Nightmare On Second Street

It boggles the mind. One begins to wonder if one accidently signed up for some kind of Orwellian "Reality" show. One begins to wonder if some kind of Jim Jonesian kool-aid is being sipped up there on the dais.

I'm talking about Article 18:
"Approve an ordinance authorizing the acceptance of $30,000 in grant funds from the TEXAS DEPARTMENT OF STATE HEALTH SERVICES, GOVERNOR’S ADVISORY COUNCIL ON PHYSICAL FITNESS, Austin, TX; and amending the Fiscal Year 2007-2008 Health and Human Services Operating Budget Special Revenue Fund of Ordinance No. 20070910-003 to appropriate $30,000 to restructure the Mayor's Fitness Council and create a web-based Austin Fitness Index. Funding in the amount of $30,000 is available from the Texas Department of State Health Services, Governor’s Council on Physical Fitness, Austin, Texas. The grant period is May 1, 2008 through October 31, 2008. "

By itself, it looks innocuous. Maybe the City Hall is going to engage in a little promotional propaganda for getting people to use stairs instead of elevators, etc.

I was late for the meeting. As I sat down, a well-tanned middle-aged man was speaking. It was Lou Earle, publisher & CEO of Austin Fit Magazine. He was describing a plan to use the $30,000 grant in a program that will facilitate the placement of volunteers inside "faith-based organizations" and "affinity groups" as well as places of employment, in order to accomplish "real behavior change" regarding tobacco use, obesity, and other health issues.

Not one comment or question came from anyone on the dais. No one seemed to realize that if you have a government-paid set of "volunteers" embedding themselves inside existing organizations for the purpose of coercing "behavior change" in the members private lives, then you have.......

Well, you have....

Full-blown, unadulterated, pure FASCISM.

What else is it? A person joins a faith-based group for many reasons having nothing to do with "fitness" and certainly has the right to engage in faith-based activities without worrying about "fitness". What kind of misery is going to be visited upon such people when they discover they cannot engage in their chosen activities without facing invasive, intrusive questions about their diet, exercise, and health from these intrusive "fitness" experts? What about the other affinity groups? The art groups and book clubs, the garden groups and charity orgs? Are they all going to be forced to treat perceived "unfit" people as pariahs, are they all going to be trained in the art of mobbing and ostracizing the recalcitrant smoker or drinker?

And couple this with the other looming shadow of Fascism, the Parks Dept recent decision that groups of people exercising with an instructor need to pay $500 a year to assemble on public land, and you see why I call this a nightmare. It is a real one-two-punch.

Consider this hypothetical situation: an individual develops a personal network of friends with a common interest, maybe they sing in a choral group. The group gets noticed by the city-supported "fitness promoters" who will embed one of their trainers in it to start forcing the singers to gang up on any smokers or fat people. All of a sudden the rehearsals are places where snide, nasty remarks and syrupy-scary "invitations" to change are going to be repeated every week.

Now since smokers and fat people are approved hate-objects, many readers might say "so what?" Well, what about the thin person who may be using the easy camaraderie of a faith-based singing group to overcome anorexia or bulimia? And what about the fat person who is not a glutton but who is carrying weight that may have accumulated over a number of years after a heart ailment or other issue put the kabosh to exercise? Do these people now have to face being spoken to in that elitist, patronizing, dehumanizing tone that Fascists use for average citizens?

Ok, so we don't care about exascerbating normal human frailties with City-hall sponsored fascism. Let's look at the compliant, obedient members of our hypothetical "affinity" or "faith-based" group: the ones who try to overcome the psychological bullying by agreeing to meet together to exercise and support each other.

Now they are going to be approached by the Parks "thought police" who are going to publicly humiliate them with questions about what do they think they are doing, showing up to exercise together, because they are going to have to prove that none of them is an instructor.

End result: average people will stay home. Harmless little volunteer groups and hobby clubs will disband because of hurt feelings and well-founded fears of intrusion into family and private lives. The animosity that will be encouraged by City Hall's support of the fitness trainers will cause more illness, more unhealthy habits, than will be cured. People will be forced to answer personal questions asked by strangers and if they don't co-operate with those trainers, the trainers will step up to "interventions".

And what really is known about fitness? I am no expert but I do know this: at one time all alcohol was considered the demon's work, but then science showed that moderate wine and beer consumption has health benefits. I know that the explosion in obesity followed the drive to eliminate tobacco from common use, and I have wondered about the actual relative cost of lung cancer compared to type II diabetes and other complications of obesity. I also am aware that many prescription medications have weight gain as a side effect and some are known to cause type II diabetes in most people if they are used continuously for three or more years.

What people need is to be left alone. The City can best encourage fitness by telling the Parks department to forget the $500 fees and let people enjoy a safe and pleasant landscape in which to walk, jog, dance and play. The City should eliminate most car traffic from the core and also set up bike-only arteries into it so that people will just naturally become more active. Give that $30,000 to a fitness program that may include some kind of reward to businesses that install fitness equipment and showers or that give employees credit in nearby fitness centers like Gold's Gym, but don't burden us all with yet another layer of obnoxious attitude-police!