By Ernie McCray

You know that feeling you get when a dear friend all of a sudden says something like “Well, we’re moving to Seattle next month,” and a kind of sadness sets in? Nothing devastatingly grievous or crippling, but you feel a little empty inside, knowing that your pal is no longer just down the street or across town, but gone.

That was me when I got the word that the San Diego Free Press was coming to an end, because I see them as a friend, a beloved friend; because who, but a dear friend, would allow you to write about a little of everything, anytime you wanted to, and any way you wanted to, be it poetry or prose.

I can’t adequately express what a lift in my spirit the gift of having a place to vent so freely has meant to me. What can one say about being appreciated so openly and unconditionally?

And fortunately for me the friends in my life have mostly been like the SDFP, always willing to offer me a hand, fully understanding that all I’m basically trying to do in life is live that life as happily and as fruitfully and lovingly as I can, wishing the same for my fellow man/woman.

Writing is my favorite way of going about that.

And through my words on the San Diego Free Press I’ve shared my aging process, writing about my birthdays in the 70s leading up to my 80th year, just to let people know what it’s like, for at least one person, to grow old in age still, as I once wrote, “grooving after all these years.” Still enjoying the ride, a ride that’s supposed to be enjoyed, going as high as I can during the exhilarating ups, when life is mighty fine, and grabbing hold of the debilitating downs until you can finally wrestle it to the ground — and I’ve laid all that down on SDFP — for anyone who cared to take a peek.

Through SDFP, people have gotten to know what the arts have meant to me as a human being and as an educator who believes that the arts should be at the core of any learning environment. Because it’s through the arts that people expose who they are, and the more a teacher knows about who a student is the more likely they are to meet her or his unique learning needs.

The website’s progressive slant has allowed me to weigh in on the Hillary Clintons and Bernie Sanders of the world and look in on a deplorable gangsta president named Trump, a man who’s head is apparently up his rump …

I’ve gotten to give voice to my wish that we, as a society, would study war no more …

I got to report on how a relentlessly heavy rain drenched a Gay Pride Parade, but didn’t dampen the spirit of love the marching in the streets always brings …

At a time when so many prominent blacks are being attacked by our very government, in fact, I was able to look at it from a Black Lives Matter point-of-view …

And I slipped in some of my travels, near and far: driving up Highway 1; exploring the wonders of Alaska and Zihuatanejo and Cuernavaca and Tepoztlan in Mexico; Madrid; Barcelona; Gay Paree; Brussels; Frankfort Germany; Amsterdam; a recent trip to Atlanta, Georgia, the only state to which I had never been until then …

Each of those experiences served as proof of how human beings have more in common than they’re willing to admit …

I thank the San Diego Free Press (and also the OB Rag), volunteers all, for including me in their venture of spreading news and progressive views San Diegans can use, standing firmly for what I’ve wanted most in life: freedom and justice for all.

I will forever be grateful that our paths crossed in life, that we reached out and found each other and gave each other a helping hand in our quest to create something worthwhile out of this world we’ve got at hand.

I bid them goodbye, but they will never be far from my deepest thoughts and my fondest memories. I’ve never had a better friend.

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Ernie McCray

I was raised in a loving and alive home, in a black neighborhood filled with colorful characters in Tucson, Arizona. Such an environment gave me a hint that life has to be grabbed by the tail as tight as a pimple on a mosquito's butt. With no BS and a whole lot of love. So, from those days to now I get up every morning set on making the world a better place. On my good foot*, and I hope my writing reflects that. *an old black expression

Latest posts by Ernie McCray (see all)

• Should Democrats, like Superman, Seek ‘Truth, Justice and the American Way’? - December 10, 2018
• Saying Goodbye to a Friend Who Gave Me a Helping Hand - November 28, 2018
• An Awakening - November 21, 2018