SHARE & VOICE: Save the planet? Yeah right!

Hey Guys,

I was just "youtubing" because I'm pretty much addicted to any and every type of video out there. Well I don't know if any of you have heard of a comedian named George Carlin before, but I believe he was one of the greatest and smartest stand up comedians to ever be in the business (he passed away last June). I say this because he's a very logical person with his comedy...everything he says just seems to makes sense and that's why it's funny!

In this video, he talks about environmentalists and people just wanting to save the earth in general. It basically contradicts everything we've learned in class thus far, but I wanted to post this because it gives you the other side of the story, and really makes you think. I have to warn you though, he uses a lot of profanity so if you oppose of this, DO NOT WATCH! For the rest of you, enjoy!

PS. What are your thoughts after watching this? Do you agree or disagree with him?

Advocacy Project: Letter to Public Official

Ben Lee

2021 Sugar Cone Dr.

Cookies&Cream, MN 55801

April 28, 2009

Senator Amy Klobuchar

302 Hart Senate Office Building

Washington, DC 20510

Dear Senator Klobuchar,

I respectfully ask that you vote to pass the SF 2028 bill, which focuses on increasing public access to outdoor recreation and parks for communities.

As you may know, obesity has been a huge issue and major concern in America for the past few years. One of the main reasons obesity is becoming an epidemic in America is because people are not getting enough daily exercise and/or physical activity. By passing this bill, you will provide the lower class and more importantly, children, an ideal environment to be physically active. It is crucial that children grow up with an active lifestyle so that they will continue on this healthy lifestyle in their future. Teaching children to be active may be the single most affective, easiest, and cheapest way to prevent obesity in America. I am aware that health facilities are already available and people can also exercise right in their homes, however, health facilities are oftentimes costly and exercising outdoors is a very different positive experience than exercising indoors. With that being said, I believe by passing this bill and providing more outdoor parks for communities, we will be taking a crucial step towards decreasing obesity in America.

I am aware that you may not know exactly how problematic obesity in America really is. There are a few facts you may want to know about this issue. As of now 63% of American are overweight. Even worse, the child obesity rate has tripled within the past two decades. This is a major concern because obesity leads to many serious chronic diseases later on in life such as type 2 diabetes, high cholesterol, high blood pressure, cardiovascular disease, and some cancers. And according to the U.S. General Surgeon report, obesity is responsible for over 300,000 deaths per year.

Since obesity is highly modifiable, if not genetic, we should work to prevent this epidemic and save hundreds of thousands of American lives every year. As a health educator and a physically active citizen, I know that exercise is vital for good health. I understand that with more money comes better health. Because of this, passing the SF 2028 bill will help eliminate such economic barriers. I have had the privilege to go to a fairly nice high school and college which both had nice exercise facilities. I believe people who don't have these privileges still deserve a place to be physically active. Passing this bill will affect me very positively because I believe reducing obesity is a moral issue that everyone should be concerned about. Also by passing this bill, it will create justice for the whole public regardless of one's socioeconomic status.

Hopefully by now you are more aware of this issue. As a mother, I know you support child safety and promote child growth in all aspects. I am also aware that you have voted to pass bills to protect children from harmful products, environments, and people. By passing the SF 2028 bill you will be protecting children from the most dangerous aspect of their lives, chronic-disease. I hope you will vote "yes" to this bill to help keep America's children, lower class, and communities in general, healthy by being physically active every day.

If you have any questions, or would like more information about anything else regarding this issue, please feel free to contact me at (952) 925-2592. Thank you for reading this letter. Your time is greatly appreciated.

Sincerely,

Ben Lee

Advocacy Project: Issue Overview

The issue I chose for this project is to improve health, fitness, and quality of life through daily physical activity. The related bill is SF2028, Parks and trails funding eligibility requirements and parks fund appropriations priorities establishment. It mainly talks about trying to increase public access to parks and outdoor recreation, and also funding for more places to be physically active outside.

Who is affected by this issue?

