It's Not Too Late to Vote, or to Watch Tomorrow's Show

First of all, I think it was last year when I last sent you one of these, so Happy ChristmaKwanzaKah (that's a shout out to my girl, Daagye, who is so craaazy!) and wishing you all a very Blessed New Year.

I think most of you got the last message I sent about the importance of voting, so I won't repeat myself here. Except to say, that if you get this before 7 p.m., and you live in the City of Birmingham, you still have time to make your voice heard. And if you have some folks around you who haven't been to the polls yet, push, pull or drag them with you.

As I said last time in my last e-newsletter, too many folks have sacrificed too much for us not to exercise this constitutional right.

I also hope that whoever our next mayor will be -- either current Jefferson County Commissioner William Bell or attorney Patrick Cooper -- will truly listen to the voice of the people and do what's best for us. As I said during one of the debates, there are plenty of people in our region with very good ideas and energy to make things happen for the good of our city and region. And I hope they have an open-door policy that will invite us to the table as he works to make Birmingham the great city it was meant to be.

We have some folks like that who will be on our show tomorrow, including Darrius Peace, a young entrepreneur who got tired of going to Black expos in other cities and thought, "Why don't we have one here?" He and his wife, who are founders of Hayah Cosmetics, and their friends set out to do just that. Their first Magic City Black Expo was very successful, with more than 1,500 attendees. So they are bringing the magic back to the expo this year. Check here or on the logo below to get more information on the expo.

We also interview Slade Blackwell and Robert Earl Kelly about their relatively new organization, JeffCoCan, which also started with one of those "Why-don't-we-do-something-rather-than-complain" attitudes. They believe that bankruptcy is not the answer to our current fiscal crisis at Jefferson County, and are pushing for other means to solve the problem.

And finally, my friend Sharrif Simmons and I talk about our plans to shine a bigger spotlight on the arts in Birmingham, particularly the wonderful music talent that is so strong here. I mean, there's a reason the Birmingham area produced four American Idol winners and runners-up. He'll be a great addition to those segments that talks about the music, arts and culture in the Magic City.

So there's a lot to watch tomorrow on My 68 and every Wednesday morning at 6:30 - 7 a.m.

Since some of you may miss the show, we will start putting some of the more interesting segments on our YouTube channel. That way, more people around the world can know what we know, that Birmingham's really got it going on in good ways.

Yes, there are problems. Who doesn’t have them? Let's work to fix the problems, build on the positives and see where it takes us. I'm willing. Are you?

Talk to you soon!

vickii