HAPPY NEW YEAR! I hope the New Year, brings you, your family and your friends the greatest blessings, joys and wonders that this world has to offer.

As I have started preparing for 2008, I have had a chance to reflect on the accomplishments of this year as well as look to the future. I intend for this to be my greatest year ever (not only personally, but as a business as well). Two thousand eight is the 75th Anniversary of the Los Angeles Sentinel and we have some incredible plans for this year. We intend to do more human interest stories, more investigative journalism and we intend to push ourselves to continue to find new and innovative ways to bring to our readers more of the information that directly affects your/our lives each and every day.

This also is going to be a very interesting year politically not only nationally

as we elect a new president (God knows we need one... well I think so), but our local political scene is going to be quite exciting as well. There are lots of races that we will certainly all have to take a good hard look at. Some will divide our community, and some will even divide families as we have to sit down and choose from pools of

qualified candidates who we have all been friends and supporters of for many years. Other races will be generational elections where we must decide between the old guard who we have been supporting for years (and years and years) and new and upcoming leaders with new ideas and new ways of campaigning, as well as new

ideas and definitions of what leadership in our community is all about.

We are also going to have to take a good hard look at ourselves, we are going to have to come up with ideas and a plan to address the variety of issues facing us and our community and decide how we can be responsible for coming up with our own solutions and not depend on others to do it for us. We are going to have to be brutally honest about who we are and how we get things done, who represents us and who does not. I am not suggesting that we are monolithic in our approach and I am not saying that one or several people can or should speak for the entire African American Community (we all have a right to agree to disagree). But I am suggesting that we be truthful and look hard at who is really getting things done for us and

truly about US and who is NOT. We have to put an end to the infighting that we do, and begin to look at the bigger picture and the true enemies that lay within our

community. We have to be willing to come together to not only fight the good fight but the real fight. This is my wish for us all. Let’s resolve to BE GREAT IN 2008!

So, whether you agree or disagree, now more than ever I really need your input.

I need to hear from you now more than ever. I need to know what is going on in our community. I also need to know what other stories we need to tell, and what is on your mind. I really do want to hear from you, I want you to “Talk to Danny.”

Sincerely,
Danny J. Bakewell, Jr.
President & Executive Editor

Published in : Executive Editor Blog, Talk To Danny