Tonight Natchez residents have a chance to help shape the future of our city.

FOR Natchez, a non-profit, grassroots group spearheading a downtown revitalization plan, invites everyone to join in a discussion and planning session for “The Next 300 Years” of Natchez.

The public workshop will be from 5:30 to 8 p.m. today at the Natchez Convention Center.

This is not merely a feel good meeting in which planners are tacitly seeking input but plan to push through their own ideas and agendas later.

They truly want — and need — your thoughts and ideas.

We’ve long said Natchez is at its best when our people are working together — young and old, black and white, rich and poor — for the betterment of the whole community.

Tonight’s meeting could very well spark some great things in our community’s future, but only if people participate.

Natchez — with its more than 300 years of history — may seem fully developed and even inflexible to some, but that’s far from the truth.

Our city’s best days may truly be ahead of it as residents put their hopes, dreams and thoughts together and work with some of the nation’s best city planners and developers to create a vision for tomorrow.

Tonight is your chance to be involved in where our city is going into the future. Your input is needed and sought. Please make every effort to attend the workshop.

If you don’t attend, remember what preachers often say at weddings, “Speak now or forever hold your peace.”