I believe the younger population and also the lower class will be most affected by this issue in a positive way. Since public exercise facilities such as Lifetime, or the YMCA can be costly and unaffordable for many, having more places to be physically active outside will promote this issue. Also it is important for children to grow up being physically active, so providing more parks for them will impact their lives. So children and the lower class will gain the most out of this issue. People who may be negatively impacted are the taxpayers. Taxes may need to increase to help fund these outdoor areas.

What are the consequences?

As a result of this issue, children and the lower class population will have more opportunities to be physically active which will impact their health in a positive way. Children will grow up with a habit of playing outside rather than sitting inside and watching TV all day. The lower class population will also be able to enjoy physical activity, and it will help prevent obesity which will also prevent chronic illness as well. Families would have an overall higher quality of life because of healthier siblings and parents. If all families engaged in some kind of physical activity every day, the society as a whole would become much healthier, and chronic disease would be at minimum.

What is the economic impact?

Like I mentioned earlier, the tax payers may be affected by this issue if no grants or other funds are offered by the government. It will cost a good amount of money for land space, and proper resources. Also health insurance agencies may be impacted as well because if more people are physically active, people will be getting sick much less often. On the other hand, people using these parks and public services will economically benefit the most because they will not have to pay expensive fees to use these facilities. Also, they will be bettering their physical health which will help prevent future illness. This, in turn, will result in less visits to the hospital and drastically lower medical costs.

What is the social impact?

This issue will have a huge social impact on individuals and communities. More outdoor parks will allow individuals, and families to come together and enjoy being outside and be physically active at the same time. Children will get to play with one another, and parents/guardians will be able to meet and socialize as well. Public places such as these will bring communities together, and also allow communities to host certain events free of charge.

What are the barriers?

There are a few barriers that come with this issue. First off, if taxes are raised, this will impact the lower class. Even if it is benefiting them, I think people with less money are more concerned about house payments, food, and other essentials, and not recreational parks. Another barrier is park location. Many people are limited in transportation, so even if there are parks available, some may not be able to get to them. The final barrier is cost. The bill talked about how some parks may have a fee to get in. The point of the fee is not for profit, but to maintain the park and self-sustain it.

What are the resources?

Money is the biggest resource that comes to mind with this issue. Someone will have to pay for these public services so money will be a big issue. Also the government and/or tax payers will be needed to help with funding as well. If communities want these parks but do not wish to pay for them, they will need to advocate for them to the decision-makers of their state. Along with these resources, other resources will be needed to actually build the parks and design them as well.

Who are the allies and opponents?

This one is kind of tricky because the people who are potentially for this issue may also be against it whether or not the money is coming out of their pockets. Therefore the allies for this issue could be parents, schools, health organizations, and people of lower socioeconomic status. However, they could also oppose this issue if they find out that taxes will be raised in order to build more parks around their communities. People who would oppose this issue could be public health facilities (Lifetime, YMCA, etc...) because having more access to free/low-cost parks would impact their profits negatively. Also the government and other decision-makers may oppose because it may ask for a large sum of grants and/or money, which they feel is not an important enough issue.

My recommendation

I would like my policy-maker to vote "YES" on this issue because physical activity is very important to me and I would like people to have more opportunities to be physically active regardless of location, money, and other barriers!

If you notice, I didn't have information on the history of my topic. I couldn't really find any information on the history of parks and physical fitness so if anyone knows where I could find some information, or has any other ideas, that would be AWESOME! Thanks guys =D

REFLECTION: WEEKS 11 & 12

Week 11

This week we watched the documentary "Unnatural Causes." I thought this was one of the most interesting videos we've seen yet. It was mainly about the health gap between the wealthy population and poorer population. People with less money most likely have worse health because they may not have health insurance, no or minimal access to health facilities, and live in urban areas that may be unsafe for them physically and environmentally. We were also introduced to the Healthy People 2010 assignment, which is basically a national goal of becoming healthier by taking little steps towards achieving certain health objectives.

Week 12

This week our advocacy project was due which was composed of choosing a goal from the Healthy People 2010 list. It was interesting looking through all the national goals and objectives and seeing which were moving towards the target, and which were moving away from the target. Although America is making a lot of progress, we still need to work on improving a lot of other health-related goals. We also read Ch. 20 in our textbook which talked about the ozone layer and how it's expected to repair itself dramatically within the next 3 years! One reason for this is because of the decrease in use of CFC's (Chloroflourocarbons), which deplete the ozone. This reading was great because it was the first to show that we as humans are actually helping the environment for once! It's good to know our actions are making a difference, giving us a sense of hope.

