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. 
Yes, it does suck that the firefighter guy died after 1 YEAR on the job….it “sucks” even more when that firefighter is a great friend/loved one. Firefighters/paramedics go into the job expecting to put out fires and help the community NOT to be ambushed while putting out a routine truck fire. I also do not recall the last time a St. Louis Firefighter was MURDERED while on duty so I would not say the stories are a dime a dozen. Ryan is no longer here to do good for the St. Louis comunity but I think the least you can do is respect him for losing his life doing so….
It sucks that the firefighter guy died only after two weeks of doing his job. Unfortunately, this type of career (to which he joined), can be very dangerous. Fallen paramedics/firefighters/police officers stories’ are a dime a dozen so why not focus on someone remarkable who has been, is, and will continue to do good for the St. Louis community. Randy Grim has been the most influential Stl area person of the past year. Kudos to all hard work you do Randy.
So, when does this survey end?