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　バーミングハム市姉妹都市委員会ご一行が、9月22日(月)に本校を訪ねてくれました.
アメリカ研修報告会でのバーミングハム市姉妹都市委員会委員長、マーク・ジャクソン　氏の
講演が素晴らしかったので、本人の同意を得て、全文　英文で掲載いたします。　　　
演題　　【姉妹都市交流の意義と展望（期待）について】
　　　　

　


本日は、バーミングハム市姉妹都市委員会委員長、マーク・ジャクソン　氏の　
演題　【姉妹都市交流の意義と展望（期待）について】　を全て英文で掲載いたします。

　　　　　 　　 M A R K J A C K S O N
　　　　　　　　Honorary Consul General of Japan
　　　　　　Chairman of Birmingham Sister Cities Commission
　　　　　　　　CEO and Chairman, Moreson Conferencing

　　　　　　　　　　Remarks to Students
　　　　　　　　　　Hitachi, Japan September 2014
Good Morning to you. My name is Mark Jackson and I bring greetings to you from your Sister City - Birmingham, Alabama.

I first want to thank Mayor Yoshinari, your city leaders, and all of the people of the Hitachi-shi for your kind welcome. I also thank your Board of Education, Principal Takakura, and the faculty and staff of Hitachi Kita high school for providing me, my colleague Scotty Colson and Birmingham City Councilman Jay Roberson the opportunity to meet with you and share some thoughts this morning. I want to thank your parents for their support of this fine school, for supporting your teachers, and for supporting all of you, their children. You are Hitachi-shi's future, and I want to thank you for welcoming me here, and for your kind attention and patience for the next few minutes.

In a few moments, I'm going to ask you to please do me a favor. It's an important favor. First, though, I want to talk to you about some background between our two cities, Hitachi-shi and Birmingham, and about my own connections with Japan, so that you can better understand the basis of the favor I'm going to ask each of you. For more than 30 years Hitachi-shi and Birmingham have been Sister Cities. This special relationship means that for more than three decades people from my city have been welcomed to your city as guests, similar to how a family welcomes a far away relative to the family's home. In Birmingham we feel a special connection with the people of Hitachi. We always hope to make our visitors from Hitachi-shi especially welcome in our hometown. Hitachi-shi has welcomed teachers from Birmingham to live among them and teach in your schools.

When a terrible tornado hit Alabama, including parts of Birmingham and its surrounding towns, in April 2011, people from Hitachi-shi were quick to donate to us, not only money, but your thoughts and your concerns. The tornado that hit Alabama (it was several tornadoes on a single day, in fact) in April 2011 came just a little more than a month after the terrible tsunami that hit the Tohoku Region here in Japan. We in Birmingham were very worried about all of Japan, but especially about our friends here in Hitachi-shi! We tried to assist as we could. In fact, our city raised over 30,000 dollars for your relief effort.

We have had many happy experiences between our cities, too! Just one-and-a-half years ago Mayor Yoshinari visited Birmingham. He threw the first pitch at our new baseball stadium, home to our team, the Birmingham Barons. Our stadium is the newest and finest in the United States for a Minor League team. I hope someday you will visit us and enjoy some Birmingham Baron's baseball! Incidentally, Birmingham is also the home of the OLDEST baseball park- Rickwood Field.

Going further back, back to 1985, Hitachi-shi kindly gave Birmingham a large stone lantern that continues to marvel visitors to our Japanese garden at Birmingham's Botanical Gardens. That same year, Hitachi-shi accepted Birmingham's gift of a bronze replica of Birmingham's Vulcan statue, which has stood on top of a mountain overlooking Birmingham for that past 75 years. Hitachi's Vulcan, which I think all of you have seen in Kamine Park, is not as tall or heavy as Birmingham's statue, but its symbolism is just as important. Some of you may know that Vulcan was the Roman "god of the Forge." Birmingham's Vulcan statue was made to honor the city's iron- and steel-making industries, which play such central roles in Birmingham's founding and growth. Hitachi-shi's Vulcan symbolizes the forging, the making, of Hitachi-shi's and Birmingham's relationship, which continues to this day.

