Dear Jason:
Here is what I would like you to try in a small town.
Thoughts on how bettering the South could better the world.
(Very late to the party on this but have been struggling to articulate the correct message. So many disparate thoughts and a whole heck of a lot of emotions with this track and the backlash it has received.)
Hi Jason,
I’m a (regrettably) long-time listener first time “caller”–hard to escape your music down here– but as a woman born and raised in the South, grew up in Music City, and has deep ties to quite a few small, Southern towns—your recent “hit” struck a very emotional chord in me.
As you are the father of four, I like to think you would want to leave the South better than you found it– I know that is my number one goal as a Southern mother. I want to leave it safer, softer, and kinder than I found it. I want to take all the beautiful aspects of small-town Southern life and bring them with me wherever I go. I moved away and came back, and I’ve learned that the South isn’t just a place, it’s a feeling. It’s a feeling of warmth and hospitality. Plentiful drinks and colorful conversations. Late nights with friends filled with delicious food and stories that will make your stomach hurt from laughing. My husband and I learned that we could bring the South with us wherever we may be, because the South isn’t a location– it’s the people. The South was found at a crowded apartment filled with laughter and good food in Chicago, trudging across the snow with the perfect gift to a housewarming, or bringing a casserole to the front steps of a friend in need. I firmly believe that the South’s most valuable export it its people.
I proudly identified as a “Southern Belle” for most of my life—I know how to shoot a gun (and am a pretty good shot), and have gone muddin’, froggin’ and fishin’ with the best of them. I’m not afraid of a winding dirt road and rain on a tin roof makes me feel right at home. Wherever the tree frogs and the cicadas are—that’s my Song of the South. No matter how hot it gets and how many mosquitos are biting me, I am pleased as punch to call the South my home. I have ancestral ties to Confederate Army General Beauregard (don’t we all down here?) and *used to* proudly claim lineage to Daughters of the American Revolution. But here is where you and I differ: I know that my “lineage” comes at a price. I know what my ancestors did has ripple effects that are still felt to this day. And with this knowledge and lineage I have decided to use my privilege and the small amount of “power” I have as a white woman in the South to make it a better place. A welcoming place for ALL. A Kinder place for ALL. A safer place for ALL—not just the people who look like us.
So here is where your Small Town anthem hit me in the gut…
I find it alarming for you to be a spokesperson for small towns as you hail from Macon, GA (my grandmother’s hometown as well) and currently claim my hometown of Nashville—Populations of 153,159 and 692,501 respectively. A few small towns that you may have heard of in the news are Sandy Hook (pop. 9,406), Uvalde (15,312), Allen (106,874), and Highland Park (30,177) might feel a bit differently about unfettered access to firearms as their communities were ripped apart by gun violence. It’s easy to sing about things that you have no real lived experience of and have (luckily) never been fully impacted by.
Secondly, let’s make this abundantly clear: No one is coming for your guns. This deadly and divisive rhetoric must end. It is possible to be a gun owner and believe in gun reform. It is possible to believe that mental health is an issue in America and still support gun reform initiatives. It is possible to be a Republican and still support gun reform. It is possible to be a hunter and support gun reform.
What is being asked of lawmakers is to cease partnerships with the NRA and the gun industry and put the lives and safety of our children and citizens at the forefront of their decision making, rather than profits and power. We are asking that safe storage of firearms is as clearly and consistently communicated as seatbelts or drunk driving or smoking (which mind you, not that long ago, were also hot topics of debate). We are asking that firearms stay out of the hands of people who have a history of mental illness, abuse, incarceration, or violent pasts. We are asking that mass shootings (much like the one you were onstage for and the one that recently occurred in your current city of residence) not be the norm. We are asking that AR weapons not be easier to access than equitable healthcare.
