With a sense of melancholy, this will be the last regular column I'll write for The Day – at least for the foreseeable future.

There are a number of contributing factors for this decision, including a re-dedication to increasing my radio footprint and exploring more opportunities on multiple social media platforms. In any event, the decision to step away from the column is mine and mine alone.

And I won’t entirely disappear. The Day has offered me the opportunity to submit an occasional guest commentary and I may well take them up on that.

I would like to thank The Day and, in particular, the prudence of Editorial Page Editor Paul Choiniere for this eye-opening opportunity and experience. I'm going to quote myself (can anyone say “narcissist”?): "Writing is a humbling endeavor that has strengthened my respect and admiration for anyone who makes their living creating magic by drawing a pen across a blank page. Deciphering the interesting from the mundane can prove problematic, and I grimace imagining the struggle to do it daily."

The people in print journalism do this every single day.

At no time did Paul or anyone at The Day suggest or ask me to write about any topic from any particular perspective. I literally had a blank canvas and The Day's hierarchy allowed the process to play out. Paul did push back on many of the columns I produced, but only in an effort to make the final product better. In the nearly 1,000 days I could call myself a columnist, the Day paper only "spiked" or denied two of my submissions — one because I turned in something largely incoherent that was stylistically closer to what you might read on a ransom note, and the other was a simple judgment call on their part. Fair enough – and that's a 99.3% publishing success rate.

I’d also like to offer an auxiliary thank you to my longtime progressive friend Rick Koster, the arts and music columnist for The Day. I would often ask Rick to read my columns prior to submission, giving me any grammatical tips as well as liberal feedback. I always imagined him doing so with dread and great consternation while sitting in a dark room flicking the light on and off (like Glenn Close in “Fatal Attraction”).

For two and a half years, this award-winning newspaper allowed me to provide a point of view that often clashed with their own editorial stances. Given that newspaper space is like beach front real estate, that means The Day entrusted me with an 8,000-square-foot mansion in Malibu. Some readers thought I did fine architectural work with the property; others thought I torched and demolished the entire estate. But what I wrote about was often polarizing not necessarily by design, but because we live in an uncomfortably divided nation.

The question one might ask is: Was the column a success?

The answer is, probably not. Yes, an alternative vision and voice was presented weekly on the pages of the paper, but to what end? What minds moved or changed?

Judging from the absolute vitriol that bleeds through the online comment sections daily and repeatedly (and not just about anything I wrote) there is really no hope for opposing viewpoints to entertain new perspectives. We have all chosen sides, and families and friendships be damned if they ever conflict with the politics. The very idea that politics has stolen lifetime friendships is heartbreaking.

I'm not projecting myself as some pollyannaish martyr adjusting the halo hovering over my head while I tried to deliver a journalistic shot of Narcan to a region of political junkies. That's never going to happen.

I want my radio program to be provocative. I can be as guilty as the next guy when it comes to fanning the flames of chaos. But I never shut out or shut down an alternate opposing opinion or silence constructive conversation. We should be able to debate and argue in pursuit of the goal of reaching fair solutions to societal challenges. But, sadly, I believe we as a society have lost the ability for positive discourse. Another quote I'd like to share (not sure who came up with this one): “For the majestic eagle to fly straight he needs both a left and right wing, otherwise he just flies in circles.”

I’ve learned the differences between the written and spoken word. Write something and it's forever etched into our cultural fabric; say something and it can be lost in the wind. Journalists hold an immense responsibility in providing information and truth to the community. That truth and honesty must never be compromised. It's been an honor sharing the pages with such talented people.

Lee Elci is the morning host for 94.9 News Now radio, a station that provides "Stimulating Talk" with a conservative bent.