The story of us

I’m always on the lookout for how our Arkansas stacks up in smaller ways against other states.

Realizing we are smaller and poorer than many, I expect us to fall in the lower half of many comparisons. And the survey results by various interests largely back that up.

What isn’t measured is the lifestyle and feeling of freedom and overall sense of caring most Arkansans feel toward their neighbors across communities. And in today’s United States that’s worth more than ever.

Here are some of the results in different categories, according to the news site Axios:

In June 2023, for the second consecutive year, Arkansas ranked 43rd among the 50 states for child well-being in an annual report published by the Annie E. Casey Foundation.

The report rates children’s quality-of-life issues in the categories of economic well-being, education, health, and family and community.

Arkansas ranked 40th in economic well-being, with 22 percent of children living in poverty and 30 percent with parents without secure employment. Both of those seem shockingly high to me.

We ranked 37th in education, with 81 percent of eighth-graders not being proficient in math. I can’t help but wonder if that’s due to the subject matter, the attention span of students, the capability of many math teachers, or a combination of all of those.

Our Natural State placed 42nd in child health, with 37 percent of kids 10-17 classified as overweight or obese compared with 33 percent nationally.

Arkansas ranked 46th in the family and community category. About 38 percent of kids here live in single-parent homes compared to 34 percent nationally. Sad knowing nearly four in 10 of our kids live in that way.

Although Arkansas’ teen birth rate thankfully was reported to be about half what was 10 years earlier, it was still nearly double the national average, with 27 births per 1,000 females ages 15-19, according to Laura Kellams, Northwest Arkansas director for Arkansas Advocates for Children and Families. States that perform best in this category require comprehensive sex education in public schools, she said; Arkansas does not.

I’ve saved the best from the Axios report for last; always nice to end on positive note, such as it is. Arkansas fares better than the national average in a couple of categories.

About 11 percent of Arkansas high school students don’t graduate on time. While not an acceptable number, it still beats the national average of 14 percent. And about 10 percent of Arkansas kids have families where the household head has no high school diploma, compared to 11 percent nationally.

In housing, Axios reported this week, first-time homebuyers received 56 percent of mortgage offers in Arkansas in 2023, the third-lowest of the states, according to Lending Tree. That was considered another sign current homeowners are not wanting to surrender existing lowrate mortgages.

Nationwide, first-time homebuyers received 65 percent of mortgage offers in 2023. During the past five years, the share of first-time buyers has increased.

Axios reported: “The average selling price for a single-family home during the second half of 2023 was $420,144 in Benton County and $386,695 in Washington County, according to the latest Arvest Skyline Report. … However, fewer people overall took out mortgages in 2023. ‘First-time buyers simply appear to make up a larger portion of a relatively small pool of buyers,’ says Lending Tree senior economist Jacob Channel. …

“The largest share of offers went to first-time buyers in high-cost areas—including New York, California and New Jersey, where current homeowners are especially reluctant to give up their low mortgage rates—per the report.”

South Dakota (54.2 percent), Alaska (54.3) and Arkansas (56) had the lowest shares.

For other interesting facts pertaining strictly to Arkansas (interesting to me anyway), I went to the latest Census Bureau Report (July 2023), which said, among other findings, that we had an estimated population of 3,067,732.

Whites comprised 78.5 percent of Arkansas’ population and Black citizens 15.6 percent. Asians had 1.8 and Native Americans 1.1 percent.

We have an average of 2.51 persons in each household and a median annual household income of $56,335. Some 16.8 percent of our population live below the poverty line; 17.8 percent of our citizens are 65 or older.

There were 57.9 of us living in each square mile; the owner-occupied housing rate was 66.2 percent.

Between 2018 and 2022, 182,399 Arkansans were reported to be military veterans. The percentage of Arkansas residents 25 or older reporting having completed high school was 88.2 percent, while 24.7 percent said they completed a bachelor’s degree of higher.

At this point, I can only hope you’re a little more familiar with our state after reading all the way down here, valued readers. And for that effort, expect to receive an official (though somewhat-less-than-coveted) Mike Masterson Meritorious Medallion of Minutiae and Masterful Mentality.

ADVICE FROM EXPERIENCE

I was asked the other day: If I had one piece of advice to give readers unfortunate enough to develop the increasingly prevalent squamous cell head or neck cancer in days to come, what would it be?

I had two suggestions if I was given a do-over. First, without question. visit your doctor immediately if a lymph node begins swelling beneath your jawline. Don’t wait.

If tests prove positive for cancer, I’d have had mine removed immediately by an experienced surgeon before it had the opportunity to spread and envelop my jugular vein, carotid artery and all-important vagus nerve, all of which had to be removed through high-risk lifesaving surgery.

Believe me, it’s not going away on hopes or wishes, or useless antibiotics.

While I initially chose weeks of extensive radiation treatments with chemotherapy, as many successfully do, neither were successful for me. My cancer continued to grow and spread during those weeks of treatments until it wound up wanting to enter my skull.

My skilled surgeon, Dr. James Suen at UAMS, lamented that had he been able to get to the cancer a few weeks earlier, he very likely could have spared the blood vessels and nerve. That left me wishing in I’d seen him three months earlier when the lymph node became a lump.

Today it is what it as, and I’m sincerely hoping what I’ve learned from my less-than-optimum outcome will help others who unfortunately will face the same decision I did.

My second suggestion is to earnestly pray and ask others to do so for your recovery. It can never cause harm and it has mattered a great deal, as do a loving family and caring friends, in helping maintain a crucial positive state of heart and mind.

FLOWERS FORECAST FROST

If you’ve been past our home in Harrison, you know what a green thumb Jeanetta has. She enjoys covering every square foot of the front and backyards that isn’t mowable with all types of flowers. It’s in her spirit to generate beautiful new life.

And sure enough, every March when we have a week or so of nice weather, she winds up cussing the two or three subfreezing cold fronts that invariably come whipping through after everything has blossomed.

Like many who are fulfilled by making their yards beautiful and anxious to get started, she just can’t wait until a week or so after Easter. Hence annual disappointment will remain in the forecast.

Thankfully the flowers are always either replanted or, appropriately enough, resurrected after Easter. Regardless, I have a feeling this predictable cycle at our house will continue during the first warm and tempting week next March. I’m certain she isn’t alone.

Now go out into the world and treat everyone you meet exactly like you want them to treat you. And never be reluctant to pay it forward.