I am thankful that Harvey Mason Jr.
reminded an audience of music makers and their fellows that the Oct. 7, 2023
Hamas attack in Israel brutalized a music festival.
The festival wasn't the only target
of attack, and the points I'm trying to make are tangential to the awful
trajectory of violence. However, let those who have expertise on the politics
and the history of this conflict, which sometimes seems eternal (it's been
going on all 71 of my years), to debate those larger issues, including whether
rape and killing of civilians can be justified as tactics of warfare.
I simply hate the violence and want
to talk about the part that I can talk about, the part that's pretty much been
ignored and not mentioned enough. The part that Mason, who is the Grammys' CEO,
talked about during his speech on the televised primetime Grammy Awards show
this past Sunday evening (Feb. 4).
Mason reminded his audience that
music events have been attacked by both organized and lone-wolf
terrorists.
"Music must always be our safe
space - when that is violated, it strikes at the very core of who we are,"
he said. "We felt that at the Bataclan concert hall in Paris. We felt that
at the Manchester Arena in England. We felt that at the Route 91 Harvest Music
Festival in Las Vegas. And on Oct. 7, we felt that again when we heard the
tragic news from the Supernova Music Festival for Love, that over 360 music
fans lost their lives, and another 40 were kidnapped."
Music is a visceral thing that
appears to have been a community builder since humans first gathered food, and
Mason said as much: "Let us all agree that music must remain the common
ground upon which we all stand together in peace and harmony. Because music has
always been one of humanity's great connectors. Think about it: Every song that
we're honoring or hearing tonight moved someone, no matter where they were from
or what they believed. It connected them to others who were moved in the same
way."
Zealots don't care. The cause is
secondary to the havoc they can wreak. They hate music and music fans (not to
mention art and the other humanities) and love to kill and maim them, because,
well, "Why should anyone have fun if others are suffering? How can you be
blind to our cause? You are the enemy because your decadence is complicit in this oppression?"
I have an imperfect answer in the
face of atrocities and war crimes. Remember those videos of people from all
over the world, of any color, of any religion, all going nuts as they danced
and sang Pharell Williams' "Happy"? If that can happen, then maybe
rather than kill one another, we should appeal to what Abraham Lincoln called
"the better angels of our nature." I think we ought to recognize that
this planet is one boat with all of us passengers. We either get along or the
whole vessel tilts over and we drown. What will drown us?
Hatred.
Lack of reason.
Music and art murdered equals
humanity debased.
