The Chicks speak

THEY [the Dixie Chicks] were not trying to be icons for the antiwar movement, nor were they attempting to be controversial [“Lone Stars Rise on the Left Coast” by Geoff Boucher, May 21].

All they did was speak their minds and play their music. How sad that we, the people, were so easily and completely manipulated into hating people who hated this war. How tragic, and un-American, that those fine young ladies have been through hell for simply exercising free speech in a “free” society.

Is there any consolation in the fact that they were right? No, just a lot more dead people than there would have been if the Dixie Chicks were president back then instead of George Bush.

Thank you, ladies. I feel your pain -- 70% of us finally feel it too.

MICHAEL VALENTE

San Clemente