It astounds and sickens me that in 2017 your concert was the scene of the deadliest mass shooting to date—in case you forgot, more than 1,000 bullets were fired in 11 minutes, 60 of your fans were murdered senselessly, more than 800 of your fans were injured, and the life of every single person who attended changed irreversibly that day—except, it appears, yours. I am glad, for the sake of your loved ones and out of human decency, that you and your wife were able to escape to the safety of your tour bus. But so many were not this lucky. The change of heart that you featured in your documentary,11 Minutes, has quickly worn off:
“I’m 40 years old but sometimes it takes us guys a while to grow up. Something like that happens and it sorta makes you look at a lot of things different and realize how short is and it kinda makes you get your act together a little bit. It did that for me.”
It seems that your heart changed long enough for you to profit off this tragedy, but not long enough for you to sit down with yourself, search your soul, and find a way to use your voice and status for the greater good. I wish I was shocked by this behavior, but given your past track record, I am not. However, I’m not your mother, so I’m not here to tell you I’m disappointed, but I am the mother to two precious girls, and for their sake I ask that you try to do some good in these small towns.
These good ol’ boys don’t need any more anthems; they need people like them to show them that there is a way to make the world a better place. Instead of capitalizing off your fan base, WHAT IF you reached back and helped them? Because people who truly hail from small towns, the ones who “get out”—know that helping their town helps the world. Continuing to spread disinformation, fear, hate, and bigotry fuels the white supremacist machine that writes your pay checks, but at what cost to your soul? At what cost to the world? You may think it’s “only a song”, but as an artist, you should know that your words and music have power.
So, I have a few ideas for how you can meaningfully help a small town:
-Invest in small, local businesses. This will help create jobs, stimulate the town’s economy, and thus provide more opportunities professionally and financially for the residents.
–Donate to local libraries. Some kids will never leave their small town. Make sure they can “escape the world” for a minute at their local library. (And yes, this would mean ensuring that the library is not banning books…)
–Donate to local schools to help offer counseling and mental health services for their students
–Donate to healthcare facilities. This could help provide telehealth, additional facilities, increased access to care, increased life expectancy, and overall quality of life.
- Small towns have a higher percentage of older adults who are more likely to have chronic health problems.
- Additionally, there is less access to healthcare—clinics and hospitals can be far away.
- Higher rates of substance use (nicotine, opioid, and methamphetamine abuse are rampant in rural communities)
- Higher rates of chronic health problems (high blood pressure and obesity)
- More exposure to environmental hazards (such as chemicals used for farming)
–Invest in creating training spaces for teachers, nurses, entrepreneurs, etc.
–Partner with (preferably local) developers/architechts/engineers/contractors and revitalize the small town’s downtown and/or infrastructure. This will drive tourism, create jobs, and boost the town’s economy. But please do not hike housing costs so high that the citizens of the town can no longer afford to find housing there.
–Invest in the arts. Local theater, art galleries, dance, music…these are vital to human existence. Many citizens may not be able to make it into town or even afford a ticket to a big performance. Help the art come to them. Let them experience all aspects of the human experience in their small town.
–Invest in green spaces and well-maintained parks, trails, and roadways. Everyone should be able to enjoy the beauty of their own towns. Help ensure that walkability and biking are accessible.
–Help combat food scarcity. As delicious as your E3 restaurant is (I’m sure)—put some of that capital into food pantries or bringing farmer’s markets to rural areas. Food scarcity also is a huge component in community violence, so you could be changing the community in a truly impactful way.
–Donate to organizations that are trying to close the gap of rural youth and access to sexual and reproductive health education and care. School-Based health centers (SBHC) were created in the 1970s, but only 28% of SBHCs are located in rural areas.
- This means that STI and pregnancy testing, HPV vaccinations, contraceptive and abstinence counseling, dispensing contraceptive methods and more are denied to many rural youth.
- Help ensure that comprehensive sex education is taught in schools—these programs are proven to delay the age of intercourse, increase condom/contraceptive use, and reduce the number of sexual partners
- These programs also helped decrease dating/partner violence, helped prevent child sex abuse, improves social/emotional learning, and increased media literacy.
- With accessibility to equitable healthcare rocky at best in the US, these measures could literally save lives
-Safety. Donate to Gun Violence Prevention organizations—this should be a cause very near and dear to your heart.
So as a fellow Southerner, I am begging you to try just one of these in a small town.