It has been a tumultuous three weeks for the proud city of Las Vegas, to put it lightly. Unless you were living under a rock, you heard and likely mourned the lives lost during the mass shooting that recently happened on the Vegas strip. Imagining and hearing about the events in itself is something that can make somebody shudder and think about the frailty of life, and in today's age, you can literally relive the scenes:
The shooting on the Vegas strip is a perfect encapsulation of a lot of the things wrong with the world today. There's been articles about the repercussions within the community, and of course, those lives that were lost, but as one would expect nowadays, we've seen the media take this event and steer it in any given way to help their particular agenda. Whether you want to believe it or not, both sides are annoying in this regard. Whether it be one side insisting that this event is in no way due to people's gun rights, it is equally annoying to read all the people who are insisting that the shooter, Stephen Paddock, isn't being treated quite as badly because he is white (even if I agree to a certain extent). Per usual nowadays, the media coverage on this, while not necessarily wrong in their viewpoints, has just been as biased as it is exhausting.
Here's what the story should be: a man plotted a terrible attack on innocent civilians. He did so by targeting civilians, police officers, and other rescuers, before killing himself in an act that shows that he clearly wasn't well, not to defend his irreproachable actions in any way. These are events that are always going to be tough to prevent, and while regulating gun control would help and could have prevented this situation, anybody who pretends that will literally solve everything is kidding themselves. We're in an interesting time here in America, where simultaneously we are more willing than ever to talk about social issues than any other time recently, but also are about as sensitive and easily triggered as I can ever remember. It's led to a lot of discussions, but also a lot of tension and in some cases violence, and has done a significant amount to divide this great country.
It's in times like this that make what happened October 10th in Las Vegas beautiful:
The NHL decided a couple years back they would expand to Las Vegas, in a move that admittedly I thought was pretty dumb at the time. Growing up in a warm-weather city with no real history of hockey in San Antonio, and seeing franchises like the Arizona Coyotes and Florida Panthers struggle, losing millions upon millions of dollars and never getting a foothold in their respective reasons, I thought it was a bad idea. It's been one game, but I'm willing to admit that at least so far, I've been dead wrong. Their stadium, located right on the Vegas strip, is apparently lovely, their fan base is significant and has an impact on the game (they won that game 5-2). Most importantly though, they avoided the mistake of thinking that hockey in itself is enough to get the fans in the building (it isn't). They did a fabulous job of bringing people together, which is something that we need more of in today's society. People could look at this (I know I did) and think "you know what, that's pretty cool."
Anyways, it isn't something that is going to be talked about on CNN and Fox News, but I thought they deserved some praise. Good on you, Vegas.
