Hello Old Friend,

It is sad that our nation has come to greet you every time we turn on our televisions, glance at our cellphones, and open our newspapers. Is it not enough to take people at their natural time? Have you stooped to the level of infiltrating the minds of the weak? Your ideals are penetrating the morals of the vulnerable. There are some who are too encompassed in following your promised glory time in the media, and have taken to obliterating faith in humanity, and have used you to achieve their fame.

For some, you're black cloak promises the protection no one is able to provide. For others, it is as overwhelming and unnerving as a never-ending tunnel of grief, promising no light at the end.

More recently, however, you have been far too lazy. Your lack of filter has killed the innocent, the young, and the minority. I understand that you are the natural order of life. But, for you to take a young woman who was opening her arms to her fans is unfathomable. For you to take 49 innocent club goers, in the middle of having a good time is sickening. Finally, for you to take my grandfather after getting a surgery that should have cured his cancer is revolting.

So yes, not only am I scared of you, I am terrified of you. For now the whole order has been interrupted; a 22-year-old woman could just as easily be your victim as a 90-year-old. You no longer give signs of your arrival through graying hair, brittle bones, and a full life. No, you are much greedier than that. You thrive on the youthfulness and innocence of your victims. You drool at the thought of an easy target. Your steed is ready to pounce at your word, gathering the next person with no rhythm or qualifications. You just take without remorse.

Please, consider this my plea. You are a hard concept to understand, so announce your presence. Let us know you are here through family gatherings, through the recounting of memories, through the weathered photo albums, through a passport completely filled, and through the knowledge of finality,

If you come announced, then maybe your heartbreak will be slightly easier to understand. Maybe our minds would be at ease as we made peace with your next arrival. Maybe your complexity would become more fathomable.

So, death, the choice is yours.

Sincerely,

A helpless bystander