Monday, March 10, 2003 will forever be stamped across the forehead of Dixie Chicks front-woman Natalie Maines. It was a cool, spring night outside the Shepherd's Bush Empire theatre in London, England, but inside the theatre, things were just beginning to heat up. Maines, as well as Martie Maguire and Emily Robison, had just taken the stage and begun their show. It was the first night of the Dixie Chicks' eagerly anticipated "Top of the World Tour", and the everything was going smoothly. The United States, however, was in the midst of a difficult time. The September 11 attacks on the World Trade Center towers happened only 18 months before, and U.S. troops were set to invade Iraq in just 9 days. London had been a hotbed of opposition to the war, and the Dixie Chicks found themselves in the midst of an angry city. So right before they began to play their song "Travelin' Soldier", Maines approached the mic, and said these 32 career-altering words:

"Just so you know, we're on the good side with y'all. We do not want this war, this violence, and we're ashamed that the President of the United States is from Texas."

Seeing those words now may seem like no big deal, especially considering the political rhetoric we've heard this election cycle, but in 2003, on the brink of new war, those words echoed throughout the country.

The backlash was swift and strong. Country radio stations were flooded with callers demanding the Chicks be taken out of rotation. This caused their current single at the time "Landslide" to fall from #10 to #43 in a single week on the Billboard Hot 100. Many supporters of the Dixie Chicks dropped their support, and Lipton, who had signed on to sponsor their tour, received complaints from people threatening to boycott their products. There were active displays of protest, including a famous demonstration where former fans brought their Dixie Chicks CDs to be crushed by a bulldozer. They received death threats, and had to have extra security for the rest of their tour.

In March 2006, over three years after "the incident", the Dixie Chicks released their song "Not Ready to Make Nice", which tackled the controversy head on. Their album "Taking the Long Way" was released shortly after. It debuted at #1 on the Billboard 200, and was received with acclaim by most music critics. The album went on to win 5 GRAMMY Awards, including Album of the Year.

Despite the success of "Taking the Long Way", the Dixie Chicks have not released an album since. It has been over 10 years, and there has been no new music. In fact, 2016 is the first time they've even toured the United States since 2006. You may think the scars have healed and people have moved on, but I know that isn't completely true. Nashville's most successful radio DJ Bobby Bones tweeted this in 2014:

Country radio is still uncomfortable with the idea of these girls getting played on their airwaves. In fact, I was in Nashville just last week, and heard an old man say, "They shouldn't even be in here" when he saw their display at the Country Music Hall of Fame. Grudges are real, folks.

While everyone else is content with quietly forgetting the Dixie Chicks and the injustice they endured, I am not. I am here to say that the Dixie Chicks are the greatest group in country music history, and the way they were treated can go ignored no longer. We owe them an apology.

It doesn't matter if you like George W. Bush. It doesn't matter if you think the war in Iraq was necessary. It doesn't even matter if you like country music. What happened with the Dixie Chicks was an assault on our First Amendment rights, and an example of the intolerance towards differing opinions our nation has.

Maybe Natalie Maines shouldn't have said what she said. Maybe it was bad judgment or bad wording or bad timing. The fact is she had every right to say it, and the idea that the backlash towards the band would be so extreme that, 10 years later, they still aren't making music is inexcusable. Why should we punish people for sharing their opinion?

So for what it's worth, Dixie Chicks, I apologize. Country music may never apologize, but I'll do it for them.

Side Note: Irony is a funny thing. A CBS News/New York Times poll in 2015 actually found that 75% of Americans felt the war wasn't worth the costs. So at least you have that, Chicks. Most Americans officially agree with you...12 years later.