SYSTEM A DOWN Singer Says DIXIE CHICKS Should Never Have Apologized For BUSH Remark

June 12, 2003

SYSTEM OF A DOWN singer Serj Tankian recently told HipOnline.com that he thought the backlash DIXIE CHICKS have encountered over comments made about President Bush during a March concert in England was unwarranted and ultimately amounted to nothing more than a more subtle form of censorship. "I think that it shows there is a lot of reactionism still prevailing in America," Tankian said. "When they say we have freedom of speech they don't recognize what that means truly. We destroy ourselves through self-censorship. [DIXIE CHICKS singer Natalie Maines] should have never apologized about [saying she was ashamed the president of the United States is from Texas], she said the right thing . . . She shouldn't have backtracked. Whether it was for album sales or people hating her, but again I shouldn't say what she should or shouldn't have done and whatever her life consists of. I don't appreciate hate mongers around me and I don't know what is happening around her. If you don't like your leaders you should be able to talk about that. It is what the whole constitution is set up on. Our forefathers said in the constitution that if we didn't like our government then we should change it and we should take up arms and change it."

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