Thurston County is shaped by the state government in Olympia, fast-growing urban areas along I-5, and our rural communities from the Black Hills to the Nisqually Valley. We need to remember that our success depends not just on strong local decision-making in individual communities, but also on people across the county communicating and working together despite our different perspectives.
Across the country, we’ve seen the gutting of the systems designed to help us. We see it in rising health care copays that hit seniors and veterans especially hard, thinning budgets for basic food programs, and the scaling back of mental health and substance abuse treatment. These aren't just line items; this is the floor falling out from under us. This affects everyone, whether you live in a downtown loft or on a twenty-acre farm.
This problem isn’t unique to Thurston County. Here, we see it in the budget deficit our county faces. When state, federal and local mandates go unfunded, our local government has to cover the costs with less money coming in. In one recent example, the county decided to explore funding a new public safety program with donations from private individuals. This is problematic because funding public safety through private donations is a slippery slope, and public services should be accountable to the public, not the highest bidder.
But this isn’t just about funding streams or politics. It’s about the basic right of local people to decide how our county’s resources are used.
People from all political backgrounds have a reason to support keeping control of our spending and priorities public. People from every corner of our county are struggling with the same kitchen-table issues that aren’t being addressed in any real, meaningful way.
Working together across traditional divides is critical. In our county, environmentalists, politicians and ranchers can team up to restore the Deschutes Estuary, protect native prairies and, yes, even help the pocket gopher.
We don’t do this work because we agree on every point, but because we understand that a healthy ecosystem makes for productive farmland, which leads to a healthy economy in the cities, which generates revenue for our local government, and that helps everybody.
Stacey Abrams recently said, "What they’re doing at the top only sustains itself if we decide there’s no alternative." To me, this applies as much to corporatist Democrats as it does to authoritarian Republicans.
As much as I hate to say it, help is not on the way. We have to be that alternative. You can start today by joining a city or county advisory board, getting active with a community watchdog group or your neighborhood association, or volunteering to gather supplies for food banks and outreach teams in your community.
They say action eats anxiety, so if nothing else comes of it, you’ll feel good about getting out there and doing something.
We are more alike than those who profit from our doom-scrolling want us to believe. If we each pledge to put a little sweat equity into our community and give a little grace to one another, we can build a shared commitment to a thriving future for the people of Thurston County and make sure nobody is left behind.
•••
Rob Richards is a Navy veteran and former congressional staffer who has been an active community member in Thurston County for over two decades. To submit an opinion piece to the Thurston Chronicle, email news@thurstonchronicle.com
