Sticking with the Chicks.

I was very happy when my new Advocate arrived with an interview with the Dixie Chicks [Big Gay Following, June 20]. Unlike many of their fans, I was glad when they denounced Bush a few years back. I think it was deplorable for the right-wing media to call Natalie Maines unpatriotic. This country was founded on the principle that it is perfectly legal to criticize anything or anyone we wish to. Criticizing the president is one of the exact freedoms that our Constitution's First Amendment was meant to protect. It is another example of how cowed the populace currently is under President Bush's regime, and it seems to me that exercising one's freedom to criticize him is about as patriotic as it gets. The Chicks are fantastic musicians, and it is because of their music that they are one of the most successful country music acts in history. I am sorry so many of their original fans turned their backs on them just because they dared to voice an opinion.

Lastly, I grew up in Maine, where the Bush family spends a great deal of their time. And I am ashamed too--ashamed that President Bush ever set foot (or crashed his car into a hedge, for that matter) in the great state of Maine.

SEAN P. DRUMM Atlanta, Ga,