By Daniel Paiz

If you’re as tired of reading about tragedy as I am about writing about it, then it might be time to get involved in some capacity. Writing or calling your local representatives, peaceful protests, signing petitions, attending city and county council meetings, etc. Educating yourself by reading books and first-hand accounts is also a great starting point as well. Plenty of Black, Indigenous, and People of Color continue to be gunned down, harassed, othered and treated as less than by those supposedly protecting and serving. NaPoWriMo is one small way to raise awareness and sadly remind readers how much there is to still do.

Daunte Wright and George Floyd in the Twin Cities alone should be reason enough to work on learning more about what’s going on nationwide. If you check out every story that had a name that was turned into a hashtag, you might start to see repeating patterns in each tragedy. Pay attention to those.

Nightmare on Repeat

Groundhogs are terrified of this kind of day,

where a soul is snatched from this planet

because an enforcer can’t distinguish,

what’ll make people beyond irate.

As arguments are delivered a few miles away,

suspension follows after reviewing another case,

how can everything be illegal for one group,

but not another?

“they made a mistake”

is justifiable for one shade of blue,

but not for the other shade

that’s zipped up after life exits too soon.

How about we cancel this culture of murdering youth?

Of murdering those othered because ignorance is your truth?

Sooner than later everyone will be blind,

resigned badges poking out arguments against the truth.