Akira Kopec
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A dozen eggs costs you $6.72 in the New York metropolitan area. That’s a 47-cent increase in the past week.

Elon Musk performed what appeared to be a Nazi salute during his speech at Donald Trump’s inauguration. The government website for reproductive health services, which provided information on breast cancer screening and the various birth control options, is no longer accessible to the American public. An executive order that prohibited workplace discrimination based on race, gender, sexual orientation and national origin has been revoked. Idaho Republicans are disputing federal policy on gay marriage. Rep. Andy Ogles, Republican of Tennessee, proposed a constitutional amendment that would allow Trump to seek a third term.

The earth is warming at an unprecedented rate. Scientists predict we are on the brink of irreversible damage, presenting us with problems such as permanently uninhabitable land, massive flooding, uncontrollable fires and widespread poverty. Despite this, in response, Trump withdrew from the Paris climate agreement, meaning the United States will no longer work with participating nations to limit carbon emissions and help mitigate global climate change. He eliminated policies that encouraged electric vehicle production to minimize the extraction of fossil fuels.

American people are subject to the worst health outcomes of any high-income country. Despite this, the president withdrew from the World Health Organization, an institution responsible for increasing access to medicine, responding to global health crises, delivering vaccinations and promoting health equity. Trump will also likely make it more difficult for more people to enroll in Medicaid, a federal program intended to make health care accessible to low-income Americans.

Amid these developments, in an editorial piece in The Guardian, U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders articulated advice pertaining to the navigation of the second Trump term. He urged American people to stay focused on the problems that actually plague our country, such as the rising unaffordability of housing, health care and prescription drugs. To get swept up in responding to the outlandish actions of Trump and his colleagues is only hindering American progress.

“In the coming months and years, our job is not just to respond to every absurd statement that Trump makes. That is what the Trump world wants us to do,” he wrote. “We have got to educate. We have got to organize. We have got to bring people together around an agenda that works for all, not just the few.”

The executive orders and other happenings of Trump’s first week have infiltrated the headlines of nearly every major news network. However, as Sanders touches on, what ought to be at the forefront of the public’s attention is the incomprehensible wealth gains of America’s richest citizens and, even more so, their ability to effectively buy candidates and elections. It’s important to understand the context, actors and writers behind these stories — to understand the intersection between media and our political reality.

To put this sentiment into perspective, consider that the top 1 percent of salaried Americans have more wealth than the entirety of the middle class. Billionaires were responsible for contributing $1.9 billion toward funding presidential and congressional candidates this past election. Of the funding that went to the two major-party candidates, nearly 82 percent of those funds went to Trump’s campaign. Further, the billionaire owners of two prominent newspapers, The Washington Post and the Los Angeles Times, prohibited endorsements of candidate Harris during the previous election cycle. This — the ability for rich individuals and multibillion-dollar companies to fund elections and influence policies in their favor — is arguably the root cause of all other inequities.

Here is my plea: we must stop pretending that transgender people, who make up a small percentage of our population, are the reason for American decline, or that immigrants, whose increasing presence in our country has been accompanied by a 60.4 percent decrease in crime, are somehow making our nation more dangerous. Let us, instead, invest in spaces that serve to foster community development — libraries, local sports leagues, theaters and family-owned businesses. Let us invest in education, in health care, in sustainably sourced food.

As everyday citizens, with seemingly little effect on the decisions of policymakers in the capital or the type of stories we read, it is not uncommon to feel as though the system is unchangeable. Referring to a little history, though, shows us that the greatest justice movements in our nation’s history have been built from a collection of common-folk people who took it upon themselves to become informed, spread knowledge and unite in resistance against an oppressive system. Only when everyday people realize that the horizontal fight is much less important than the vertical one will we make real progress as a nation.

Akira Kopec is a junior majoring in integrative neuroscience. 

Views expressed in the opinions pages represent the opinions of the columnists. The only piece that represents the view of the Pipe Dream Editorial Board is the staff editorial.