’ current single is “Traveling Soldier,” written by Bruce Robison, a haunting tale of a young Army recruit taken away forever from the woman who loves him.

The song celebrates the humanity of a military man in a way that both “supports the troops” and reminds all listeners that too many of those troops will not be coming home.

It’s the best song on their current multi-million-selling album, Home, and it is nonetheless now rendered essentially moot by the fanatical revulsion toward anything Chick-related that has been expressed on country radio and elsewhere. (This journalist is not the first to note the continued irony that the Chicks’ next single, Patty Griffin’s “Truth #2,” begins with the lyric “You don’t like the sound of the truth coming from my mouth,” sung by Maines.)

No one is suggesting that anybody needs to agree with Ms. Maines, but an awful lot are suggesting — at least through implication — that any true American must disagree with her, if only to avoid being considered in some way deficient in their American-ism (the cause of their deficiency being, apparently, their defense of the First Amendment).

Her actual statement, and those of others, raises questions that need to be addressed if the United States is to move forward with any sense of clarity, but they’re not the most important questions raised by this incident. That question, of course, is also the most unsettling: What does this mean for free expression during wartime?

Sure, Michael Moore, Steve Earle, Tom Morello, etc. are in some way expected to raise passionate concerns about our current policies, but the way in which artists in the “mainstream” creative community are treated when they voice their opinions is something else entirely.

One can only pray that the treatment of the Dixie Chicks is an aberration, and that their albums continue to sell, their concerts continue to be attended, and their songs continue to be heard on the radio. (On an optimistic note, the backlash does seem to be subsiding in certain ways, though not all.)

If not, this incident — along with several other, less prominent, violations of free speech that have taken place against Americans who express less-than-supportive views of U.S. actions — may be a harbinger of the return of the blacklists and censorship that have plagued this country’s history, particularly at times during which we are “defending freedom” somewhere abroad.

If that happens, then we as a nation have lost something far greater than any military conflict, for we have actively destroyed the very thing that makes this country truly great.

Blast “Wide Open Spaces,” “Long Time Gone” and “Traveling Solder,” and let freedom ring.

Charles Hughes ([email protected]) is a senior majoring in Afro-American studies.