A Look at Tillamook County, Oregon’s Needs by the Numbers

By Neal Lemery

(Published in the Tillamook County Pioneer, 7/7/2025)

A friend asked me the other day what they might do to help the community. They wondered if we had significant poverty and other social issues. I told them to take a good look around and become aware of what seems so obvious to many of us. I researched some alarming statistics, which are likely outdated, understated, and under-reported. These numbers paint a disturbing picture and are a call to action.

Oregon State University and the Ford Family Foundation have assembled an insightful look at where our county is at in terms of our well-being, health, and educational needs. https://www.tfff.org/wp-content/uploads/Tillamook-CountyProfiles-2024.pdf

46% of our households experience financial hardship (12% live below the federal poverty line, 34% below the Asset Limited, Income Restrained, but Employed (ALICE), which means they don’t have enough income for their basic needs). That 46% compares to 29% nationally.

11% of the population has food insecurity.17% of our kids live in poverty.

33% of our population has a third grade reading level or less; 21% have a fifth grade math level or less.

We pay more property taxes ($2,296 per person) than the state average of $1,862.

Our two-year-old kids have only a 56% vaccination rate (Oregon has a 68% rate).

Our mental health providers have a ratio of 317 people per provider, but Oregon’s ratio is 148 people per provider.

We live in a “child care desert” with 7.9 providers per 100 kids. The state ratio is 18.4 providers per 100 kids.

With the oncoming cuts in SNAP benefits and Medicaid (the Oregon Health Plan), these local statistics and the impact on our neighbors and our community will only become more challenging. There is talk about not keeping local hospitals and clinics open, and cutting food programs in schools.

What my friend can do, and what we can all do, is become better informed, and more involved in organizations that are taking on the social issues that these statistics mean to all of us. We all know people who are working in the professions that deal with the problems associated with poverty, education, health care, food supply, and the needs of kids. Their knowledge, their experiences, and their passion for service and care of others are tremendous assets to the community.

We need more conversations, more engagement by all of us in these issues. We need to be better informed, not only on the issues that these numbers represent, but how we can collectively address these problems, learn about solutions and how to become engaged in being our community problem solvers.

These numbers, and the daily struggle and challenge our community members have, are a call to action. We need to have difficult conversations, and be the cause of “good trouble” as John Lewis famously said.

As Margaret Meade said, “Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful committed individuals can change the world. In fact, it’s the only thing that ever has.”

–7/7/2025

On Freedom

By Neal Lemery

(published in the Tillamook County Pioneer, 7/1/2025)

“Freedom, in its simplest form, is the power or right to act, speak, or think as one wants without hindrance or restraint. It’s often associated with liberty and autonomy, signifying the ability to make choices and act without coercion. In a broader sense, freedom can encompass various aspects, including freedom of speech, religion, and the press, as well as freedom from oppression and want.” –Wikipedia

We live in society, living collectively, in a structured existence with certain expectations, common rules of behavior and conduct, and common beliefs on how we should behave. We pride ourselves on being free.

Our common idea of who we are as a community, as a nation, is that none of us are “free” to act as we individually desire, to be anarchists. Instead, each of us has agreed to be part of the tribe, grouped together with common purposes and expectations, and obligations of citizenship.

This acceptance of our “social contract” was extensively discussed during the Age of Enlightenment of the 18^thCentury, and became the framework for the rise of democratic and republican institutions. It was the intellectual foundation of the American Revolution, a rejection of the tired social structure of monarchies and the divine right of kings. Abandoning the autocratic structures of feudalism, reformers advocated for giving voice to individualism and government based on popular, educated debate and majority rule. The Virginia Bill of Rights, the Declaration of Independence, and the US Constitution emerged from such thought and debate.

That debate of our fundamental common principles continues today, as we refine and reshape our society and our governmental and economic structures. We owe it to ourselves and the entire community to respect and nurture these conversations, and to be meaningful, informed parties to those conversations. Such is the labor of a freedom-loving people.

