I'm through with the whole Don Imus controversy in terms of this blog lest something new happens; however, I watched a documentary tonight about something at least akin to the situation.

Akin but different.

Barbara Kopple and Cecilia Peck directed Shut Up And Sing, a film documenting the controversy in 2003 surrounding the Dixie Chicks, comments lead singer Natalie Maines made at a London concert and the aftermath.

For those who are new to planet Earth, Texas-native Maines said she was ashamed that the President of the United States was from Texas at this British gig. The crowd chuckled, but then a blog of sorts -- FreeRepublic.com -- took a quote from The Guardian and turned it into a national controversy.

They got middle America incensed to the point that country radio had little choice but to abandon the group. I say they had little choice only because radio is solely a business; there is no expectation on my part that the public airwaves would be willing to stand on principle about anything.

I'm a dreamer, but I'm a realist.

However, this controversy turned nasty as these country music fans decided to destroy the band's CDs in public, protest their concerts, spout all sorts of vitriol against the trio and even threaten their lives.

Did I mention that this is a documentary, not some piece of Orwellian fiction?

Anybody who's known me for very long has heard me tell the story of meeting the Chicks in Plano at Jack Astor's. On a dare from a buddy and the courage several beers provide, I went up to three cute blondes in hopes of luring them into my spiderweb.

Long story short -- although I'm glad to tell the story to anybody who ever wants to hear it -- I was kind of an embarrassment. Hell, they weren't famous or anything, and I likely would have never known who they were except that Natalie tossed out the whole "Do you know who we are?" routine.

At the time, I thought it was cool to meet a rising star who happened to be very cute. Truth is, all three Chicks are lookers. However, in a surreal turn of events over the course of the next decade, the band became one of if not the biggest female act in the history of American music, and Natalie became, literally, one of my cultural heroes.

The film did a great job of documenting the event in terms of its place in pop culture history, but I would have liked to have seen a bit more of the affect it had on their families. I find it hard to believe that Charlie Robison -- who is a tremendous artist and songwriter in his own right -- and Adrian Pasdar, not to leave out the less famous Gareth McGuire, didn't have an opinion in the matter.

Robison is as country as it gets. Texas Country. My thought is that if country music fans and radio boycotted the Dixie Chicks, why didn't they boycott him? Well, to me, it shows the transparency of the anger displayed by the average yokel.

I don't want to bash Chicks haters too much because one of my best friends is among them. Now that he's married to a strong liberal woman, I hope his opinion has changed; however, he's living proof that not everybody who decided to destroy their CDs was a raving, redneck idiot.

Most are, though, and the triumph of the film, to me, was in bringing more life to their 2006 CD, "Taking The Long Way," which was one of the best CDs of the year, even though I was more partial to their more rootsy "Home."

I will freely admit that I own every Chicks CD, and my fandom became stronger because of the incident. They're brilliant musicians, brilliant writers and terrific citizens. The movie brought those points home awesomely.

Frankly, I think the movie is a must, must watch. I don't need to explain the difference between the Chicks' controversy and the Imus imbroglio, at least I hope I don't. However, they are quite similar in terms of what an organized group of extremists can do not necessarily to silence their targets but to damage them financially -- it's eco-social terrorism.