The Power of Community

I admit, I’ve been somewhat depressed lately. I find myself glued to the news and social media, obsessed with national and international politics and events, unable to understand the level of animosity and hatred between people. You feel it, too. The national trend toward selfishness and isolation into special interest camps threatens to destroy community. And then I look around Lufkin and refuse to believe all hope is lost.

On May 4, I attended a ribbon cutting for an innovative partnership between Angelina College and Lockheed Martin. Lockheed Martin – a global aerospace and defense company – employs over 500 people in Lufkin, where they manufacture components for several guided missile programs. Working with Angelina College, they created a new manufacturing skills training lab in AC’s Technology and Workforce Center, where students can receive college credit and qualify for an electronics assembler certificate. Certificate graduates will be eligible to follow an accelerated hiring schedule with Lockheed Martin. Those continuing on to get an associate degree have even more options.

The ribbon cutting was a community celebration. Mayor Mark Kicks was there, as well as State Representative Trent Ashby, Chamber CEO Tara Watson-Watkins, AC board members (of which I am one), representatives of the College and Lockheed Martin, and local and regional business development and community leaders. It was a beautiful sight! As Mayor Hicks noted, “Lockheed Martin wins by utilizing the unique training opportunities here at Angelina College to create the best trained employees in all of Lockheed Martin. Angelina College wins by educating workers on the latest in workforce technology.”

What was so heartwarming about the event was that it represented in a concrete way the coming together of community entities and people to accomplish much more than anything anyone could do individually or even as separate institutions. It has been said many times and in many ways that Lufkin is a generous and unique community – one that is full of philanthropic and committed people. We have so much in this county because people get together and make things happen, often with generous support of local foundations. But it is people first and foremost who make it happen.

Take the recent Angelina Benefit Rodeo. According to Chase Luce, President of the Lufkin Host Lions Club, the Rodeo deploys an army of hundreds of volunteers and raises nearly $200,000 to distribute annually for the benefit numerous local organizations, including the Lufkin State Supported Living Center. You can think of many other volunteer-driven arts and civic organizations, museums, churches, the Salvation Army, CISC, the Food Bank, etc., that do great work in our community by helping others and improving our quality of life.

Alexis de Tocqueville, a French aristocrat in the early 1800s, traveled the young United States and collected his observations and reflections in a two-volume tome Democracy in America. In describing what was unique about the United States, he wrote:

Americans of all ages, all conditions, all minds constantly unite. Not only do they have commercial and industrial associations in which all take part, but they also have a thousand other kinds: religious, moral, grave, futile, very general and very particular, immense and very small; Americans use associations to give fêtes, to found seminaries, to build inns, to raise churches, to distribute books, to send missionaries to the antipodes; in this manner they create hospitals, prisons, schools. Finally, if it is a question of bringing to light a truth or developing a sentiment with the support of a great example, they associate. Everywhere that, at the head of a new undertaking, you see the government in France and a great lord in England, count on it that you will perceive an association in the United States.

When it comes to getting something done – especially on the local level – we do not rely on the government when we can take care of it ourselves. Certainly government has a role in society, but so does volunteerism and philanthropy. At a time when we are increasingly depressed about national and world events, it is even more important to focus on what we can accomplish right here at home. Heck, it might just be the key to solving the world’s problems. Attorney and columnist David French modernized and expanded on de Tocqueville’s comments:

“It is here [in community] that we find meaning and purpose. It is here that we build friendships and change lives. … To do the big thing—to heal our land—we have to do the small things. … For those who think and obsess about politics, this shift from big to small is hard. It’s hard to think that how you love your friends [this community] might be more important to our nation [than national political positions, votes, or corporate activism].”

So, what can you do? Find an organization and get involved! Find a place to share your time, talent, and treasure with others. As I often have ended my columns, it boils down to loving God and loving your neighbor. Words are cheap (and meaningless) unless action follows. We cannot “Love Lufkin” – much less our nation and our world – without getting involved right here at home. 

Money, Insurance, and Health: An Unfair Relationship

Money doesn't buy happiness, or so they say. But money can buy better health. Add one more difference between the haves and the have nots.

