Reply #68: That is not true [View All]

[Nicole]

The Red Cross refused the $1 Million in 2003, which was before Katrina.

But what bothers Ms. Maines the most, she says, is that the American Red Cross refused a $1 million donation from the Dixie Chicks in 2003.

"It has nothing to do with being taken off of the radio," says Ms. Maines, 31, by phone from New York. "It has to do with the absurdity of death threats and the absurdity of being so awful that people won't even touch you. That the Red Cross won't take a million-dollar check from you. How can the Red Cross turn away a million dollars for charity?"

But it's not as simple as that, responds national Red Cross spokesperson Julie Thurmond Whitmer in a prepared statement.

The band would have made the donation "only if the American Red Cross would embrace the band's summer tour," writes Ms. Whitmer, referring to the group's 2003 U.S. tour after the London incident.

"The Dixie Chicks controversy made it impossible for the American Red Cross to associate itself with the band because such association would have violated two of the founding principles of the organization: impartiality and neutrality...

"Should the Dixie Chicks like to make an unconditional financial donation to the American Red Cross, we will gladly accept it."

http://www.nwcn.com/sharedcontent/features/country2/052806ccdrMUSICnatalie.3a3fb996.html

While I do think all donations should be accepted, I can't fault the Red Cross for standing by their founding principles of impartiality and neutrality. Maybe that should be changed but until it is I can't argue with it, as long as it's applied universally.