Dear Jackson,
I want to write this letter to you, to first, introduce myself and then to share my heart with you. My name is Glake Hill Jr., and I am the presiding Bishop of the Church of Christ Holiness USA, a denomination founded in Jackson 126 years ago. We have been members of Jackson through good and bad, enduring in our city’s successes and struggles. We are excited to be a part of this city. It is our home, our birthplace. Each one of you are our brothers and sisters and we are excited about you. We love our capital city, so our heart breaks as we see its struggle. We are disappointed when circumstances cause pain across the city. We mourn at the bad news, cheer for the good news, and pray for the well-being of our home.
Perhaps the greatest strength of our city is in our diversity. You all come from a variety of backgrounds. Your personal experiences are different and vary from others that are reading this article. There is diversity in our ideology and politics; in our culture, race and gender; in our hobbies, our vocations and goals. There’s diversity in our religion, mindsets, and our habits. Jackson, this wonderful city, is the home to this vast diversity.
It is this tapestry of people that makes me so excited and hopeful for the future of our city. The beauty of our diversity gives power to what the city faces. It is the collective will of diverse voices determined to live this city aloud that makes Jackson special—That is our Jackson.
“The beauty of our diversity gives power to what the city faces,” Bishop Glake Hill Jr. writes. “It is the collective will of diverse voices determined to live this city aloud that makes Jackson special—That is our Jackson.” Photo courtesy Visit Jackson
Unfortunately, there are also those that are determined to limit that collective. They would rather you and I remain silent about our future and want you to belittle our city. There are those who want to point out Jackson’s failures and disappointments
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