Taking Back Our Lives

I don’t generally re-post but I was doing some research for an article and came across this old rant that seems as relevant now as ever.

The Fattening Of America

Back then my blog had fewer readers and, frankly, less focus as I was testing the waters as to what type of information it should contain. So my guess is that a lot of my current readership hasn’t seen it. It’s, essentially, akin to the film Fresh in that it’s about getting proactive and doing something about our personal situation when it comes to our health. Some topics never seem to age, though it’d be nice if this one did. Here is the closing:

All this apathy towards things that really matter allows our corporations to have their way with us. We’ll work longer hours, for less money, with no health care, and no vacation plan, for little retirement, just so long as the Yankees can win another pennant. During the time Roger Clemens has been pitching, we’ve seen the discrepancy between rich on poor in our country widen to the point that we’re, statistically, a third world nation. Our minimum wage has only raised a fraction and is current half of all other first world countries. Our president told a woman who spoke of working three jobs in order to just feed her kids that her situation was “uniquely American”. We’re grown too tired, too busy, too broke, too distracted to even bother with the basic things that we know keep us healthy. When did this happen? It’s not the America I grew up in.

But the real problem isn’t George Bush, the media, or the Enron’s of the world. The problem is us. As a society, we just don’t care enough anymore about what really matters. We need to wake up and take back our lives.

And, literally, that’s all it will take. Sure, the corporate stranglehold and statistical disadvantages won’t change over night. But your health will. And no matter how broke or busy we are become no can still eat better food and find thirty minutes a day to exercise. It’s really as simple as watching less baseball.