I want to take a moment to tell you a little about who I am, because to understand why I care so deeply about this town, you first have to understand where that passion comes from.
I’m Jason.
I'm originally from Dallas, Texas. My grandparents, John and Tucky Zima, called Harrison, Arkansas home for almost 40 years.
My grandfather worked for Steve Turner running White Oak Station for over 25 years and my grandmother spent her free time volunteering at the hospital in the gift shop. They loved this town and they loved the people in it. This love was evident, and also why it transferred so easily to me.
Every single summer of my life was spent right here in Harrison, Arkansas.
At the end of every school year I knew where I was headed and I couldn’t wait to get there. I’d be here all summer long. Every summer, of every year. I’d beg to come up on weekends, spring break, and any other opportunity I could come up with.
My mother spent multiple years living here to take care of my grandmother while she was on her deathbed. During that time I would come and stay often, usually months at a time. The small town feel and familiar faces of Harrison was comforting even in tough times.
And so when the opportunity to buy my grandparents home finally came up in January, I didn’t waste a single second and I’ve been here ever since. It’s the place I want to be most.
Even at a young age I realized how special this town was. As Dallas radically changed, Harrison pretty much stayed the same and that was my favorite thing about it.
Each time I got to visit and spend time with friends that I have here I would tell them about how much I loved this place, and they didn't understand it. They would say things like, "What's special about here? You have everything you could ever need in Dallas." And when I was younger, I didn't even fully understand what I loved so much about this place. I don't think I had the ability to articulate my thoughts well enough to even attempt to describe it, but as I got older, it became abundantly clear what makes this place special.
It's not one single thing other than the people that live here.
The feeling that overtakes me when seeing that big "Welcome to Harrison" sign is one that, even to this day, I have a hard time attempting to describe. The best way I could describe it is a hug from your grandparents that makes you feel safe. I can't describe why a place that I wasn't born in feels like home, but it always has.
This is a town where my neighbor gives me a hard time for putting up a ring doorbell camera because, as we all know, Harrison is known as a place where people don't need to lock their doors. Harrison is this way because of the people. You don’t lock your doors because of the people. Because you know the people and you know it’s safe and you know that there’s nothing to fear.
As I'm writing this I'm even having a hard time trying to find the words that properly describe what being here feels like. I want to say it feels like home but I don't want people in the comments to give me a hard time about it. But man, oh man, this is a special, special, special place and there are so few left like it in our country.
The country is changing at a pace at which only someone who has seen what it's like when a place changes could even know what we could do to ensure it doesn't. Dallas changes so radically, and so quickly. I’ve seen the change. I dont want that change to happen to Harrison. We can’t let that take place. We have to keep Harrison, Harrison.
The people of this town are special. Even though I wasn't born here, I have felt at home every single second I've ever spent in this town. It's a town where you don't need to schedule an Uber to pick you up from the airport because someone on your (12 person) flight is just going to offer to take you home because that's what people here do. It's a place where, when you leave town for the weekend, your neighbors make sure to tell you that they'll watch the house for you and keep an eye out. It's a place where, if you need literally anything at all, this town will bend over backwards to help you. It’s the people, it’s always been the people.
This is something that is disappearing from American culture and it is something that must be held onto at all costs. We have to preserve what Harrison has.
When I was on the radio Thursday and I said that Harrison is the greatest city in the country - I meant it with every fiber of my being because this is a place that you cannot replicate.
The people here are not replicable.
This town is a fleeting feeling, a fleeting art, a dying dynamic that the human experience is in desperate search of but doesn’t know where to look or how to find it.
And for me, it just so happens that I got forced to come here so many times growing up that it eventually became all I ever looked forward to.
I remember crawdad days around the lake and the square, I remember Easter on the square, I remember going to the mall to eat pizza and play arcade games, I remember the orange street lights that haven’t been replaced by LEDs, I remember Dixie Cafe, I remember the ice storm, I remember master chef. My grandfathers favorite place in the world was Catfish Wharf. I remember every single street of this town like the back of my hand because I spent the greatest years of my life memorizing them before we had phones. These are the same streets and doors I’m knocking on now.
I love this town. I love these people and even though you don't remember me, I remember you.
This town is my favorite place on earth.
There's nowhere else I'd rather be and there's certainly nothing I'm more passionate about than keeping what makes Harrison Harrison.
What some would call my biggest weakness is what I view as my biggest strength. I know what makes Harrison Harrison BECAUSE I'm not from here. I have seen what the alternative is and when you have seen how bad the alternative is, you realize that this town is heaven on earth in every sense of the word. I feel more connection to this town than I have ever felt during my time in Texas. And that is because of YOU. It is because of the people that make this town what it is and it must be preserved at all cost.
Harrison is my home. It always has been and it always will be.
To anyone who is still reading this, I hope this helped you to understand just how much this town and the people in it mean to me. How much YOU mean to me.
I love this community, I live here, my future is here. With your help I look forward to having the opportunity to serve this community and the people I love as the next Mayor of Harrison. The greatest city in America.