True freedom is not anarchy, and does not thrive without a form of government that respects both individual voices and a collective acceptance of community good. The implementation of individual rights and collective accountability often seem to be conflicting, but in that, both enlightened ideals will thrive and nurture both individual freedoms and society as a whole.

Our disagreements, our debates, our differences of opinions, our seemingly competing values are actually our strengths as a society. Vigorous and informed debates and conflicts sharpen our minds and strengthen our respective opinions and viewpoints. The inquisitive mind and critical thinking are some of our greatest assets. In engaging in vigorous debate, we are truly fulfilling our respective obligations within our social contract, by being educated and active citizens, speaking our minds and giving deep consideration to the views and opinions of others.

Freedom isn’t being able to do whatever I please, or say whatever thought pops into my head. Instead, I have obligations, part of the duties of being a free person, to delve into issue, research my facts, develop sound logical arguments, and engage in dialogue that is respectful of others, informed, and also open to change and reconsideration.

As a citizen, as a person who honors the concept of freedom, I am fulfilling my obligations as a citizen to be informed, to be questioning of my own opinions and the opinions of others, and to participate in the public forum with respect for others and the willingness to change my own views.

Part of freedom is the duty to be a lifelong learner, a continuing gatherer of facts, and to engage in meaningful, respectful debate of the issues of the day. This is good citizenship. And this is being an endorser of the principle of a free and just society.

Each of us is obligated to be a good and responsible member of the tribe, the village, the state, and the nation. By revolting against the king, we have taken on the tasks of governing ourselves, through healthy, vigorous democratic institutions. Each of us has duties to work to strengthen and protect our democratic institutions, “to promote the general welfare and provide for the common defense.”

8/29/2025

Searching for Truth

By Neal Lemery

(Published in the Tillamook County Pioneer, 12/3/2024)

I keep learning the important lessons of life, again and again. My guardian angel must think I’m a difficult student—certainly a stubborn one.

A recent news story caught my eye and after reading several reports in the media, I thought I was comfortable in my understanding. True to old habits, I jumped to some conclusions and was firm in my views. Yet, I kept reading and came across some other stories and opinions about that story. That new information and those differing viewpoints nudged me into taking another run at my previous conclusions and certain opinions, my version of “Truth”.

Maybe I didn’t have it right. Maybe, just maybe, my take on the story wasn’t as objective, wasn’t as close to the “search for truth” viewpoint that I pride myself in thinking in life. Maybe I was mistaken, misinformed, maybe not seeing the whole picture. Maybe my understanding was biased, slanted, yes, even corrupted by incomplete or faulty thinking and comprehension, and being manipulated by others. Maybe, just maybe, I was wrong.

Ego gets in the way in these situations, and old prejudices and thinking patterns can play a more influential role in my life than I care to admit. Looking at my faults, and my inaccurate and slanted thinking can be humbling, and can show me a side of myself that I find uncomfortable. I am partially a product of my Euro-American heritage, and my experiences as a lifelong rural Oregonian. I need to consider those biases in my thinking processes.

My unease in this process keeps teaching me the lessons of humility and truth-seeking, that I often don’t know the “right answer” and need to keep a skeptical and discerning attitude in a lot of things in life, That’s especially true when I’m not experiencing first hand, the situation in which I am making a judgment call and expressing my (biased) opinions.

In those situations, I’m relying on what other people experienced and thought about, and the information I’m gathering is almost always only a product of other people’s experiences, viewpoints, and prejudices. And, their judgments, and motives to give me a slanted, and often manipulated take on the story. I want to believe what I’m hearing is pure Truth, but it so often is not Truth, but corrupted, slanted, only partially informed opinion, presented to me with the motive of gaining my support and advancing their own political and economic agendas.

