Wednesday, 19 December 2012 13:45

My Part of the World: Let's Count Our Blessings At Christmas Time Featured

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As we prepare to celebrate another Christmas holiday with family and friends, we are reminded to count our blessings in spite of the many challenges that we face, personally and as a community.

I had an opportunity to walk and talk with Andy Young this week as we toured the models for the new National Center for Civil and Human Rights that is scheduled to open in 2014.

He told me about one of his recent sermons taken from one of Paul's letters to the early church. He called it the "bad toenail" sermon. Young said that everything can be okay or even good, but if you have a bad toenail, that's what gets all your attention. I was telling him that I loved his newest documentary on the Jimmy Carter presidency, because it felt like such a love letter.

He told me that was his intent. "I like to focus on the positive," Young said. "Me, too," I replied.

So, that's my Christmas wish for everyone. Let's focus on the good. There's enough bad stuff going on in the world that we have to report and know about. But, I like to keep the focus of the ADW on the positive and uplifting things that are going on in our community.

As we come to the end of the year, feeling the sorrow from the shooting of little children in Newtown, Connecticut, let's feel inspired by the heroes and sheroes from that horrific attack. And let's be determined to do what we can to make things better. Let's do more to regulate guns. Let's provide more help for people suffering from mental illness. Let's work together regardless of political affiliation.

It almost feels like we are about to experience change we can believe in. I think President Barack Obama's re-election is finally setting in and we are getting our faith back to believe that yes, we can make a difference. We can make better public policy that helps more people and saves more lives.

Especially at this time of year, we have another opportunity to be reminded that we have a true role model to follow on how to lead a good life. We celebrate the birth of the son of God, who came into the world, not to condemn it, but to save it. Hallelujah!

M. Alexis Scott is publisher of the Atlanta Daily World.

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M. Alexis Scott

M. Alexis Scott is publisher of the Atlanta Daily World, a newspaper founded by her grandfather in 1928. She has responsibility for the overall editorial content and general management of the paper, which targets the African American community in metro Atlanta. In 1932, the Atlanta Daily World, founded by W.A. Scott, II, became the nation’s first black-owned daily newspaper in the 20th century. The paper publishes once a week now, can be accessed daily over the Internet at www.atlantadailyworld.com. The newspaper became a part of the Real Times Media family in March 2012, joining five other historic African American newspapers including the Chicago Defender, the Michigan Chronicle, The Michigan FrontPage, the New Pittsburgh Courier, and the Tri-State Defender in Memphis, Tenn. Ms.

Scott joined the Atlanta Daily World in 1997, following a 22-year career with the Atlanta Journal-Constitution and Cox Enterprises, Inc., where she worked her way up from reporter to vice president/community affairs at the Journal-Constitution and then director of diversity at Cox. In addition to her duties as publisher of the newspaper, Ms. Scott is a regularly featured commentator on “The Georgia Gang,” a week-in-review program on politics broadcast on FOX 5 in Atlanta. She is also a member of the Board of Directors of the Atlanta Life Financial Group Ms. Scott is active in nonprofit organizations. She is a member of the boards of the High Museum of Art, the Historic South View Cemetery Preservation Foundation; the Atlanta Convention and Visitors Bureau and the board of the Atlanta Workforce Development Agency. She is also a member of the Rotary Club of Atlanta. She serves on the Global Advisory Board of the Center for Civil & Human Rights and the President’s Council of the Atlanta History Center.

Ms. Scott has received many awards and honors, including the inaugural Keystone Leadership Award from Build, Grow and Enjoy Radio in 2012; being inducted along with the rest of The Scott Family into the inaugural class of the Hall of Fame of the Atlanta Press Club in 2011; the 2011 Trailblazer Award from the Atlanta Hawks; 2010 Journalist of the Year Award from the Atlanta Regional Rainbow/PUSH Coalition; the 2010 Generational Torch Award from the Georgia Black Chamber of Commerce; 2009 Community Leader Award from the Alliance for Christian Media and the 2009 Pioneer Award from the Black Women Film Preservation Project. She was inducted into the 2007 Business Hall of Fame of the Mack Robinson College of Business at Georgia State University. She also received a 2007 Trailblazer Award In Honor of Coretta Scott King from the Southern Christian Leadership Conference.

A native of Atlanta, Ms. Scott is a graduate of Booker T. Washington High School, and attended Barnard College in New York City and Spelman College in Atlanta. She also attended the Columbia University School of Journalism as a summer participant in the 1974 Michelle Clark Fellowship Program. She is a 1992 graduate of the Regional Leadership Institute and a 1991 graduate of Leadership Atlanta. She has an honorary doctor of humane letters degree from Argosy University. She has two sons. She and her family are members of First Congregational Church, U.C.C., where Ms Scott served as presiding officer from 1982-1992, was a member of the Sunday School staff for nearly 30 years and serves on the Board of Missions.