It’s a mediopoly

School voucher programs championed by President-elect Trump have faced stiff headwinds from voters but remain a priority for the incoming Republican-led Congress and the White House.

the recent assassination of the UnitedHealth CEO has forced me to confront my own biases and the systemic injustices i’ve quietly accepted as an American citizen.

i’ve had my own negative experiences with the US healthcare system, and to make matters worse… i work in the medical field, where i see countless cases of inequity every day. for a long time, i thought this was something i just "had to put up with." i never once considered challenging it.

i DON'T condone the assassin’s actions, but i do understand the desperation behind them. it’s incredibly frustrating and disheartening to feel trapped in a system that screws everyone over. i could never do what he did (i just don’t have the balls for it). but the fact that i feel guilty for not being radical enough to take extreme action tells me something is seriously wrong with the foundations of our country.

It is our collective complacency that has caused individuals to resort to radical measures to create real change. "Vigilantes" are a product of a system perpetuated by every single one of us. But we do not need to be a vigilante to be heard. The voice of the collective is the voice of the individual. It's easy to forget that when you are bombarded with news articles and TikToks that exploit our diminishing attention spans.

Policymakers EXPECT us to be complacent. They RELY on us to be "triggered" and "woke" for a couple weeks... before moving onto something new. It's gotten to the point where school shootings are NORMAL now. Just a typical Tuesday. Barely breaking news. How disgusting is that?

We are all jaded and equally responsible for the violence that is perpetuated in the modern sociopolitical landscape. I am just as guilty, and I feel completely useless—exhausted from talking in circles and taking actions that don’t seem to get us anywhere. I believe this sense of inadequacy is practically inbuilt into American politics and society as a whole.

with the current shifts in the American political landscape, i don’t feel like my voice is powerful enough to make a real difference. writing to admin, organizing protests, sparking open discussions—they all seem like productive actions on paper… but they just don’t feel effective anymore. peaceful, collective movements are more powerful— but right now, are we capable of organizing a peaceful nationwide movement? — such as the recent public protests in South Korea that led to their president getting impeached? is the American public conscious enough to boycott corporations it has wrongfully become enslaved to?

maybe I’m just spiraling, but i can't help but wonder— are we overlooking the power of our collective voice?

TL;DR: feeling disillusioned and burnt out in healthcare, frustrated by systemic inequality, and unsure how to make a real difference.