Nashville Bombing Resonates With Me For a City I Love!

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By Ron Signore

The places our minds run to is often more disturbing than the reality of many situations. When one must split hairs to what that reality is, it becomes more and more paralyzing mentally.

I have now lived in Columbus, OH for almost 2 years. I spent the previous 4 living in the Nashville, TN area, and working specifically out of an office in Nashville.

I have friends that were impacted by the tornado that touched down over East Nashville earlier this year. I have friends affected by some of the racial instability on both sides of the Blue Line down in Nashville. The city has been on growing tensions for some time, though the main cause of tension has come from it’s explosive growth. The city infrastructure struggles to handle the flood of new transplants to the area.

As we travel through Nashville, the iconic “Batman Building” overlooks the city, standing tall and proud like many Nashvillians. That building is the ATT building in downtown Nashville. As you get to street level of the ATT building at 333 N Commerce, you have plenty to do. You can go any direction and find food, music, and fun. It just so happens that if you went east a block to 2nd Ave and headed north Christmas morning, you would be in the path of a vehicle rigged to explode.

The blast had many waking up in the Nashville area Christmas morning in shock. The confusions with all unanswered questions in the immediate time, such as who and why? As time ticked forward, one thing went to my mind. This was a well-executed terrorist attack. There were reportedly human remains found near the explosion, but mass casualty was not the prime focus of this attack. It was Christmas morning. Not many people would be in the surrounding area of the blast. The restaurants operated primarily as late night establishments would ultimately be closed on Christmas day. But the perfection comes as the chaos ensued.

Many in the immediate area were left without cell or internet capability. 911 operations were damage in a zone that extends well north into Kentucky. Consumerism mentality was shattered by the lack of ability and availability of information in the near instant matter of which we are used to with access to the internet. Crimes could go unattended to by the lack of ability to have access to the 911- Emergency system. In the aftermath, despite knowing the identity of the person responsible, the damage was confined to the destruction caused by the blast. No widespread chaos or deeper plot to be determined at this point. Make no mistake, this was a terrorist act. The news has failed to acknowledge that in so many ways because they have not been associating the word terrorist to the identity of the man responsible for the blast. The perception can truly be argued that it is only an act of terrorism if the assailant is not white.

The other disappointing factor here is that the President has not come out and spoken on the events at all. One of your fastest growing cities in the country, in a state that he won during his losing efforts on November 3rd for re-election, and he shows no support to any of this. I would argue that we will eventually find out that the act was driven by a radical supporter of his. If that is the case, can we expect more random bombings or acts of violence with the motive being some sort of desired revolution in favor of Trump? I try not to dive too far into hypotheticals, but there are so many signs and threats of a revolution that his silence has me thinking the worst for our country.

I hate seeing a beautiful city like Nashville keep taking so many challenges in adversity, but like every other instance in that great city, they will come together and come out stronger. This is just another reason we as a country need to come together and unite and drive for prosperity.

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