I should know better. But too often, I get sucked in, falling for the slanted story, the propaganda, the manipulation, intended or not. I need that grain of salt my aunt would talk about, that healthy dose of skepticism, that very often leads one down the healthier path of a second look, an exploration of what really happened, and viewpoints that come closer to the Pure Truth that I am searching for. And, often not finding, but I can be satisfied that my search, my discernment, my curiosity made a valiant attempt at finding out the whole picture, that all points of view were explored and considered, that I weighed the differing observations and opinions, that I came closer to discovering the Truth of the matter.

My aunt would always caution me to take another person’s observations and opinions “with a grain of salt”. She was a skeptic, and would do her own research, thinking through a situation, continually gathering hard data and differing perspectives. She was one of my rocks, the voice of sensibility and clear thinking. We could disagree, but there were rich and fruitful discussions. She challenged me to do my own research and to speak my own mind.

Some would call this critical thinking, a process of evaluating information and viewpoints, that looks for the whole picture, and all the factors that the observers and commentators relied on in coming to their views. And, that process includes my own experiences in life, my own unique background and biases, and certainly my own learning style and thought processes.

My latest wrestling with what is fact and what is fiction is a good lesson for me. I’ll be taking my own salt shaker with me when I’m thinking about an issue, and developing my own opinion.

12/3/2024

Looking at the Content of My Character

(published 9/27/24 in the Tillamook County Pioneer)

By Neal Lemery

Almost seventy years ago, I remember watching soldiers on our grainy black and white television, escorting kids my age into a school. I asked my mom why the soldiers were doing that, and her answer left me confused, unsettled.

“It’s because of their race, the color of their skin, and that the school and the white community doesn’t want them to go to that school,” she said. “But it’s the law. They have a right to go to that school, and the soldiers are enforcing the law.”

My mom’s answer upset me, scaring me that soldiers in our country would have to make sure kids like me could go to school, and that would happen with soldiers armed with rifles and bayonets walking with school kids the same age as me. I was a naïve kid and it was the first time I remember experiencing racism.

I’m still scared and unsettled by that scenario, those responses, and all the racist conduct and talk in our country. It’s all around me. Still.

And the news. There are still the videos of racism and violence, and people living as if the color of someone’s skin really mattered. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s wisdom that the color of one’s skin doesn’t matter, but the content of their character does, still reverberates in me, still makes a lot of sense to me. Why don’t we, as a country, grasp that seemingly elemental observation?

The other day, I talked with a man who was telling me about his accident, how he is still hurting, and that the guy that T-boned him was careless, and didn’t have insurance. I’d been in a crash like that a few years ago and I expressed my sympathy and wished him a speedy recovery. I’d struggled with the pain, and the good results I had in working on my own forgiveness and compassion.

“He was ***, you know,” he added. “One of those ***** ***, who don’t belong here,” he added. He ranted and raved some more, about immigrants and “those people” being lazy and “good for nothing.” It seemed his view of the world was neatly divided into “them” and “us”.

His face reddened and he kept flying off the handle for several minutes, leaving me still mystified about the connection between someone’s ethnicity and speculative immigration status, and a traffic crash with whiplash and a concussion. I’m doubting if the guy had actually done some fact checking and checked on someone’s citizenship status. And, I recalled another conversation I’d had with him several years ago about how proud he was of his grandparents’ emigration to this country, and how they had worked hard and succeeded, living the American dream. He would go on and on about how proud of them he was, and how hard they worked to be part of America. He didn’t see the connection, the commonality of his family and the man he was angry with, or deal with the idea that most of us are either immigrants or that our ancestors were immigrants.

I’m still wondering if I shouldn’t have been a bit more vocal, and a lot more assertive about this blatant expression of racism and bigotry. It’s not the 1950s in Arkansas now, nor the Oregon of 1859, but we still seem to stay in our racist ways, a common expression of bias, prejudice, and downright ugliness. And, I’m hearing high elected officials and candidates for national office being forthright and outspoken on their racism and bias, seemingly deaf from the outrage of much of the population.

