Can’t get my mind off a generational contemporary of mine, Kris Kristofferson, a master poet and songwriter for all times. Dead at 88. Two years older than me. A vivid reminder to me that my generation is slowly dying away as daylight does when autumn eases into winter. Soon we’ll all be gone. But Kris is one of those people whose spirit will live on as he’s left us with wonderful movies and songs filled with spirituality and he will forever be remembered by me for his involvements in the world that are similar to mine, his activism in social and human rights, his speaking out against wars, his addressing of our nation’s lack of concern regarding apartheid in South Africa, his shining a light on the harm done to citizens during the invasion of Panama and to the citizens of Nicaragua when our government helped the Contras stamp out a revolution that showed hope and promise. Kris was quite the dude. And I got a chance to talk to him for a moment or two, after a wonderful evening of listening to a Latina ensemble, the “Mariachi Divas,” and him put on a wonderful show at the Spreckels Theatre in San Diego. We met as I was looking at folks lining up to enjoy a meet and greet group with him and Kris strayed away from them and came up to me and asked me “Do you sing? and I said something like “Yeah, I do a little basso profundo every now and then” to which he responded: “I just heard your voice from across the way and had to say something.” And then I commenced to tell him how much I appreciated him and his poetry and he gave me a “Thank you, man. I appreciate that.” Then that was that. A birth of a treasured memory. The world has lost a wonderful human being.
Ernie McCray is an activist for love and peace who acts and sings and writes both poetry and prose, a man who rises each day to do whatever he can, no matter how small or grand, to make the world better in some way.
Unapologetically.