In my line of work, I encounter lots of people from all backgrounds, political persuasions and ethnicities. Some people blow you away with their charm, some bore you to sleep. But on rare occasions I meet people who are so inspiring that they make me want to do better.
One person is a woman who tries to save lives from gun violence, even though her youngest child was shot to death in a random shooting a year ago. Amid her grief, she used her money to start a radio program to tell listeners to end the violence. Politicians and bureaucrats pay lip service to this cause. But this woman, Queen Brown, lives it every day.
Some background info: After her son's death, Queen and her three surviving children chipped in their money each week to air a one-hour program called "What's Going On." The subjects tackle some aspect of urban violence. There is a lot of rhetoric that black people want to kill each other. That simply is not true. This woman lost her son -- the worst beat down anybody can take -- but Queen wants to save countless others. And people are listening to her. The show became so popular that the station let her expand to two hours so she could take more calls from listeners. People are tired of the shootings and they want it to stop!
They have since moved to a larger station where they get free air time on Sunday afternoons.
Queen attracted some media attention, including CNN. Like this one.
Now she has a chance to be a CNN Hero. Please take a moment to vote in CNN's Heroes online poll.
The online poll continues until Monday, Oct. 29. In order for your vote to be counted you must watch one of the 2 minute videos under her photo. Hers is the first one. I'm passing this along because I have not met anyone so selfless and passionate about saving black lives. Please vote for her.
Please click on link below to vote:
link