Maybe I need to be more intolerant, and more biased against bigotry and hate.

My state, Oregon, has a long and sordid history of racism and bigotry, beginning our statehood by prohibiting Blacks and Chinese people from even living here. My town had a “sundown” law on the books until the 1980s. I still hear the “N word” in public conversations.

And, until last week, a nearby creek’s legal name contained a racial slur. I came home to see a note from another friend, a celebratory announcement of his ability to prevail with the state geographic names board. He’s a historian, and his research discovered that a creek still bore a racist reference to an early homesteader. Well, its 2024 and my friend thought some reform and rehabilitation was in order, so he petitioned the board for a name change, which was promptly granted. The old name had been on maps since the 1870s. Didn’t anyone notice? Or worse, feel uncomfortable enough to seek a name change?

A few weeks ago, a clerk bragged to me that she didn’t need to learn Spanish for her job. “They can just learn English,” she said. Then I watched her struggle to handle a simple transaction for the next customer, whose native language was Spanish. I ended up helping them, with my limited skills, but I was able to smile and make an attempt with both of them, receiving smiles and appreciative nods from both the stubborn clerk and the customer. It was a good reminder to me that I need to work on my own language skills, that I need to practice what I preach, and to keep on learning and growing in our culture, and a reminder that while others are learning English, that I and other English speakers could work on our Spanish. The issue seems to be one of developing a good character.

I’m not sure the clerk got the memo, but the exchange was a good example of the benefits of bilingual skills.

Racism seems to be still infested in our community, and our nation. I find myself often confronted with my own biases and prejudices, and need to realize that I’m a product of our culture, a lot of subtle bigotry, and that it’s never too late for some introspection and to be on the smart side of the 21^st century. I need to smarten up.

9/27/24

Winners and Losers: Post Election Thoughts

By Neal Lemery

The quiet you are hearing today as you sip your coffee is the resumption of normal life after the frantic election season. The passionate voices and political advertising noise are fading into the past. We can collect our thoughts without being bombarded, manipulated, and offered endless rides on the roller coasters of political hype. I need to burn off the adrenaline and angst that the marketers and a number of my friends and neighbors have been firing up in our community life.

It might even be safe to have coffee with a friend and exchange pleasantries at the grocery store and post office without donning our political armor. I’d welcome a time of not having heated encounters that will erupt into cultural warfare and social media bloodletting.

One way to think of the election results is by listing the winners and losers. That’s painful and continues the divisiveness that has marked this political season. And, remember, the “losers” are still around, still involved in our community. Like all of us, they should be a positive force for building community.

Labeling and belittling people isn’t productive, to say the least. I, for one, have had my fill of negative politics this year. There will be other elections and other conversations and debates about important community issues. Those discussions should include all of us, no matter who received the most votes this week.

There are real winners in this election: For one, democracy and voter participation. 80% of those registered made the effort to vote. Lots of people got involved and talked about issues, policies and goals that are important to all of us. And, secondly, the community won. All this energy and passion educated many of us about important questions and issues that affect how we live and where we go from here. Many of us are fired up to get more involved and bring about change.

No matter what the election returns mean to each of us, we still live in our community. We still have family, friends, and neighbors whom we value. We are still together, and we still share our lives, our hopes, and our dreams. I still want to believe that the vast majority of us are good people, who are living their lives with compassion and a determination to make a better world.

Life goes on. No matter who received the most votes, our community issues are still here, and still need our attention. We still have work to do. Not necessarily political work, mind you, but vital work nonetheless. Together we are stronger.

11/4/2020

Getting Distracted

Some of the best conversations I’ve had occur in the aisles of the local grocery store. There, in those spontaneous and seemingly random encounters, I find the greatest wisdom, coming from longtime friends who speak profound wisdom and solid Truth.

