Mr. Segura was gentle man, an old school reporter and a supporter of the reporters' union. For both reasons (and with apologies to Dylan Thomas) he declined to go gently into corporate-journalism's good night and raged against the dying of the light at the PT. This put him on a collision course with management geniuses who thought it was good business to discard Mr. Segura like yesterday's newspaper. He sued, won some money, called us, said he didn't want any money from us and just wanted to write. Of course we said we were honored by his offer.

"So what are your deadlines and word-counts [legnth limits]?" he asked. We said we don't have those because we're online. He chuckled and from time to time in 2014 and 2015 submitted occasional short pieces to LBREPORT.com on things that got his attention. After falling silent for a couple of years, he submitted reflections to us earlier this year on the tumultuous news period he'd lived through a half century ago.

[Scroll down for further.]

On the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.:

"I believe Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize, was a prophet of peace. However he wasn't a one-issue prophet. Aside from the race issue, Dr. King opposed the Vietnam conflict (war was never declared) both because it targeted people of color and because the conflict impacted minorities. He was a frequent visitor to California and the Los Angeles area seeking support for his causes...The beautiful man whose 'I have a dream' (considered by many as the best speech of the century) is greatly missed, and so is his message."

On Sen. Robert F. Kennedy's presidential candidacy, he wrote:

"It's a sad irony that Tuesday's state primary election falls on the same date that Robert Kennedy was assassinated in Los Angeles at the Ambassador Hotel. His push for the Democratic presidential nomination had given many hope for an end to the Vietnam conflict and major moves on pressing domestic problems.

That was 50 years ago but we're still dealing with the deep scars from that period.

Can there be any exceptional example of the reason to vote, if not to honor the memory of R.F.K. and with him the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.? Both were victims 50 years ago in 1968, but our votes honor what our Founding fathers gave us through the First Amendment. It protects freedom of speech, the key to preserving our matchless way of life."

Mr. Segura didn't go gently into his own good night. He fought the dying of the light in his own life, including his professional life as a journalist...and for other journalists.

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