RIP + 1 year: Oakland Police Sergeant Daniel Sakai

A year ago Sunday, my friend Dan lost his life.  On that day, the same gunman also took the lives of Dan's three co-workers at the Oakland Police Department.  Life-- for Dan's family, friends, and the community-- has never been the same since.

A year later, I am still at a loss for words.  I am still not quite sure what to say, think, feel, or do.  My plan had been to submit something constructive to my local NPR station's Perspectives series.  The series allows community members to talk about anything they want on the air, so long as it's 375 words (2 minutes) long.

I ultimately decided not to do it.  I had wanted to share how the tragedy affected me, but that was too personal and a tad self-absorbed.  I had wanted to talk about how we can band together to fight poverty, crime, and the collapse of the social fabric of urban America.  But who was I kidding?  I have no solutions.

And so, we're left here, a year later, wondering, what can we do?

I've come up with two very simple (and difficult) things that we can all do:
1. Enjoy life.
2. Be nice to people.