We nearly ran into each other, grocery lists in hand, and quickly caught up on the successes of a mutual friend. Our similar political views led us to some hand wringing about one of the current scandals on what I’ve been calling our collective national news feed.

“But, it’s really all a distraction,” my friend says. “Keeping us from talking about and taking action on the really important stuff.”

My friend is right. I am distracted, feeling like I’m jumping from one outrageous story to another, never having the time to be fully morally outraged about an event or a trend, when another absurd or unsettling story blips on my radar screen, stirring up my indignation, and leading me down another rabbit hole in the political and cultural scene.

Some of my angst comes from not feeling I’m taking action myself, righting some injustice through my own actions, or simply not speaking out at all, because I’m distracted.

I’ve been finding some direction and camaraderie with a wise person from the nineteenth century, Ralph Waldo Emerson. Politics and culture in his time weren’t tranquil and serene, and, in his writing, he spoke out against injustice, hypocrisy, and what one of my social worker friends calls “stinking thinking”.

“At times the whole world seems to be in conspiracy to importune you with emphatic trifles. Friend, client, child, sickness, fear, want, charity, all knock at once at thy closet door and say,—’Come out unto us.’ But keep thy state; come not into their confusion. The power men possess to annoy me I give them by a weak curiosity. No man can come near me but through my act.” —Ralph Waldo Emerson.

I’ve been distracted from being purposeful, intentional, and acting against the intolerance and injustice of our times.

“The purpose of life is not to be happy. It is to be useful, to be honorable, to be compassionate, to have it make some difference that you have lived, and lived well.”

_Ralph Waldo Emerson

Am I living well, am I living to be useful and compassionate, and making a difference? Like all of us, I suspect, I want to be living in the here and now, to be productive.

My grocery store conversation stirred me up, and I’m motivated to keep at it, keep doing my life work, and making a difference.

I’ve long believed that social ills and “stinking thinking” are best addressed by a good public airing, so people can truly see a thought or an attitude for what it really is. One of my missions in life has been to seek the truth, and bring it to light.

My friends in the medical community often talk about the curative properties of sunlight and fresh air, and how infections often respond to a change in the environment, and the need for a thorough examination under a bright light, bringing in fresh air, and creating a place where healing can begin.

I’ve long enjoyed the idea of clearly identifying the elephant in the living room, so people can begin to talk about the real problem, take ownership and responsibility, and move towards finding solutions. Such clarity and directness gets us “down to brass tacks”, as my grandmother used to say.

Then, another news story, and a flurry of unreasoned opinions, rants, and personal attacks. Distractions, again.

Uncivil discourse, a sign of the times.

Blindsiding and personal attacks; not having meaningful, purposeful conversation about the issue at hand — it all reminded me of what our national political conversations have turned into, a lot of noise taking away our need to focus on productive discussions and the elephant in the living room. We are being distracted from expressing and sharing, not having well thought out and articulated debates on issues vital to our national health and direction, and respecting people’s views, even if we might disagree with them.

My grocery store encounter with my good friend reminded me that distractions are simply that. They get in the way, and keep me from my purpose in life and in my community. I need to keep focused on the task at hand, the issues we are facing, and carry on, “to be useful, to be honorable, to be compassionate, to have it make some difference that you have lived, and lived well.”

–Neal Lemery, 6/1/2018

Being Civil

I wear a number of hats in my community, and I’m involved in a number of issues for which I have a great deal of interest and passion. My resume could be rather lengthy, but then, most people I know around town also take on a variety of tasks and roles, and have a treasure chest full of talents and experience. And, I’m certainly not the only one who can get stirred up about a subject.

My most important job title is “Citizen”. And we need to respect each other, and honor our fellow citizens for their vital role in our social fabric.

We don’t always agree, but we do keep talking with each other. We have lively, often passionate discussions and conversations about “hot topics” and how we can marshall our collective resources and move forward.

