Music is powerful.

It crosses between cultures, languages and values. It connects people.

It has the power to create lasting, powerful memories. It can inspire people to act.

The simple beat of a drum or riff of a guitar can be heard the same way all across the world.

Music is a universal language.

When thousands of people come together in a common place, the feeling can be electrifying. At a concert, thousands of people, each of them from different backgrounds, each of them with different values, religions or beliefs, gather in one common place. For a couple of hours, none of the differences matter. What matters is the love of music.

Sunday night, when about 22,000 people people gathered at the Route 91 Harvest Festival in Las Vegas, Nevada, that same electrifying feeling was forcefully stripped from them. Instead of dancing, people dodged flying bullets. Instead of singing, people shrieked in horror. Country music superstars darted from the stage.

A 64-year-old rained gunshots from a hotel room building nearby, killing 58 people and injuring more than 500, as of Monday evening. Those numbers may rise.

What started out as thousands joining together to celebrate country music, turned into the deadliest shooting in modern American history.

Those songs will never be the same. Those fans and artists will never be the same.
The day will forever be stamped as a day filled with pure evil, pure horror and pure hatred.

It’s a sickening act of terror. It’s a moment where words feel inadequate. It’s sickening to think that a place and a time once meant for happiness, smiles and love was transformed into a place of horror in the blink of an eye.

Back home in Beaufort County, music and festivals can bear that same, electrifying feeling. Hundreds of people gather on the Washington waterfront for the Summer Festival or for fireworks and music on the Fourth of July. Residents gather at the Turnage Theatre or Backwater Jack’s for live performances. Bands and artists play at Festival Park to a crowd of locals. Music speaks to them, too, much in the way it did to those who gathered in Las Vegas.

Don’t take those moments for granted. Tell someone you love them today, and keep Sunday’s victims in your thoughts and prayers.