The Left claims that marginalized populations such as the LGBTQ community and racial minorities now are at literal risk, all thanks to the new Ottawa County Board of Commissioners.

New board members pledged to “govern with the least force and least authority required.” Meanwhile, the Facebook group, Ottawa Objects, and the organization, Out On The Lakeshore, seem to be melting in the heat of their own apocalyptic rhetoric.

Kate Leighton-Colburn, Executive Director of Out On The Lakeshore, was quoted in PrideSource as saying, “I think we’re waiting to see what happens. But as we do, Out On The Lakeshore is trying to provide a space for folks to grieve any changes that are being made and to come together in a place of safety, to support each other through this time. I think folks are just scared about the future.”

In a letter to the Holland Sentinel, “My Take: A letter to the newly named ‘majority of six,’” Marcia Mansaray, Ottawa County Deputy Health Administrator, said, “You thoughtlessly put individual departments’ funding at risk—and the people that depend on the services that funding provides. You dissolve the Diversity, Equity and Inclusion office and fire the staff, calling the office’s work “divisive” while you govern divisively, shutting out five fellow commissioners and implying that healthy conflict and diversity of ideas is a bad thing for Ottawa County governance and for Ottawa County’s residents.”

Ottawa County formed the DEI Department on December 11, 2018.

Ottawa County Health Department statistics on suicide between 2000 and 2021 show a suicide rate hovering around 8 suicide deaths per 100,000 people. In the three years preceding the formation of the DEI Department, 26 people committed suicide, and 30 did so in the three years after its creation.

This graph shows a slowly increasing suicide rate from an annual average of 8 to roughly 10 per 100,000 people. In the three years of the DEI Department’s existence, the local suicide rate overall reached its highest level in twenty years, though the number of youth suicides decreased.

Interestingly, Ottawa County’s suicide rate almost parallels the rising trends of suicide in both Michigan and the United States, but performed slightly better than the state and nationwide trends. While the national and statewide rates rose from just under 10% in 2000 to approximately 15% by 2018, Ottawa County’s increase was a more moderate increase from about 9% to 11%. Similarly, while the national average declined from its peak in 2018 of 15% down to 14-14.5%, Ottawa County’s rate remained at 11% in 2021, the same level as it was prior to the implementation of the DEI Department.

Now let’s look at suicide rates among various racial communities before and after the establishment of the DEI Department.

If we look at suicide by race, we see that in 2018, prior to the implementation of the DEI Department, a total of 32 suicides occurred.

In 2021, after the DEI Department had operated two full years, 33 suicides occurred. While Whites and Hispanics had the same number of suicides in both years, Asian suicides dropped from 3 to 1, while Black suicide rose from 1 to 3. The race of the additional 2021 suicide is noted as Other.

If there is one group that these statistics point to as being high risk, it is the veteran population. This group encompasses people of all races and sexes. If you were to look for one aspect of American culture that exemplifies equality, this would be the one.

Regardless of background, once you enlist—out of many—you are “one,” with one shared goal and one shared experience. Yet the disparity in the rate of suicides coming from this group shows an under-served part of the population, or at least one that has been forgotten.

As you can see from the graph above, while representing only 6% of the county’s population, veterans accounted for 24% of the suicides in 2021.

In a three-year span from 2016-2018, veterans accounted for only 4 total suicides in the county. Post-DEI implementation, those numbers rose to 17 in the following three-year span.

Now let’s take a look at mental health.

According to miottawa.org, the county’s mental health deteriorated over the past four years. From 2014 to 2017, the percentage of adults in “poor” mental health stayed relatively steady, with just a 0.2% increase.

To be fair, between 2019 and 2022, there was a pesky pandemic that threw a wrench into everything. Some of the increase in numbers of adults in poor mental health can surely be attributed to Covid. Likewise, the uptick in suicide also could be attributed to Covid. But that begs the question: Are the increases in suicide and poor mental health due to Covid, or to government policies imposed to minimize the effects of Covid by supposedly “flattening the curve” and “saving lives?”

The policy decisions made to combat the pandemic were primarily Democrat-led mandates: the lockdowns, roping off certain sections of big box stores, masking, school closings, restrictions on boating, fishing, and travel to second homes or other states (though our governor was exempt). These policies absolutely could be a major factor causing increases in mental health issues and suicide rates. It is important to note that the same people who created and supported the DEI Department implemented these policies.

The major aim of the DEI Department was to increase diversity by fostering a welcoming community. The following charts show the racial make-up of the residents of Ottawa County.

Our Changing Population: Ottawa County, Michigan, usafacts.org

If you quickly glance at the donut-shaped charts above, they look identical. That’s because the racial diversity of the county has changed very little from 2016 to 2021. The percentage of White people living in Ottawa County has been slowly decreasing by approximately .25% per year since 2016. Meanwhile the percentage of Hispanics in Ottawa County has risen by approximately 0.15% per year. There is no detectable change in the percentage of other minority groups.

While Ottawa County has been one of Michigan’s fastest growing counties, the total percentage of minority citizens has remained constant, increasing in proportion with the population. If the DEI Department was effective at making the county more welcoming to marginalized populations, wouldn’t minority percentages increase at a faster rate?

In its three years, the DEI Department produced no appreciable desirable effects on mental health, suicide, or welcoming in the county. Most telling for the ineffectiveness of the DEI Department is the lack of an increasing minority population over prior years.

So at this point, Democrats are left with a choice to make.

Either, they admit the DEI Department had zero positive impact, making it a wasteful or useless government program worthy of being eliminated, or they admit that democrat policies in response to Covid were an overall negative.

Just understand what that choice means:

EITHER:

The DEI Department’s efforts did nothing to attract minorities to the county in any greater rate, or to make this a safer community for those now professing to be in “grief” and “scared.”

OR:

Democrat responses to Covid harmed citizens’ mental health all the way up to and including suicide. The responses also limited opportunity for employment as shutdowns kept businesses closed, therefore hindering DEI policies to attract minorities at a greater rate to Ottawa County.