I suppose that’s politics, but it is politics in the good sense. We put our passions and our viewpoints out on the table, so we can have rich discussions, and so we can come together and find solutions, and implement them.

Sometimes, our conversations are heated and involved, but that is because we care. We care about each other, we care about our community, and we care to take the time and energy to make our community a stronger, more effective place to live our lives and invest in our future together.

I’ve learned to respect other people’s viewpoints. They have had different experiences, different backgrounds, different thoughts and opinions. Those differences are resources, assets for all of us to treasure and respect. We need all the tools we can find to take on our community’s problems and to move ahead.

In those conversations, those disagreements, we have the opportunity to explore the full extent of our problems and our solutions. Disagreements are really resources, and differing viewpoints give us the opportunity to examine our own views and our own solutions. By listening to others, respecting their views, and by working towards a consensus, or at least a collective decision based on compromise and fully explored views, we make better decisions.

Our diversity is one of our strengths and one of our best tools to build a better community and a better country.

I want people to not stir the political cauldrons, yelling about our differences, or crank up the volume of heated arguments. Nor do I want to applaud the cleverness of someone’s political rhetoric, or the depth of sarcasm and vitriolic speech.

Let’s tone it down, and be civil with each other.

“Civility means a great deal more than just being nice to one another. It is complex and encompasses learning how to connect successfully and live well with others, developing thoughtfulness, and fostering effective self-expression and communication. Civility includes courtesy, politeness, mutual respect, fairness, good manners, as well as a matter of good health.”

– Pier Massimo Forni, Professor, Johns Hopkins University, who chairs their Civility Project (http://krieger.jhu.edu)

Wise words from the National Institute for Civil Discourse, at the University of Arizona, Tucson. (http://projectcivildiscourse.org) :

“Lately, there’s been a lot of talk about the need for community leaders and elected officials to tone down the divisive and polarizing dialogue that seems to typify discussion about difficult community and political issues. But what is it that average, ordinary people can do to help heal our community and restore our sense of cohesiveness and solidarity in order to take on our common ground issues and concerns? We’d like to suggest the following as a starting point for measuring our individual impact on restoring Arizona’s “Civil Culture.” Feel free to add to this list!

1. 1. Be an active part of the community you live in!

o Do you know your neighbors? If not, go meet them! Make food to share and use it as an occasion to go door to door to meet new neighbors or your closest neighbors that you may not have met.

o If you are eligible, register to vote, inform yourself about local issues and vote in local, state and national elections. Attend public meetings and read up on the issues to make informed decisions.

o Get to know who your elected officials are and how to contact them to inform them of your views.

2. Volunteer / Serve others

o There are innumerable community organizations looking for regular or occasional volunteers.

Investigate ways to involve your whole family in regular volunteer activities that speak to an interest or concern that you all share.

o Make yourself available (within reason) to assist friends and neighbors in need.

3. . Make sure future grown¬ups are part of the solution

o If you’re a parent, talk to your children about respecting others with differences of opinion, and lead by example. Involve them in discussing ways to deal with conflict and disagreement in constructive, bridge -building ways.

o If you don’t have children, get involved with mentoring programs to provide support to young people who may not have good adult role models in their lives.

4. 4. Don’t take yourself so seriously

o When someone disagrees with you, don’t take it personally. Refuse to allow the disagreement to escalate into an exchange of personal attacks. Ask questions to really try to understand where the other person is coming from, and show them that while you may not agree with them, you are interested in understanding their point of view.

o If you’re having a bad day, consciously make an effort not to take it out on others.

5. . Broaden your horizons
Learn about, or get involved with, people that are not like you. Seek out cultural activities or performances that you’ve not experienced before; read about or take a class on another culture, religion, political ideology, interest, etc.”

Developed March 08, 2011 by Maricopa Community Colleges Center for Civic Participation for Project Civil Discourse * projectcivildiscourse.org

— Neal Lemery 2/1/2016