A.G. Gancarski
Jacksonville, this summer, is Bishop John Guns’ town. We just happen to live here.
Those who were following the Lenny Curry Transition Committees are aware, of course, that Guns was on the Prevention, Intervention, and At Risk Youth committee.
However, most became aware of how central Guns could be to the Curry administration when he spoke at the joint inauguration of Curry and Sheriff Mike Williams, explaining what “One City, One Jacksonville” means to him.
The slogan to him: a “mantra of this collective,” designed to give pause to the corrosive rhetoric of “the cynic … the skeptic … the pessimist” who would stand athwart the mandate for change.
Guns spoke of bridges, building the motif toward a triumphant call to the audience. Let’s Ride!
Curry echoed the same call in his speech, and since. It’s one hell of a slogan. They’ve ripped off the stale Band-Aid of The Next Level, which became a punchline before it became box-office poison. Let’s ride! has yoked Jacksonville to its destiny.
And about those bridges. Interesting to recall the gnashing of teeth over what bridge exactly was in the Curry campaign logo. The haters wanted the literal answer. Apparently, they’d never heard of metaphor.
The bridge, obviously, has always been about spanning the gulf between the two Jacksonvilles: the part that shares in the general prosperity, and the part that gets left behind no matter how much other parts of the city might boom.
To that end, Bishop Guns has been indispensable. During this past weekend, Guns was by Curry’s side on a couple of important occasions.
On Saturday, the Bishop joined Curry and Williams during a crime prevention walk at Eureka Gardens. The walk got massive media coverage: Every mainstream media outlet in Jacksonville was there, and The Florida Times-Union even has a Spotted! gallery of pictures for sale from the event.
The day before that, Guns hosted what he called a “historic meeting between with the Mayor Lenny Curry and the Sheriff Mike Williams where 7 African-American young men had an open dialogue about their experiences in Jacksonville.”
Guns, in that Facebook post, thanked John Allen Newman, another pastor.
The significance of all of this? Curry and Williams are building relationships that are essential for their success in office. The African-American pastors, by and large, supported Alvin Brown during the last election. Newman was pretty out front for the former mayor. Guns introduced Brown at an event in May as “the face to young black men,” saying he was “proud of him and grateful to him for breaking the mold” and not for being part of history, but part of the present.
Four years ago, there were lots of expectations levied on Brown, and many of those expectations weren’t sufficiently fulfilled. Curry and Williams made the decision, months ago, to co-brand as agents of change. Weekends like this past one are a good start. Now comes the interesting part: the follow-through.
There will, of course, be opportunities to talk about issues such as gun violence on Jacksonville’s airwaves, including an expected appearance on WJCT’s First Coast Forum in August. However, the real issues in and around communities like Eureka Gardens come back to sustainable economies, jobs, education, and quality of life markers. For Curry to be truly a transformational mayor, a lot will ride on his administration’s ability to affect meaningful change in Eureka, Cleveland Arms, Washington Heights, and other complexes where living conditions are perpetually under question.
The mayor has mentioned how important Bishop Guns will be for outreach and real connection to Northwest Jacksonville. Mayor Curry will never, in all likelihood, deliver the kind of orations that led Guns and others to quip that former Mayor Brown was a “bootleg preacher.” However, like his predecessor, Curry understands the unique moral authority, presence, and knowledge that Guns offers.
