Merle Haggard speaks out against Bush

[claude]

Salute the Hag
Merle tees off on Bush, Iraq and prisoner abuse in America
By FISH GRIWKOWSKY -- Edmonton Sun
When Merle Haggard, a man of 67, starts losing faith in the longevity of the species, it resonates.

"This is the worst it's ever been," he says on the phone from his home, near Mt. Shasta in northern California, where he lives with his wife. "I don't ever recall anything, the Cuban Missile Crisis or anything, that's more upsetting than this is. I think we're bubbling under World War III."

Now you might expect Haggard, a country icon playing Rexall Place tonight, to take the side of the current Republican power base down south. Haggard is famous, after all, for Okie from Muskogee and Fightin' Side of Me, two anthems of conservatism dripping with pride and tradition.

Think again.

"I was dumb as a rock when I wrote some of those things, wondering about which side to take," Haggard told me in November 2001. But regardless of how he feels he's evolved since then, it is because of his patriotism that Haggard is riled today. In fact, based on his own history, he's downright furious about what's happening in Iraq right now, asking with concern, "What's the Canadian posture toward America right now? What do you think with the prison (abuse) thing?"

I tell him we're concerned.

Haggard, himself a multiple prison vet in his youth, elaborates on the backroom methods used to break inmates.

"It happens all over the world. It's not isolated to Baghdad. It happens in America. It happens in San Quentin. It happens in all the juvenile joints of America. There are people who go there and take jobs as guards and people of authority and for no better reason than their own satisfaction, pick on little kids, little girls.

"People who don't have money to hire attorneys and fight back. That goes on all over America. I hope this damn thing over there throws up a flag all over the world to what's going on in prison. Check on Tucker Farm in Arkansas. Check on Huntsville in Texas. San Quentin. Those places are just as bad. If you had a video in there, you'd start a show every week. The hypocrisy of it all is that it was happening in Texas before we ever went over there."

Haggard laughs after he says this, and is more engaged when talking about the things his country is doing in his name in the volatile Middle East than what happened in the studio lately - it's causing a noticeable crack in his 'if you don't love it, leave it' policy.

"I think there was a whole lot of lack of thought. I think they intended to go in there and do whatever it was they wanted to do, and they figured they wouldn't have much opposition. Somebody may have told them that (Hussein) had WMDs. Look, if Saddam had weapons of mass destruction, he'd have used them!

"I just think that whole thing is politically made up. I think we're controlled by people who are in control of the world, and I doubt that George Bush or anybody that we could even call their name is really, truly in charge.''

Again, he laughs, as if to release his fears. If this is true, that even the U.S. chief executive isn't responsible for his policies, I ask him at what point he thinks people will stand up against this undemocratic power shift, be it accidental or not. Can anything be done, and when?

"Well, it's right now. With this prison thing, you have a zealousness of some sort - it's worldwide at this moment. The whole world is feeling some unity right now. Americans have got egg on their face for the very thing they claim they went over there to prevent. We're really in the doghouse now."

The fact that Merle Haggard sees this and is willing to talk about it in a daily newspaper gives hope, mind you. And as long as there is music as good as his being played, like tonight, the world can only get so dark, no matter where we're heading.

[Gary Sisco]

I always did like old Merle. At least he's one American who knows and understands who's *really* "running down my country, man" -- unlike most. And I'm with Merle. Running down my country, man, you're walking on the fighting side of me.

Last two times I heard him play live, the first he refused to play "Muskogee" or "Fighting Side Of Me." The second, he played "Muskogee" but with such a huge tongue in his cheek that the whole room was cracking up, given that it's well known that Merle's a paid up member of the Viper Club.

Goes to show that people are their biography. We aren't the same people decades along the line, and you never know who anyone really is until the fat lady's sung and they're in the ground.

[Chris D]

Merle's a sage, all right.

Originally Posted by Claude, from Edmonton Sun article

"I was dumb as a rock when I wrote some of those things ["Okie from Muskogee" and "Fightin' Side of Me," etc.] wondering about which side to take," [Merle] Haggard told me in November 2001. But regardless of how he feels he's evolved since then, it is because of his patriotism that Haggard is riled today.

Good for him. The tide is turning.

Red emphasis is mine.

My, what a huggy feely kind of thread.

[Darryl G. Thomas]

Has Clear Channel "Dixie-Chicked" Merle yet?

[clinthopson]

Hot Damn!

[Chris D]

Originally Posted by Darryl G. Thomas

Has Clear Channel "Dixie-Chicked" Merle yet?

Modern "country radio" hasn't gone near the real thing for years.

[graypencil]

what Clint said ....


Now ..if ol' Merle can just beat some sense into GOP flagwaving shitkickers like Charlie Daniels, Lee Greenwood and the rest of DUBBya lovin' Nashville ..we might catch a break here !

[Sergio Zamora]

Btw, I haven't heard his latest recording, but the previous one called 'Roots, v1' is a thing of beauty. Definitely one of my favorites from the year it was released - any genre.