There are many determinants of health. Some behaviors are more under our individual control than others. The Big Three, as I like to call them – smoking, diet, and exercise – would, at first glance, seem to be entirely personal choices. That would be untrue.

Social and economic factors are a major determinant of health. These factors include education level, employment, income, family and social support, and community safety. Each of these factors is correlated with financial well-being. In fact, these social and economic factors as a whole are more important even than individual health behaviors, such as tobacco use, diet and exercise, alcohol and drug use, and sexual activity, since health behaviors also correlate strongly with educational level, employment, income, etc. In other words, we cannot address health behaviors in isolation; we must simultaneously address education, jobs, social services, and community safety if we are to improve health.

Another significant determinant of health – the one that gets the most national attention – is access to and quality of healthcare. In the United States, that access is governed primarily by insurance coverage. Every country rations healthcare; in the United States, we just happen to ration it by separating the insured from the uninsured, and that is very much along economic lines. A privileged few are wealthy enough to be able to pay out of pocket for whatever care they need, but they rarely need to. They have insurance. Good insurance. They can afford to pay their deductible, however high it may be. The working poor, however, have some income but little or no savings and often no health insurance coverage at all. They are the ones who get hit with the entire, undiscounted bill for their care. Bankruptcy is an all-too-common result.

Our healthcare system does make some patchwork provision for the truly indigent, but no one should kid themselves that charity care is in any way equivalent – either in breadth of coverage or ease of use – to what we want for ourselves. Even those with insurance are burdened with astronomical deductibles and copays that most simply can’t afford. These persistent financial burdens can force patients to choose less expensive procedures or to go without care altogether.

And then there is Obamacare.

Implementation of the Affordable Care Act, aka Obamacare, started in 2010, when 16% of the US population – more than 40 million people – were uninsured. Healthcare provided since the advent of Obamacare is, as promised, both more affordable and more available. The percentage of people without health insurance has been cut in half.

The dirty little secret is that many healthcare providers don’t take Obamacare plans, funneling patients into inadequate primary care networks and forcing them to drive long distances for more specialized care. In other words, even under Obamacare we continue to ration care with money-related barriers. No question, Obamacare is far from perfect, but it is still better than nothing.

Ray Perryman, considered by many to be the Texas economist par excellence, issued a report in April 2019 titled Economic Benefits of Expanding Health Insurance Coverage in Texas. In this report, Dr. Perryman states, "Health care needs do not simply go away because individuals do not have insurance coverage. Instead, medical issues tend to escalate and lead to higher costs and worse outcomes. Texas would gain over $110 billion in new Federal health spending during the first 10 years." For the callous who are only interested in the economic benefit accrued to the state’s coffers, this report delivers that in spades.

Guess what, though? According to the Perryman Group report, expanding health insurance coverage in Texas also would result in enhanced “health and wellbeing of individuals directly affected by receiving coverage” as well as “reductions in the numbers of uninsured, fewer emergency room visits, improved health outcomes, enhanced employment and productivity, and other desirable developments.” That is a win-win, my friends.

There has been little political appetite to expanding coverage in Texas for fear of “socialized medicine” and an ever-more-intrusive Federal Government. I get it. We can have differences of opinion about whether and how much healthcare is a “right”, how much “responsibility” is required along the way, and the role of government in healthcare. But, leveraging $9.00 in federal resources for every $1.00 in state funding that results in improved health and return on investment is a bet I would make any day of the week.

Our individual and community health depends on many things. Money – or lack thereof – is the most insidious factor. Improving the health of an entire county, as measured by the Robert Wood Johnson County Health Rankings, will require a concerted effort on both the public and private sector fronts and with both large and small scale efforts. Expanding health insurance coverage in Texas via the Affordable Care Act would be an impactful place to start.

Dental Health is Community Health

We need to return to adding fluoride to our water supply.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) states that fluoridation of community water supplies is one of the ten great public health achievements of the 20th century in the United States. It ranks up there with vaccinations and control of infectious diseases. According to the CDC, fluoridation of drinking water, which began in 1945 and now reaches three out of four Americans, is both safe and inexpensive. The benefit? Reductions in tooth decay (40%-70% in children) and of tooth loss in adults (40%-60%).