My city's Vulcan is about 19 meters tall, is made of cast iron -- the largest cast iron statue in the world, in fact -- and looks down on Birmingham from a 41 meter pedestal. With a total height of 60 kilometers, it can be seen from many kilometers. Your Vulcan looks towards the heart of Hitachi-shi and is a monument to our love for your city. Please think about that the next time you see it in Kamine Park.

But my relationship with Japan goes back to before I was even born. In the late 1940s my father was stationed in Japan. He often told me what an amazing country it was to him. While he was here, he climbed Mount Fuji. I was your age when he told me of his journey. The experience influenced him. My father's life and experiences, and his stories and respect for other countries that he developed, influenced me: I have learned to not only love and cherish my own country, but to appreciate and respect other countries and those countries culture and people. Visiting many countries, which my circumstances and my business have allowed me to do over the years, has amazed, enchanted and humbled me. But more importantly, these experiences have made me want to be a more open-minded and open-hearted person, and a more responsible citizen in my country, and a more positive participant in international affairs. I can trace so much of this outlook back to my father, and to his experience in Japan. To this day I can look at, I can hold, the walking stick my father used to climb Mount Fuji, and feel his influence down through the years.

Now this is my first of two important points today: this outlook of mine is not an "achievement." It is an ongoing process, a process which I, as an individual, must work hard at. All people: all businesspeople, all teachers, all public servants, all doctors, all construction workers, all office people, all artists, all farmers, all scientists, all fisherman, all people,
including students ( ! ), have good days and bad days; days of success and days of frustration. That is normal. But in my life as a businessman and participant in community affairs, I try to keep people like my father in mind, people who've influenced me in a positive way, to inspire me during my more challenging moments and on my more challenging days. And what helped influence my father? Partly, his experience as a young man in Japan!

So the questions are: what are your influences, and how will you influence others?

In the U.S., in your Sister City of Birmingham, Alabama, I'm Chief Executive of a company named Moreson Conferencing. My company is a telecom company that allows our customers to communicate throughout the world. We help bring our customers to the world, and to bring the world to our customers. My company's customers -- businesses and other organizations, of all different types, large and small -- all have in one thing common: the need to communicate with their offices in other countries, with their customers around the world, to exchange ideas, to make plans and solve challenges with other companies around the world. I like this job, and the responsibility that comes with it. But I'm just one person, and I must rely on others in my company to keep our customers happy and keep their communications smooth. In other words, I can't do my job alone.

So here's my second big point: None of us can do what we need to do alone. We need each other. We must rely on each other and cooperate with each other. I must rely on others in MY business. Your parents, teachers and school administrators must rely on each other. You must rely on your friends as THEY must rely on you.

For more than 30 years Hitachi-shi and Birmingham have relied on each other and have influenced each other, in small ways and in large ways. In another 30 years, you students will be over 40 years old! So I want to close my remarks by asking you a favor, a big favor: I ask this favor as the Chairman of Birmingham Sister Cities Commission and as the Honorary Consul General of Japan. May Birmingham rely on you to help influence us? Will you learn as much as you can about your culture and do your part to influence my children, and future generations of Birmingham citizens?

My children are in high school, ages 13 and 14. Like so many of you, they enjoy music, baseball, and choir. My wife and I do our best to influence them in positive ways. They certainly influence our lives, bringing us a great deal of joy. Last year a student from Tokyo lived with us for 10 months. Hiroto-san also influenced my family and taught us so much. We did our best to both introduce him to different things in my home culture, and also helping him during challenging times living away from Japan. I hope our influence on Hiroto-san was as positive as his was, and will always be, on my family.

But you do not have to travel all the way to Birmingham to influence us. Just by participating in Hitachi-shi's progress, you will add value to your city, and that will influence mine. Whether your interest is -- or will someday be - in the sciences, sports, education, business, the performing arts, space, or anything, I hope you will study hard! Enjoy your life! Dream! And join your parents and grandparents in bringing a positive influence to a world that changes every day. And, from time-to-time, I hope you look to your friends in Birmingham to influence you in positive ways, too. Our city is your city. Our home is your home.

Thank you for your time and patience.
Arigato.
Good luck to you all!
Mark Byron Jackson
Honorary Consul General of Japan (Alabama) 　　　　 　
　

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