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Opinion
The Country Music Capital After Las Vegas

The world down here in Nashville was quieter than usual last Monday.

If you had forgotten to check your Twitter timeline, or plugged in your aux cord blasting the new Cardi B song before you got to listen to the radio, you wouldn't have known why it was so quiet.

But the quiet was noticeable.

It was about country music, we were in music city, and we were all affected.

The world is different now. In the days of Columbine and Virginia Tech you wouldn't know what happened until the police — and the media — had all the pieces of the puzzle.

These days you can see it all as it happens and you can piece it together for yourself. This causes the one thing these murderous people want: mass panic.

"Was he attacking the music or the people?" Either way, down here in Nashville, you fear going to the next concert. "I thought it was going to happen during Country Music Fest, I would have bet on it," said many.

But it didn't. Why? Why was I, a regular concert-goer who has seen more concerts in her life, than mass shootings this year (521), not there? Why am I still walking around? What is the reason that I was able to enjoy the Lady A world tour in downtown Nashville not a month ago while another 28-year-old music fan seeing Jason Aldean in Vegas on Sunday didn't get to go home?

"Glad no one you know was hurt..." said my mother, "...so glad you weren't in Vegas."

But part of me was there in Vegas. All music fans were there. This was an attack on music, on music fans, and a part of us all died with those 59 people. The question is, where do we go from here?

Fear is the easy route that causes these attacks. Fear of being different, fear of looking different, fear of someone believing something different.

Regardless of whether the attackers are teenage boys seeking revenge for being bullied, an international student feeling alone, or a religious man trying to hide his true self, the question is the same: if we as humans had been kinder, had smiled, had shown an ounce of compassion for these people, for their uniqueness, would these terrorist attacks have happened? (And, pay no attention to the politicians, these are indeed terrorist attacks.)

After September 11, I went to New York City. I was young and afraid and confused. But I went back. I didn't hide. After Columbine I kept going to school. After Pulse I kept going to clubs with my friends.

Monday night Nashville had a vigil for the fans who were lost in Las Vegas, for the crews out of Nashville that are safe but will never be the same. It wasn't a somber occasion, it was an uplifting concert in an open-air venue — almost an attack on the attacker.

People were scared to go, I'm sure, but they went to show their support and to make a display that anger is not an adequate response to fear and hate. You cannot fight hate with hate and Nashville knows that better than anywhere.

After this I will continue going to concerts but not because I want to ignore and forget. No, it'll be because I want to live. Freedom.

I want to live for those people who no longer can. I don't want their deaths to be in vain. They all died doing what they loved, being surrounded by love.

These terrorists crave attention, they want to cause mass panic, spread confusion and, most importantly, they need to spread hate. The thing that emerges in the days following a terrorist attack is the exact opposite of their wants and needs. Anger is always first to arise, but then the stories of love come out into the sunshine. The story of a stranger laying on top of the girl next to him to protect her from being shot, the stories of a West Tennessee man dying protecting his wife.

Fear, hate and anger are easy routes to take.

Las Vegas took the high road, took a route with love and support. Nashville took the high road, took the route of acceptance, understanding and peace. What road will you take?

Sami Bicknell, from New Paltz, and a 2007 graduate of the Oakwood Friends School in Poughkeepsie, is studying Music Business at Middle Tennessee State University in Murfreesboro, Tennessee.



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