Fluoridation of the water supply is race-blind and socioeconomic status-blind. It benefits children and adults regardless of access to dental care. According to dental association reports, on an individual basis, the lifetime cost of fluoridation is less than the cost of one dental filling. For communities, every $1 invested in water fluoridation saves $38 in dental treatment costs. This is a straightforward example of the benefit of public health.

The Texas Department of State Health Services runs the Texas Fluoridation Program (TFP) specifically to improve the health of Texans by preventing tooth decay through community water fluoridation. TFP assists public water systems in the engineering design, installation, and maintenance of water fluoridation systems; monitors the adjusted fluoride level in the drinking water; and maintains the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) fluoridation database for the State of Texas. The Texas DSHS notes that community water fluoridation is recommended by nearly all public health, medical, and dental organizations. The US Department of Health and Human Services’ Community Preventive Services Task Force completed its most recent review of community water fluoridation in April 2013; it recommended water fluoridation based on strong evidence of effectiveness in reducing tooth decay across population groups.

This is also an equity issue. A dental public health publication concluded that water fluoridation is the most effective and practical method for reducing the gap in decay rates between low-income and upper-income Americans. The Hispanic Dental Association has called fluoridation a valuable tool in the reduction of oral health disparities. Another public health paper noted that school performance is indirectly affected by fluoridation because children with poor dental health are nearly three times more likely to miss school and are four times more likely to earn lower grades.

Most water has some fluoride, but usually not enough to prevent cavities. The City of Lufkin 2017 Annual Water Quality Report – the most recent available online – states the fluoride level at the time was 0.722 ppm. The City of Lufkin website, on their FAQ page, continues to state that they add fluoride “at a constant concentration of 1 part per million gallons” and that it is added “as a deterrent to tooth decay.” But according to the CDC, the City of Lufkin’s water system, which supplies a population of more than 42,000 (not just Lufkin, mind you!), now has a fluoride concentration of 0.3, below what is recommended.

I confirmed with our City Manager, Keith Wright, that the City of Lufkin stopped fluoridating water last year. The rationale was that people get fluoride in many ways now, and it seemed unnecessary. In addition, there was concern about conflicting reports of health effects.

Chronic fluoride toxicity is usually caused by excessive fluoride concentrations in drinking water or the use of fluoride supplements. With controlled, measured fluoridation, there is minimal risk with significant public health benefit. A New England Journal of Medicine Journal Watch commentary noted that there may even be an added benefit for older women by increasing bone mineral density with less risk of hip fracture. As for fluoride from other sources, I love the way the Texas Oral Health Coalition, Inc. puts it: “Community water fluoridation and brushing with fluoride toothpaste complement each other, like seat belts and air bags in automobiles. Both work individually, but together they provide even better protection.”

The US Public Health Service’s recommendation for the optimal level of fluoride in community water systems is a ratio of fluoride to water calibrated at 0.7 parts per million. They reached this number after years of scientifically rigorous analysis of the amount of fluoride people receive from all sources, not just fluoridation of the water supply.

What about cost? The Texas Department of State Health Services Fluoridation Program estimates the cost of fluoride additive at $4011/year to the city, based on Lufkin’s average production rate and current average fluorosilicic acid price at $2.00/gallon. I don’t know exactly how accurate those numbers are, but it is obvious we are not talking a lot of money here.

Bottom line? Lufkin needs to return to fluoridating our water supply. And the Texas legislature should consider requiring municipalities to maintain recommended fluoride levels in municipal water supplies. After all, dental health is part of public and community health.

It Started With Kindergarten

It started with kindergarten graduation. However cute this photo op may be, it is symptomatic of a much larger problem in our society. We think – no, we demand – that our kids live in Lake Wobegon, the fictional town of Prairie Home Companion fame “where all the women are strong, all the men are good looking, and all the children are above average.” We refuse to admit that our children might be normal, so we turn every event into a hyped up ceremony.

