I’m certainly no psychiatrist or psychotherapist nor do I try to be. I have pretty good grasp of music and I know music from my teen years in the 1960s. Thus the reason for this post!
Here in Nashville, Christmas morning at 6:30AM, a bomb wreaked heavy structural damage to a popular segment of our downtown entertainment/business scene. Folks frequent 2nd Avenue for food and fun. Neon lights are in full glow. Activity on a normal night continues into the early morning hours during pre-pandemic and non-holidays. People from this Middle Tennessee area and tourists by the thousands can be found along Broadway and 2nd Avenue. But on this holiday morning, the area was much quieter than normal – one could say “eerily quiet!”
However, on this Christmas morning based on current news reports and statements, there was one man on a pre-planned mission. Thirty-days prior to this day, he quit-claimed the deed to his home to someone in California who didn’t know he had done it. He had given his car away to a former girlfriend and contacted employers to tell them he was retiring. At 1:22AM Christmas morning, he drove his older model recreation vehicle to 166 – 2nd Avenue North and parked it on the curb in front of the AT&T switching building. Although the motive isn’t known as of this writing, his message, in my view was loud and clear.
It appears that this very reclusive man had 3 things on his mind: protect lives, destroy property and kill himself!
The parked RV was playing a pre-recorded announcement on installed speakers for passersby or nearby residents to hear. “If you can hear this message, evacuate now!” As an interlude in that message, the ’65 classic by Petula Clark was also played:
When you’re alone and life is making you lonely
You can always go downtown,
When you’ve got worries, all the noise and the hurry
Seems to help, I know, downtown
Just listen to the music of the traffic in the city
Linger on the sidewalk where the neon signs are pretty
How can you lose?
The lights are much brighter there
You can forget all your troubles, forget all your cares
So go downtown
Things will be great when you’re downtown
No finer place for sure, downtown
Everything’s waiting for you
[Verse 2]
Don’t hang around and let your problems surround you
There are movie shows downtown
Maybe you know some little places to go to
Where they never close downtown
Just listen to the rhythm of a gentle bossa nova
You’ll be dancing with ’em too before the night is over
Happy again
The lights are much brighter there
You can forget all your troubles, forget all your cares
So go downtown
Where all the lights are bright, downtown
Waiting for you tonight, downtown
You’re gonna be alright now, downtown
And you may find somebody kind to help and understand you
Someone who is just like you and needs a gentle hand to
Guide them along
So maybe I’ll see you there
We can forget all our troubles, forget all our cares
[Chorus]
So go downtown
Things will be great when you’re downtown
Don’t wait a minute more, downtown
Everything is waiting for you, downtown
Writer/s: Tony Hatch
Publisher: Universal Music Publishing Group
I have been surprised that with the overload of world-wide media coverage for this event, there wasn’t more attention paid to these words! “You can forget all your troubles, forget all of your cares, and go DOWNTOWN!” Anthony Quinn Warner did just that. He was never able to solve his “troubles or cares” living. So he destroyed property and himself as his solution.
There are so many in miserable places these days and unfortunately, some, like Mr. Warner, act on their misery. I’m saddened by this knowing from accounts I have read and heard that neighbors and friends tried to help and pull him in. Even a neighbor prepared Christmas dinner for him, went next door on Christmas night to deliver the meal to his home. No one was there! Mr. Warner was already gone with a trail of destruction that will haunt Nashville for years.
“And you may find somebody kind to help and understand you,
Someone who is just like you and needs a gentle hand to
guide them along… So go Downtown!”
If you or someone you know might be in a similar place as Mr. Warner was, HELP IS AVAILABLE! Speak with a counselor today by calling the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline – 800.273.8255
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