"Get Fit" Program to be Introduced in Minnesota
Minnesota News Connection, June 4, 2004
Minneapolis, MN - A program designed to encourage Americans to get in shape kicks off in Minnesota this weekend. Several federal officials will be on hand, including the head of the Department of the Interior. But the initiative has its skeptics. Comments from Joshua Davis, conservation organizer, Sierra Club of Minnesota.
U-S Interior Secretary Gale Norton will be among the federal and state officials in Minnesota this weekend (Saturday) to kick off "Get Fit with US," an effort to encourage Americans to exercise and get in shape. The event (on Harriet Island in St. Paul) includes a "walk for fitness," and is designed to improve awareness about health and encourage exercise on public lands and waters. But there are skeptics, including Joshua Davis with the Minnesota Sierra Club.
"We think it's ironic that the Bush administration is here, promoting public health, when it has been the worst thing to happen to public health in decades. We've lost protection for clean air, for clean water. Our asthma rates are going up. And it has reduced all of the reductions for mercury pollution that were in place when he came into office. Our public health is in a lot worse shape, and it's not because we're not exercising."
Davis says the Sierra Club is holding a protest meeting which includes a "walk backwards," to demonstrate what it calls the wrong direction taken on public policy. Bush administration officials say they're working to improve health standards, while reducing government interference and bureaucracy. Those attending Saturday's official event, along with the Interior Secretary, include Governor Pawlenty, Senator Coleman, St. Paul Mayor Randy Kelly, National Park Service director Fran Mainella, and Bureau of Reclamation Commissioner John Keys.
Joshua Davis with the Minnesota Sierra Club says over a hundred people will take part in a "counter"-fitness walk to document the administration's poor environmental record. "The problem is, the Bush administration has lowered our standards for protecting our clean air, our clean water, and our public health. So, in response, what we're doing is, we're having a "walk for fitness," but we're doing it backwards."
Davis says walkers will walk backwards a third of a mile to emphasize the wrong direction taken by the administration on public health and lands policy. He says participants include an eight foot Paul Bunyan statue, symbolizing national parks and forests, and a giant fish, to call for cleaning up mercury pollution.