Goodbye from David McLemore

David's career spanned 34 years, most with the Dallas Morning News. He joined the newspaper in 1981, when he was hired as the first bureau chief of the Morning News' San Antonio bureau. His departure signals the end of the paper's presence in the state's second-largest city.

I have no wish to minimize the emotions felt by my colleagues as we depart. Some of us are just leaving early. Sadly, many more will soon follow involuntarily. But sadness? Not really. Not for me.

I'll miss the people most. The laughs, the goofiness, the shared sense that we were doing something meaningful in the world. Unfortunately, the latter has been badly
battered lately. I'm not so sure anymore what we're doing as a profession. Comforting the afflicted and afflicting the comfortable doesn't seem to cut it
anymore.

For me, it was time to move on, to shake loose the easy chains of a steady job and regular paycheck and live a life uncertain again. (Though one could argue just what was so damn certain about the last two years.) I walk out the door today without a clue what I'll be doing or what the future holds. To those I leave behind, I wish good luck in the maddeningly difficult work of filing informative, entertaining and factual stories every day. On deadline.

There are plenty of good people left at the DMN willing to fight the good fight. You have my respect and my love and all my best wishes. With the new construct of journalism we work under, you'll need all the luck you can find.

As for me, to quote Eric Cartman, the philosopher of South Park, "Screw you guys, I'm going home."