What I learned about myself

My parents have raised me to believe that "money does not buy happiness." I've lived by this motto my whole life. But after watching the documentary "Unnatural Causes," I think I have to reconsider how important money actually is. In essence, money can and does buy happiness because without good health, I believe it is nearly impossible to be happy. Therefore I have learned that I should revise my motto to "Money can buy good health...which IS happiness."

What I learned about blogging

I learned that blogging is truly a powerful tool in today's world. I say this for a couple reasons:

1. I believe we have all learned so much through blogging all semester. Not only about blogger itself, but technology, and how to utilize a computer to a much higher potential.

2. The photo essays we created, and how Dr. V has sent them to the HEDIR listserv for other faculty and administrators to see our work!

3. I think we have become closer as a class because of blogging. Before this class, I didn't talk to many people that I've known about for the last couple years, so blogger is a great social tool.

Well that about sums everything up for the last 2 weeks. Hope everyone has a wonderful weekend! Enjoy the sunshine =D

Advocacy Project: Healthy People/THOMAS

Goal:

Improve health, fitness, and quality of life through daily physical activity

According to the Progress Quotient Chart, 7 of the 10 objectives have moved toward the target. However, unfortunately 3 of the 10 objectives moved away from the target. The objective that experienced the highest amount of progress was objective 22-11 (28%). The objective that back-tracked the most was objective 22-6 (-25%).

Expanding on the progress, disparities, opportunities & challenges, and emerging issues:

The highest amount of progress was seen in the decrease of television viewing in people ages 18+ (28% increase). However, the lowest amount of progress was seen in regular physical activity in people ages 18+ (6%). This shows that although more young adults are decreasing their television time, they aren't increasing their exercise time in place of watching TV. The objective that back-tracked the most was the increase in moderate physical activity in people ages 18+ (-25%). The objective that back-tracked the least was participation in daily physical activity in school: grades 9-12 (-5%). It is sad that this objective has moved away from the target because schools should be encouraging students to be physically active. Since students are at school for the majority of the day, they should be able to exercise and engage in physical activity.

The progress toward eliminating health disparities showed that the more educated one is, the more likely they are to be physically active. Other than that, all other disparities stayed somewhat constant over time. Also for most of the objectives, the best group rates for physical activity were the white population (non-Hispanic), with at least some college education, urban dwellers, males, and adults without disabilities.

Looking at the opportunities and challenges, it focuses on the fact that technology has ruled out the need to be physically active in many aspects of our lives, such as transportation, our jobs, and maintaining where and how we live. In the past, we needed to walk or bike to get around, use the stairs and not the elevators, garden/grow our own produce, and mow the lawn (manually). Advances in technology has made it so easy to do all these without hardly breaking a sweat. This section also mentions that certain groups are looking into ways to increase daily physical activity in the lives of the public. These groups include employers, school administrators, park and recreation managers, transportation engineers, and public health practitioners.

There a few emerging issues regarding this topic. First and foremost, public health practitioners are working to provide more access to suitable locations for physical activities such as more biking/hiking trails, and recreational facilities. They are also working to reduce certain barriers associated with facilities such as expensive membership fees and hours. By doing both of these, physical activity will be much easier for all public to access, and also improve the public health of communities.

Second, although advances in technology are leading people to live sedentary lives, it is also helping to come up with better ways to measure whether or not people are being physically active. Some advances in measurement methods include pedometers, motion detectors, and heart rate monitors.

Related bill from THOMAS:

SF2028

Title:

Parks and trails funding eligibility requirements and parks and trails fund appropriations priorities establishment.

Latest Major Action:

Referred to House Committee

Status:

4/02/2009 - Introduction and first reading

4/02/2009 - Referred to House Committee

Political Representative:

Amy Klobuchar

SHARE & VOICE: Want $20,000?

Hey Guys!

So, I mentioned before that National Geographic was one of my favorite websites. Well, I just happened to be browsing through the site only to find out that National Geographic is currently working with SunChips to sponsor The Green Effect.