I applaud the idea of giving our kids a healthy sense of identity, confidence, and purpose. But taken to extreme, all the pomp and circumstance paradoxically promotes selfishness and entitlement as opposed to a healthy sense of self in relation to others. We have created a self-centered ethos where everything is “all about me”, to be documented on Instagram, Facebook and Snapchat. This breeds a false self-confidence and self-identity apart from a true community.

We now have “promposals” where students elaborately stage and photograph asking a date to prom. To equate an invitation to a prom – already fraught with teenage angst and FOMO (fear of missing out) – with a wedding proposal is the height of high school self-promotion, if not self-deception.

Marriage proposals, too, are now destination events attended by families, videographers and drones – or even 100,000 of your closest football fans watching on the giant screen – turning a private, intimate declaration of love and commitment into an all-about-me reality TV event. Let’s not forget the expensive destination bachelor and bachelorette weekends and destination weddings that are increasingly leaving the traditional community behind. It is not a coincidence that we now have the term “bridezilla” to describe the selfish behavior of some brides. Consider the recent story of “Susan”, whose wedding was “ruined” because her invited guests wouldn’t write a check for $1,500 each so that she could have the Kardashian-for-a-day wedding of her dreams.

A new generation of kids, whose sex was announced by ever more elaborate gender reveal parties (including one in Arizona that caused a 47,000-acre wildfire), is being raised in a radically individualistic society, where one is encouraged to drink Diet Coke “Because I Can” and where we are urged to “Just Do You” when what advertisers really mean is, “Forget everyone else; you are the only one that matters.”

Fun fact: The number of emotional-support animals brought on airplanes increased by 74% from 2016 to 2017. I find it ironic that our Lake Wobegon above-average, perfect-at-everything-they-do kids grow up so insecure that they feel not only the need, but the entitlement, to take a live animal with them on a flight, or need a safe space because they can’t handle differences of opinion.

Our churches are not exempt from these worrisome trends. Do we only go to a church service to watch a performance and be entertained, and only if the performance is the music we like? Do we change churches like Sunday clothes? The church – the ekklesia, or assembly – is not about the individual any more than is society at large.

Any society is a group of people living and interacting with each other. It’s a give and take. Any community requires individuals to give up a part of themselves, not just with taxes (or tithes), or time, but also some of their preferences or needs or identity (i.e., their “self”-ish individuality) for the benefit and success of the whole.

Don’t get me wrong. I don’t long for a mythical 1950s time and place where WASP America demanded conformity to a non-existent ideal. I love the diversity in our communities, churches, and country. I celebrate the true individuality of people. But radical individualism destroys not only the community, but the individual soul as well.

No man is an island. John Donne (1572-1631), an English poet and cleric, penned that phrase almost 400 years ago. It is worth reading the entire poem:

No man is an island,
Entire of itself.
Each is a piece of the continent,
A part of the main.
If a clod be washed away by the sea,
Europe is the less.
As well as if a promontory were.
As well as if a manor of thine own
Or of thine friend's were.
Each man's death diminishes me,
For I am involved in mankind.
Therefore, send not to know
For whom the bell tolls,
It tolls for thee.

We are all part of mankind, the human race, and part of one another. When one hurts, we all hurt. When one dies, a little piece of each of us is gone.

As individuals, we aren’t all exceptional, and that’s ok. We are, however, all different, and that’s ok, too. But let’s not bow to the false god of everyone selfishly doing their own thing without regard for our fellow man. Living and working together with respect, cooperation, and a healthy self-sacrifice – putting others above self – we can be extraordinary. Now, that is something to teach in kindergarten.

The True Power of Community

I have been reminded lately how wonderful our community of Lufkin is! I use the word community intentionally, for Lufkin is more than a city and more than just voting districts or neighborhoods or individual churches, organizations, or professions. All of these terms tend to identify us in division - as in separateness, not conflict - as opposed to unity.

Not that these markers of identity (such as Rotarian, Church of God in Christ, nurse, Episcopalian, etc.) don’t carry significance or meaning. But community implies (indeed, demands) unity. In fact, the word unity is part of root meaning of community. And unity is our source of strength. When we all – individuals, organizations – have common goals, we can accomplish much.

