OldSouth had nooooo ideeear just how cool this here bloggin' thang can be, ya'll.
A few days ago, he spotted a (then) obscure blog entry by a hockey fan, and passed it along. No biggy, jes' sharin' what we bin readin' round heah'.
Entitled 'We Are Nashville', this thing took off like a bottle rocket. It was posted on the hockey team's website, as the musings of one writer on what he was observing. OS had no clue that he had stumbled into something that was mushrooming.
It turned viral, because it rang the bells of people around the world. It told the story of the citizens of a city and state that had been clobbered, and didn't fall apart, and didn't wait for someone else to come rescue them.
Since then, a website has been put up, with the gratis downloadable graphic to share, in the famous style of the local silk-screen concert posters for which Nashville is famous.
A tee-shirt in the same style is selling quickly, with profits headed to The Community Foundation of Middle Tennessee. OS has had dealings with Community Foundation, and they are a totally class act.
The We Are Nashville Facebook page is here.
Ya'll get the picture. You can toss your shekels here with confidence, and you'll even get to wear the tee-shirt back home in Sheffield.
There is a looong way to go before things get back to where they need to be. Houses and businesses and lives to be rebuilt a day at a time. And along the way, the Symphony has to replace the console and mechanical heart of its organ, amongst other things. The list just goes on and on.
But, it will get done. This is a 'Git-'Er-Done' place, full of those kind of people. If you're reading from overseas, OS hopes you get this view of Heartland America in your heart and mind, 'cuz this is who we are. And it's not just Nashville, Tennessee where this happens, although it has happened here with afterburners lit.
Those folks in Yew Nork and the Left Coast spend their days trying to sell the world the idea (in their TV shows, movies, news outlets and advertising) that we're just ignorant, helpless rednecks and hicks, incapable of original thought and ambition. That we just can't survive without them.
It is OldSouth's fond hope, that as the stories of The Great Middle Tennessee Flood, and The Great Middle Tennessee Recovery are documented by so many people, a new narrative can emerge for the United States. That the contrast between the industry, energy and generosity of the Nashvillians and the stupidity, laziness and raw greed of those who manipulate markets, constitutions, governments and cultures for their own ends will become unbearable to view without an active ethical response.
Americans, as OS constantly points out to his colleagues, don't respond to lists of facts, and agendas imposed from above. They respond to narrative, as free people.
This happened. We did that. We stopped doing that other thing. We built this with our own hands, and we helped one another rebuild this place we love. Thousands upon thousands of stories.
These great things happened, because we worked together.
Narrative.
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