Strip tragedy showcases the best in Las Vegas

In the settling dust of the country’s biggest gun-wielding massacre, a small but determined bud persistently opens in the place I’ve begun to call home. It blossoms with the fragrance of compassion and sacrifice. It opens with the offering of countless hands and hearts to anyone, absolutely anyone, who needed help in the midst of the worst imaginable, blood-shedding, panic-filled circumstances.

It opens further as Las Vegas residents, my neighbors, stand in line for six hours to donate blood to anyone who needs it; and again when hundreds of off-duty people, of so many service-minded professions, just show up because it’s what they do. They supplied water, food, shelter, prayer, medical care, counseling, transportation … whatever to whomever … without hesitation. And they did it because, in spite of what many people outside of here think, this beautiful city, my city, is also a community.

And now, through the pain and fear inflicted by a madman at a Sunday evening concert, the world has gotten a closer glance at this flower, steadily blooming in the middle of the desert.