Sometimes our community rallies around a common athletic team such as the Lufkin Panthers or – the last two years – our Little League players. When a sports team is made up of upstanding individual players, such as the Thundering 13 or the Fierce 14, their victories became our victories. Our pride is not only in their outstanding team play and championships, but in their character, which we not so secretly claimed was a reflection of our city’s character. After all, they are “our” kids.

At other times, our community comes together for important work caring for our own. Two shining examples are the annual Thanksgiving Community Food Drive and The Junior League of Lufkin’s Back to School Bonanza (B2SB). Both events are often seen as “one day” events and get great press when they happen. But the events themselves are the tip of their respective icebergs when it comes to the organization and fundraising that precede them. The real testament to community for each of these events, however, is the number of people involved and purpose of each event.

The Thanksgiving Community Food Drive was started by the late Reverend Bettie Kennedy more than 25 years ago, who hand-delivered Thanksgiving meal boxes to needy families in North Lufkin. Bruce Love joined the work in 1999. That year, they delivered 50 boxes. Over the years, as eyes were opened to the even larger need in the community, the volunteer base and money raised grew and grew. Last year, $27,500 was raised - all for food - and 500 volunteers met at Brookshire Brothers’ White’s warehouse to pack and deliver 2,000 boxes of food for families in need. This is a true community event.

The Back to School Bonanza is another great program with broad community support. The junior League of Lufkin headed that effort, providing $60,000 - on top of $20,000 raised in the community - and leadership to over 60 organizations, churches, businesses, and foundations along with more than 500 community volunteers to provide a staggering amount of help for needy school kids to get the school year started off right. This wasn’t just a backpack drive, either! Yes, nearly 2,200 backpacks filled with grade-specific school supplies were handed out (with most of the supplies purchased from Brookshire Brothers). In addition, 1,100 breakfast sandwiches, 1,000 granola bars, and 1,000 bottles of water were handed out, 3,000 health kits were donated, 958 head checks were performed (and 88 lice kits given out). Over 4,200 uniform pieces were collected along with 2,300 pairs of shoes and 2,500 pairs of socks and $5,000 worth of underwear! One hundred forty haircuts were given. Even 1,500 children’s books were given out. Sixteen vendor booths were set up as well. The first person was in line at 1:20 AM!

Want more examples? Impact Lufkin just purchased the old Lufkin Country Club 170-acre tract of land to be used as a “site where the community will sow the seeds of opportunity,” according to Dr. Patricia McKenzie, Vice President of Impact Lufkin’s Board of Directors. “We have been blessed with a unique venue to carry out our mission as a community-driven organization that connects resources with responsible partners, agencies and programs to serve as a catalyst for sustainable community empowerment, revitalization and enrichment.”

Angelina College has also had significant announcements lately, including the launch of the Early College High School program with Lufkin ISD and with support from the TLL Temple Foundation. LISD Superintendent Lynn Torres noted to the Lufkin News that “this partnership allows students to not only take enough classes for an associate degree, but to also have the additional support from college instructors, teachers and counselors.” In addition, Angelina College – also with the help of the TLL Temple Foundation – is expanding staff capacity of the Small Business Development Center to focus on North Lufkin. These efforts are a demonstration of the power of partnership and collaboration – in a word, community.

A healthy community like ours is evidenced by a unifying spirit of cooperation, trust, and respect across party, racial, and religious affiliations. The danger, though, in any living, breathing community is that division in the body can kill. Much like cancer, seeds of complaint and discontent do not benefit the body; they can grow, take over, and destroy it. We can have differences of opinion about how to support our community and provide assistance to our fellow citizens. But we must voice those opinions in constructive ways while seeking the common good.

Our community is not perfect; no community is. But we are pretty darn close! Lufkin is known for being a giving community. That reputation is well-deserved, but we cannot rest on reputation. We each have different gifts and different roles to play. But none of us are unnecessary; we each need to do our part. Only when we all contribute can we truly support our educational institutions, improve community health, combat poverty, and sustain the many wonderful quality of life organizations and events in our area.

The work continues. What can you give? Time? Money? Expertise? Get plugged in, work together, and give! For WE – together, in unity – are the true power of community.