The issue: Jubilee is coming to town.

Our position: This is a time for Selma to shine

Once again, this week the eyes of the world will be on us.

This week marks another anniversary of Jubilee, the celebration honoring those who fought for and gained voting rights.

We look forward to this event every year.

It’s time for folks in the city to clean up and put on their best manners.

This event attracts more than 50,000 people each year. Some of them will be coming to town for the first time. We all know the expression that first impressions are lasting ones.

We welcome our guests into town to remember a history that shook the world. We are proud of this city’s history and celebrate how far we have come.

At the same time, we appreciate the sacrifices made by those who went before us. We honor those who took the beatings that bloody Sunday on the Edmund Pettus Bridge. We thank those, many still living here in Selma, who picked up the pieces and forged forward to Montgomery, where the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. handed then-Gov. George Wallace a petition demanding voting rights in the state.

Thank God for those who went ahead.

The least we can do is shine.