Vote on your nominees for St. Louis-area person of the year
Just to be clear, this is an informal survey of the opinions of people who read the Talk of the Day blog. We aren’t really naming an official “person of the year.” We have no magazine to adorn with the person’s face, we have no valuable sculpture to award to the person at a $500-a-plate dinner.
We’re just talking about newsmakers here as we muse over the ending of the 2008 year.
So, as I mentioned in an earlier Talk of the Day item, one of you suggested that we talk about the St. Louis-area person of the year. I said we’d use the criteria that Time magazine uses for its annual end-of-year annointment: “The person or persons who most affected the news and our lives, for good or ill, and embodied what was important about the year.”
In the earlier TOTD item, you all nominated who you thought would be good choices. Today, we offer a poll for you to vote among those nominees. I listed the nominations in the order in which they appear in the last TOTD topic. I excluded people I thought were way too obscure to capture a general audience. I excluded people who, well, weren’t people (sorry, Uno). I excluded myself; I’m not sure my kids would even name me person of the year.
So, off you go. Time to vote.
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Kurt is the director of social media for the Post-Dispatch, where he has worked since August 2002. He's been a journalist since 1982, covering municipal government, courts, education and two hurricanes as a reporter before becoming an editor. 
Their significant negative impacts (Burke, Drew, Brito, etc.) aside, I had to go with an entity that has worked the hardest within one of our most disappointing and non-supportive infrastructure for the good of the those with precious little recourse or power.
Here’s to the brave men and women who tolerate the abject failures, insurmountable challenges and ongoing disappointments of the St. Louis Public School system every day in their attempt to provide meaningful education to the kids, amid the continuing floundering of City of St. Louis. My hat is off to these rare jewels in our city’s crown, the true heroes.