I Am Tired

I'm tired. 

I'm tired of hate.

I'm tired of injustice.

I'm tired of watching the news and seeing another black child has been gunned down by American police for holding a water pistol.

I'm tired of seeing images of First Nation homes no one should have to live in.

I'm tired of hearing about how our Indigenous youth are killing themselves. Being deprived of clean water. Being deprived of necessary medical and dental treatments. Being educated in schools that do not meet Canadian standards.

I am tired of seeing homeless people on the streets of a country as wealthy as Canada.

I am tired of vigilantes and white supremacists and politicians stoking fear of anyone who isn't straight, white and "Christian".

I am tired of seeing homes and communities destroyed in the Middle East by western bombs.

I am tired of the angry and deluded "Jihadists" who kill and maim and blow people up, putting millions upon millions of peaceful Muslims in danger in the process.

I am tired of politicians who use rhetoric to instigate hate and violence and division.

I am tired of violence.

I am tired of reading about the latest weekly mass shooting in the US.

I am tired of finger-pointing and corruption and dishonesty.

I am tired of greed and imbalance and the stock-piling of vast wealth while others suffer.

I am tired of seeing images of children starving to death while there is enough to go around.

I am tired of those with minds too narrow or too indoctrinated to recognise scientific fact over mythology.

I am tired from still fighting for women's rights in 2017.

I am tired of those who would take away women's autonomy of person and put it in the hands of men who don't have any idea what women go through.

I am tired of predators and abusers and "Smile for me girl" callers.

I am tired of gangs and territories and people being afraid.

I am tired of animal abuse and child abuse and people who are so deluded they don't get their children vaccinated against killer diseases.

I am tired of reading about animals found with their muzzles taped shut, starving, or dead.

I am so tired of cruelty and hate and repression and the "me first" attitude.

I am so tired.

We are all so tired.

But this is why we cannot give in to our fatigue: Do we want our children to be fighting the same fights? Our grandchildren? Or do we want to, need to, struggle in every way we can, to make the world better? We have a responsibility to the future, to humankind, to life on this planet, to object, to protest, to speak out and spread the word wherever there is injustice.

So, take a rest. Breathe. And then get up and keep on fighting.