Starting April 22, you can voice your idea on how to make your community a "greener" place by submitting a paper no longer than 250 words! And the best part is five lucky people will win $20,000 for their ideas!!! So put your thinking caps on, come up with great solutions and you could find yourself paying absolutely nothing for college next year!

Click here to (possibly) win $20,000!!!

REFLECTION: WEEKS 9 & 10

Review

Well fortunately these last two weeks were not nearly as hectic as the previous weeks. During week 9 we mainly covered the 7th Responsibility of Health Educators which talked about advocacy. We also started our advocacy project by researching and finding our political representatives. Week 10 consisted of our photo essay, which in my opinion was the most entertaining thing we have done so far in this class. I thought everyone did a great job, and took their creativity to the max!

What did I learn about myself and the environment?

I learned that taking actual descent pictures is very time consuming. Honestly, I underestimated the photo essay and figured it would only take me a couple hours to complete. Well it actually ended up taking my whole afternoon/evening. I never thought about all the planning, thinking, and creativity that goes into one picture. Also, from doing my photo essay, I learned that it is very easy to reuse items in my house. It's also cheaper, and looks cool (for the most part).

What did I learn about blogging?

I learned that if you ever need to insert a list of pictures, you have to think backwards. In other words, insert the picture you want at the bottom of the list first, and the picture you want at the top of the list last! I did not do this, and found out the hard way that if you don't follow this "backwards to forwards" method, your pictures will disappear! And it is very frustrating! So next time I will most definitely avoid what I did this time.

Well hope everyone has a fun, safe weekend! Spring is almost here, can't you feel it in the air?

Eye Opener: Photo Essay

Hey Everyone!

So, I'll admit, at first I was going to do this photo essay on littering and take pictures of all the crap people leave on the ground. Well unfortunately every time I planned on taking photos outside, it snowed! So I went with plan B and took photos of everyday items we can reuse in our household. Here is a list of 7 items that you can easily reuse

in other creative ways! Enjoy.

Item 1: Yogurt Containers

...Yogurt containers and other food containers are perfect for holding other items, such as....

...Your pens, pencils and highlighters!...

Item 2: Toilet Paper Rolls

...When you're done using a roll of toilet paper, why not use the cardboard roll to wrap other things?...

...Like your Christmas lights, and other electrical cords!...

Item 3: Brown Paper Bags

...No recycling bin? No problem...

...Brown paper bags work perfectly as recycling bins, and the best part is you can recycle the bin itself!...

Item 4: CD's

...Take your old CD's you don't listen to anymore and turn them into...

...Candle Plates! Set the mood without a CD player and double the ambiance as well...

Item 5: Cereal Boxes

...After finishing a box of your favorite cereal, why not make it into a...

...Magazine holder! Keep your favorite magazines organized and neat...

...It's perfect for any occasion...

Item 6: Plastic Bags

...Why not take all the plastic bags you use from your favorite stores and turn them into...

...Garbage liners/bags?...

Item 7: Empty Alcohol Containers

...Don't throw these beautiful items away. Use it to spice up...

...Your house! Empty alcohol cans and bottles are a perfect way to decorate the interior of any college house...

Well that's about it. Hope these pictures have opened your eyes to new and creative ways to reuse things in your homes! Have a good rest of the week, and stay warm!

SHARE & VOICE: Littering?!

Hey Guys!

So, I was in Milwaukee last weekend visiting some friends only to find out that it isn't the prettiest city to be in. Actually, it was downright disgusting. Every inch of sidewalk I was on, and every corner I turned, there was litter EVERYWHERE! The saddest part of my trip was seeing a playground, that looked relatively new and welcoming. The only problem was that the sand on the ground looked as though it was replaced with cigarette butts, a variety of different kinds of paper, aluminum cans, and glass bottles. That sounds fun to play in right?

Well after my experience in Milwaukee, I wanted to find out more about the issue of littering and came across a great website that contains a ton of good information. Also, according to this website, fast food waste contributes to a third of all the litter in our country. What do you think fast food chains can do to reduce their contribution to this littering problem? Any ideas?