South Dakota is in a COVID-19 crisis. Our positivity rate is now 60% - 6/10 people who test will be positive. We lead the world in deaths per capita on a daily basis in a state where the population is 885,000 people. Our governor will not issue protections or a mask mandate.

We are grateful to the Native nations who are being proactive to protect the oyate, to the community leaders trying to push for responsible choices, and to those of us who believe in science and truth because we love one another.

But we are also tired. Days pass and entire town populations die - nurses and doctors go on national news to beg for change. Even the South Dakota Medical Association has issued a statement in support of a mask mandate to no answers.

Rural health inequities soar, and even more people lose loved ones. We know the towns, people, places, and families. The state is different in that way - we come across one another. It feels deeply personal all the time.

Our South Dakota leadership has left us and we are begging her to come back to the table and listen.