It made me extremely sad to awaken to the news of a bombing in Nashville on Christmas morning of all days. Then I got angry.

In years past, my first impulse would be to immediately look towards the Islamic communities on the area, but not so much anymore, as our homegrown communists are coming of age and unleashing the whims created through their unhinged, delusional thought processes. Today, until more information is forthcoming, it’s anybody’s guess as to what was actually behind this mess.

“Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men” wasn’t to be allowed in Nashville, Tennessee, for reasons yet to be explained, and Nashville left 2020 behind with a bang, as a bomb in an RV at 166 2nd Avenue North, and near Commerce St, exploded at 6:30 a.m. this Christmas morning.

What does this say for the future of America, when we see such vile, destructive evil acts unfolding in a part of the country one would never expect to see them? This used to be something one would expect to be more connected to some place like Beirut, Kabul or Mosul.

News Channel 5 Nashville has reported that authorities are taking any information on the bombing at the Crime Stoppers phone number at 615-742-7463 and online at the FBI link.

Reported by Channel 5, the RV arrived on Second Ave at 1:22 a.m., as revealed from downtown surveillance cameras.

At approximately 5:30 a.m., Kim Madlom and her “wife” were awakened by the sound of gunfire near their Second Ave apartment, which is just across from where the RV was parked, and she called 911. She saw the RV from her window, when she looked to see what the trouble might be, and as she told the Washington Post, shortly afterwards, the taped warning blared out the words, “this vehicle has a bomb, [and] if you can hear this message, you need to evacuate.”

Fox News 17 noted on the evening of December 26th that the gunshots were also part of the warning tape that played on Christmas morning.

According to several witnesses, this warning played for approximately thirty minutes before it went into a countdown mode with fifteen minutes to evacuate the area. Although this is still a vile evil act, in and of itself, this warning probably did prevent the deaths of countless people in the area, as Nashville Metro Police Sergeant Timothy Miller and Officers Brenna Hosey, James Luellan, Michael Sipos and Amanda Topping honored the motto “To Serve and Protect” and rushed towards the danger and immediately began going door to door and clearing the area of people; they persevered to the point that one officer was actually close enough to the blast that he was blown off his feet.

Three of these first responders suffered non-critical injuries, from the blast, and they were all im stable condition, at this writing. One officer was left deaf from the blast, but the Metro Police Department is hoping the loss of hearing is temporary, and I’m sure that all of Nashville and Tennessee, perhaps most of America, is hoping and praying the same, as we all offer them our best wishes for speedy and full recoveries.

Betsy Williams and her family left, after hearing the RV’s broadcast warning state that eight minutes remained before detonation. They drove across the Cumberland River to the NFL stadium and safety, heading back after waiting several minutes and just in time to see the explosion, as they drove back up 2nd Ave.

Quoted from CNN, Williams said: “The fireball went all the way up past the AT&T, above the AT&T building. Everything just, I mean, everything shook. It was quite the blast.”

My first born daughter was on her way to meet me in Murfreesboro, TN, as she tried to get from the north side of Nashville to I-24 East, unaware that a bomb had just detonated 30 minutes earlier. She soon encountered roadblocks, and when she called me to explain, phone service kept dropping, due to what we now know was the damage to the AT&T transmission building that was caused by the bomb’s blast, a blast so powerful that it destroyed most of a city block and forty-one businesses and created so severe a communications problem from as far away as Kentucky that the Federal Aviation Administration temporarily halted flights from Nashville International Airport.

Needless to say, it was quite surreal to go to sleep on Christmas Eve thinking one may awaken to a joyful, wonderful day to find such a miserable, hate-filled scenario greeting Us instead, not knowing how much more serious or dangerous a situation might be developing.

Even more surreal, at 2:30 p.m. today [December 26th 2020], I watched the news intently, as the FBI, TBI and ATF agents raided the home of Anthony Quinn Warner, age 63, at 3724 Bakertown Rd, in Antioch, TN, my old running grounds as a young man, from Blue Hole Rd to Haywood LN and on to Harding Place. I know the area all too well, since I worked for the LaVergne-Antioch Fire Department for eight years, and what time I wasn’t working hard to extinguish a fire somewhere, I was playing hard out with friends across the community.

