When I first sat down to write this article, I was unsure of who to write about. At first I wanted to write about Eward R. Murrow - go watch "Good Night and Good Luck" if you don't understand why - but somehow I wasn't sure he had made an important enough impact on me.

I really don't idolize anyone, there are people I admire for specific reasons, but the word "idol" would imply that I cannot see their flaws - and I definitely can. So I started thinking: besides the obvious people (parents, teachers, classmates, co-workers), who do I admire, who has inspired me?

Almost a year ago, I was sitting at my computer (as usual) engaged in a forum debate that I had been in for several weeks. This debate had been started because of a few simple words, spoken by the lead of a band:

"Just so you know, we're ashamed the President of the United States is from Texas."

The Dixie Chicks. Their impact on me has definitely been a strong one these past couple of years. I've been a fan of theirs my whole life, but even if I wasn't my reaction to that sentence would be the same.

If they had never said that, then I would not have been in a debate about free speach a year ago. I would not have been blasting "Not Ready to Make Nice" through my computer's speakers while furiously typing that people could say whatever they wanted about whomever they wanted, and I would never have gotten the idea to make a magazine that accepts any and all opinions as long as they're well developed.

Whether I agree with the Chicks or not is irrelevant. The fact that I am a fan of theirs is equally irrelevant. What I admire, what made me care about them as people as much as I care about their music, is their courage. Standing up and saying what they did, sure, it was to get someone riled up, to get a reaction - but to keep at it? They definitely didn't expect to get such a reaction, and to stand up and flatly refuse to apologize no matter what came their way definitely takes guts.

They, like everyone else, have a right to their opinion. What might have started as a simple comment, maybe meant to get them in the papers for the next couple of days, turned into an all-out campaign for free-speach. One that they would not back out of, because they knew they were right - whatever people thought of their opinion of the President, everyone should be able to say what they want without fear.

For those of you who don't know, the Chicks just won five well-deserved Grammy Awards. In one of the acceptance speaches, Natalie, their lead singer, said:

"I'm ready to make nice... I think people are using their freedom of speech here tonight with all of these awards. We get the message. There's a lot of awesome music this year and some fantastic performances. I'm very humbled and I think people were using their voices the same way this loudmouth did"

So maybe that's the end of it. They've been through enough.

I admire anyone who stands up for what they believe in - whatever it is - and if those amazing women had never challenged free speach, I would never have gotten riled up about it; I would never have spent weeks debating people, e-mailing newspaper writers with rebutals, writing editorials; and, most importantly to me, I probably would not be sitting here writing an article for a magazine that I started to piece together that month.