We can create change. So why aren't we?

This morning on Fox Cable News I saw the head of Safeway Stores talk about how they implemented programs throughout their stores a few years back that have saved them over 40% on healthcare costs. I was excited to see this segment and at the same time, I was disheartened.

Many years ago I brought this concept to businesses throughout NY and NJ and got the brush off. Other people I have met over the years have been trying as well. It is like pulling teeth to get people to see just how easy it is to change the course of our Country’s journey to sickness. Unfortunately, no one wanted to listen.

With all forms of illness on the rise, most especially those related to obesity and smoking, why can’t we see just how much we need to take control before the government does? Maybe you don’t want to see your money wasted frivolously, but what about wasting your own resources? Yes, I mean your body! It is your only real asset and the only one you will be taking to the grave, because guaranteed, your family won’t be burying you with your money or your stuff. Instead, I want America to consider their one true positive feature, which is the body they have been wrapped in. How are you treating it and what are you doing to help it through the next 20, 30, 50 years?

So now things have gotten so bad that we need the government to step in and take over. This is something that rips me apart. I have been trying to get the government to create strict smoking laws for the last 17 years, and we all know how that has turned out. There are still States that allow smoking in public. Yet this same government is trying to get healthcare reform passed in 6 months. How can they do one without the other? Where is the sense in all of this?

What I know about politics I can fit in a thimble. What I know about wellness and our ability to take control of our bodies is limitless and I make it my job to discover new ways every day. So why aren’t the incredibly intelligent people in our government doing more to take away what is hurting us? Why isn’t there more money for the schools to change their food offerings? Why don’t we have no-smoking laws everywhere? Why can’t the government control more of the food industry and their corrupt practices of advertising and manipulating? Why wouldn’t they start there instead of trying to control paying for the sick? Why don’t we stop making people (most especially kids) sick in the first place?

I will never stop talking about this subject, and I hope the rhetoric does not alienate anyone. Instead, I hope it instigates change and allows people to take responsibility for their actions and their bodies. When we take responsibility, we can then take control. Safeway took control and changed their bottom line and the health of their employees. We can all do this, and it will effect major change forever. We have the power to do it, and we have the right motive (saving our resources). Now we just need to create the right goal; a healthy America. It is not about a Bandaid, people! It is about never getting a cut in the first place. D.