Although authorities suspect that Warner is responsible for the bombing and may have committed suicide by remaining in the RV, they’ve asserted that, for now, they will continue to follow leads. Over 250 FBI agents are involved in this case, not to mention an untold number of ATF and TBI agents too. And, FBI Special Agent in Charge Doug Korneski recently declared:

“Our investigative team is turning over every stone to make sure we know as many details as possible to answer the question of who is responsible for this, and also to understand, why did they do this?”

Forgive me, if you will, as I say that Korneski’s assurances are cold comfort given what the FBI has become of late. They’re to be taken with a grain of salt at best.

Nashville Metro Police officials have reported the finding of some sort of tissue at the bomb site, yet to be confirmed as a human victim, or not, according to Chief John Drake. The Associated Press is calling the remains human, but the AP has yet to make a connection between the tissue and the explosion.

How things change. It’s hard to imagine that such evil could emanate from what was once before an extremely close-knit God-fearing community. But times change, and for a litany of economic reasons and immigration and shifting cultural geographical demographics, the area has grown massively, and not necessarily for the best over the past forty years.

Far from a fan of Mayor John Cooper, petty tyrant of Nashville, as I recall the horrific casualties of the Boston Bombing, I have to agree with him, when he said: “At the end of the day, I think all of us have gone from relief that there were not more casualties … to now anger and determination and resolve, and a resolve to rebuild and not be deterred, and to bring whoever is responsible for this to justice.”

As more information is forthcoming, hopefully a clearer picture will emerge, to reveal the motive behind this dastardly deed. At this point, we don’t know if it was an angry impoverished victim of Mayor Cooper’s tyrannical Covid shutdowns, an Antifa communist striking at Corporate America, some other radical, someone upset over the Democrats attempt to steal the election, or just some lost person devoid of all hope wanting to finally be seen even if it meant being seen in an infamous manner. But suffice it to say, if someone becomes miserable enough, either due to their own fevered delusions and flawed perceptions of reality and their own bad choices or real abuse by a person of power or some government agency, there will be blood.

All America awakened Christmas morning to the terrible news of one more instance of domestic terrorism, because no matter the perpetrator’s attempt to minimize or prevent innocent deaths through his “warning”, his intent was to terrorize someone, if not all America, and to send some sort of message, vague at the moment. As reprehensible and evil as many of us see this act of terrorism, I would suggest that Nashville, the victims of this blast and all displaced by it are, at this very minute, in the thoughts and prayers and the hearts of most Americans, who truly love this country and all the potential it still holds for continued greatness and the creation of so much good.

READ MORE: The bomb was not in the RV. The RV is a Red Herring. The bomb was a thermobaric bomb fired from a jet aircraft. The true target was the NSA’s sub station in the AT&T Building next to the RV. No live gun fire. It was a tape. Target “Redstone Arsenal” where we have over 1,000 loyal FBI Agents preparing for Civil War which should start after January 6th….

Let us all pray that this flaming burst of madness, closing out the year, isn’t a foreshadowing of 2021. I long for the truly normal times, when one’s worse worry on Christmas morning was not getting the puppy you had asked Santa to bring, or that you might really get a lump of coal — days when constant serial violence wasn’t “the norm” — wasn’t sanctioned by the nation’s leaders — and destroying neighborhoods, or livelihoods, was unthinkable.

“And it came to pass, as the angels were gone away from them into heaven, the shepherds said one to another, Let us now go even unto Bethlehem, and see this thing which is come to pass, which the Lord hath made known unto us.“ ~ Luke 2:15

December 27, 2020

~ The Author ~
Justin O. Smith has lived in Tennessee off and on most of his adult life, and graduated from Middle Tennessee State University in 1980, with a B.S. and a double major in International Relations and Cultural Geography – minors in Military Science and English, for what its worth. His real education started from that point on. Smith is a frequent contributor to the family of Kettle Moraine Publications.