We Are Not Exempt: The Lives They Left Behind & The Ones Still Fighting

Why does this matter?

Because you are not exempt. Because none of us are.

The last six years have been a blur of funerals, overdoses, suicides, preventable deaths—but the world kept moving. Maybe you think it was just COVID. Maybe you think it was just the addicts. Maybe it was just the elderly. Maybe it was just the vulnerable.

Maybe it was just the people who didn’t matter to you.

But here’s the truth: They didn’t matter until they did.

And by then, it was too late.

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Who Dies First?

Junkies? Easy to dismiss. They don’t play by the rules, they “did it to themselves.”

The Elderly? They’ve “lived their lives,” they don’t “contribute” anymore.

The Vulnerable? The poor, the mentally ill, the abused, the ones left to fend for themselves? Well, they don’t have power, do they?

And when no one fights for them, no one fights for us.

The system categorizes people by how easy they are to ignore.

And you think you’re exempt?

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How Many Have to Die Before You Care?

I wish I could say this was just about me, just about my grief. But it’s not.

We are in double digits of death in just four years. Eleven, if you count the suicide of a child.

✨ My friend died a month ago.

✨ My partner’s brother died this week.

✨ My community is burying its own faster than it can keep up.

And yet… we still blame the individual. Not the failing system. Not the lack of resources. Not the deliberate neglect.

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Wake Up. Look Around.

This isn’t about me. This isn’t about you feeling sorry for me or anyone else.

This is about survival.

If you think money, status, or following the rules will protect you, think again. The system doesn’t care. It never did.

It’s not about asking for change anymore. It’s about creating it.

What Can You Do?

🔹 Share what’s working. If you’ve found a way to survive, tell us. If something helped you, share it.

🔹 Refuse to look away. Ignoring it doesn’t make it stop—it just makes it worse.

🔹 Protect yourself. Because the safety net isn’t there. It never was.

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I Am One Person. You Are One Person.

I don’t need your money.

I don’t need you to believe me.

I just need you to see the truth before it’s too late.

I am alone using ChatGPT to figure out how to help myself and the people I love, while others sit back believing the same failed system that buried their families will somehow save them.

If you have a way to fight back, share it. If you know something that could help, say it.

Because I have never needed people more than we do now.

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We Are Not Exempt. And We Are Not Done.

They don’t get to win.