I have to confess that I like country music. As a child my brother and I were exposed to artist such as Loretta Lynn, Charlie Pride, Hank Williams (the original), Merle Haggard, Roy Clark, Buck Owens, Dolly Parton and the list goes on. As with most things I like, I do it in phases. One day it's all I listen to and then I go months without even thinking about it.

Today was a listen to country music sort of day. I was surfing radio stations and came up on KSON in San Diego. I am aware of the station, I listened to it a lot when I first moved here. So I am driving home from dinner with the windows rolled down and the warm summer wind is blowing and I am enjoying the country music. And then...

A politically conservative song comes on. What happened to country songs about wrecking your truck, or getting dumped? Or songs about being from the mountains, or a gambler or crazy. Today it seems like every third song is a flag waving, fuck the Taliban, red-state lovin' anthem. Do you think that it has never occurred to the broadcasters, dj's and the station owners that we are all not conservative. What's even worse is they don't even give equal air time. Many stations still don't play the Dixie Chicks and who's ever heard of a liberal country song.

The song that I heard tonight was called Politically Uncorrect. Here's link to the lyrics if you want to see what the songs about.I however didn't change the station right away. I listened to the song. One of the few things I remember about a religion class I took in undergrad was the Southern Baptist Minister saying if you want to make an argument you better know everything there is to know about the other guys point of view. So I listened, and tried to be calm, but the more I listened the angrier I got. What pisses me off the most is that there is a shared belief amongst most conservatives that if I criticize the President I am against the flag. If I criticize the war then I am against the soldiers. If I criticize religion I am against the Bible. If I don't support tax cuts for the wealthy then I am against the working man.

In truth all of this is unfounded. I will never support this President, but I'd be the first to sign up to fight if the war were justified. I will never support this war, but I want nothing more than for every man and woman serving in the military to come home safely. Although I have been turned against organized religion because of the insane beliefs that most of them support, I do have a faith in a God of my choosing and trust me he/she/it is not an angry judgmental God. And let's face it I can use 200 dollars as much as the next person but I also know there isn't near enough money for education, health care, and other beneficial programs that many of us rely on. And yet if we listen to what country stations say I Hate America.

And so at the end of the song I turned the radio off and decided the that maybe listening to country music on the way home wasn't such a great idea after all. So I called my ex-boyfriend C.T. (you read about him last weekend) to find out how his first Denver Pride was. I am not angry now. I am sad. It truly depresses me to think half the country really has no tolerance for me. They don't believe I have a right to the privileges that are guaranteed me by the Constitution. They believe that I am evil and that untold bad things are destined to come to me. And what makes me most sad is how much everyone I know who disagrees with conservatives support the Conservative Right's right to their opinion.