The day of the big job interview has arrived, but unfortunately Natchez is still wearing yesterday’s wrinkled clothes.

Our hair is messy, our shirt untucked.

More than one important employer will be reviewing us this weekend, but we clearly have forgotten to care.

Grooming has seemed to become less and less of a priority for our once pristine, but still beautiful city in recent years.

Due in part to budget cuts from the Mississippi Department of Transportation and in part to a lackluster city government, our streets are messy, our grass is overgrown and our sidewalks are littered with trash.

The pride is gone.

Community members began to take notice months ago. A few have even publicly shared a desire to lead a grassroots cleanup — work taxpayers are already funding.

Some civic groups have done commendable work to cleanup portions of town lately, but without daily maintenance from city employees paid to maintain, well, we’ll never be able to keep up.

So as the pilgrims come to see our glorious old houses, enjoy our wonderful restaurants and take a spin through downtown in a horse carriage, we pray that they are able to turn a blind eye to the blight.

It’s possible. City leaders do it every day.