Unfortunately, you can’t read “Governors put focus on health with visit to church event” without registering (albeit free). It opens thus:
With health care an increasingly prominent issue across the country, two governors visited Charleston on Thursday to focus attention on a statewide effort to encourage healthy living among blacks.
It so happens that the Emmanuel AME Church has something going on with the Medical University (MUSC) here, called “Health-e-AME,” described this way:
MUSC has targeted that population by working with the AME church through Health-e-AME, which encourages healthy eating and physical activities.
Examples: “a cookbook with traditional recipes modified so they’re healthier, and programs, such as “Praise Aerobics,” which combines aerobics with praise or contemporary Christian music. ” South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford and Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee decided they’d drop by. And hold a press conference afterwards. And meet with “hospital CEOs from across the state, asking them for suggestions on controlling health-care costs, especially among the most expensive patients.” Consider the following (pulled from the story):
“The AME church is the largest in the state. If you want to get a message to the African-American community, you go to the AME church.” So the story quotes the owner of Praise Aerobics Inc.
In South Carolina, blacks are more than twice as likely as whites to die because of diabetes and are also more likely to die because of heart disease, cancer and stroke.
Health problems are especially acute in low-income and minority communities because of poor overall health and poor access to doctors and hospitals.
And now consider that:
Huckabee is widely believed to be a potential 2008 presidential candidate, and South Carolina’s early presidential primary is considered key for any Republican hopeful.
And
Talk of a possible Sanford presidential bid has dominated the state’s political rumor mill for months, and the governor’s name has recently appeared on a website’s list of potential ‘08 GOP White House candidates.
This last from The State, Columbia’s newspaper. Staff writer Lee Bandy:
Gov. Mark Sanford says he doesn’t have his sights set on the White House, but hardly anyone believes him.
According to Bandy, “This time, Political Derby, a Web site that dubs itself “Home of the 2008 White House Power Rankings,†has the governor ranked 8th among 10 possible GOP wannabes.” It surely couldn’t hurt that the Gov’s, Huckabee and Sandford, had an audience with a community that traditionally votes for democratic party candidates. We’re told:
Health care is a vital issue for many governors, including Huckabee and Sanford, who are struggling with the skyrocketing growth of Medicaid, the state-federal health program for the poor. States are looking at increasingly drastic measures for stopping that growth. Many states are watching South Carolina, Huckabee said. The state is proposing a massive overhaul of its Medicaid program that would give recipients personal health accounts with which they could choose to pay for a number of managed-care plans. Recipients also could choose instead to “self-direct” their care.
Huckabee, of course, is the now-Mr. Slim Hips who, having rid himself of 100 pounds of excess fat and the accompanying adult onset diabetes (Type II) and — what else? — and written a book about it (titled, reportedly, after what his doctor told him: “Quit Digging Your Grave With A Knife And Fork,” printed by Times-Warner, which I have not read and will not likely read any time soon), goes about the country evangelizing and exhorting people to do the same, as far as I can tell. It’s fairly common, isn’t it, once one becomes a believer to go about trying to convert everyone else; I’m painfully aware of my own past tediousness as a former runner and fitness freak attempting to get everyone around me up and moving. Evidently, Huckabee and Sanford plan to take this to a whole new level, according to what my googling tells me. Huckabee is chairman of the National Governors Association, which recently — you guessed it — started a Healthy America initiative. Of the five members Huckabee “assembled” as “a bipartisan task force to implement the Healthy America initiative” one governor is — right again — Sanford. You can read all about why Huckabee chose these 4 male (including California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger) and 1 female governor(s) at his Governor Huckabee’s Radio Address, July 30, 2005, Subj: Health. Especially fun reading is Huckabee’s description of “Let me tell you about some of the things they’re doing in their states.” It is a bit unclear as to what Iowa’s Vilsack is up to, but never mind; I, of course, was eager to read on about Sanford and what he’s done for S.C. I learned:
Historically, South Carolina has been among the unhealthiest states in the country. To change that ranking, Gov. Sanford and first lady Jennifer Sanford created the Healthy South Carolina Challenge to encourage families to improve their health. There was a massive education effort to teach people the connections between physical activity, body-mass index statistics, smoking rates and chronic diseases. In May 2004, the governor and members of his family rode bikes across the state to kick off a family fitness initiative.
“Massive education effort?” Hmm… I turned to Sanford’s website, itself. There, I discovered that the Sanfords were having another bike ride this very weekend, across the state, and, upon completion, participants would have free lunch with the Governor. Wonder how many black Charlestonians participated? And what was for lunch? Was the food organic? Who paid for the lunch — did I? I can barely afford to buy my own organic food… Here you can see a picture of Sanford on his bike. Raise your hand if you think how one looks riding a bike is a good predictor of a candidate’s position on health issues. Seriously, it’s all well and good to make people responsible for their own health and wellness. At the same time, there’s quite a lot that is not very easily, practically, within the range of some people’s capabilities. The food industry, for one. The ability to pay for organic food, for another. Active lifestyles and leisure time to pursue fitness — which takes time and time being money — is not exactly the province of those scrapping by to make a living. What does a good bicycle cost these days, anyhow? I make a concerted effort not to proselytize about food. About what we eat in America, that passes for food. But I was disappointed when Bill Maher did not bring up this issue on his show last time Huckabee was a guest. “It’s the food!” Maher proclaims regularly on Real Time. And rightly so. Processed garbage full of corn and corn products — what’s fed to livestock to fatten them up. Filler. Worse than the corn, though, are all the antibiotics and hormones, chemicals, fed to the animals which are, of course, exactly what Americans who eat the food in this country are eating. Yet, Bill did not bring this up on the August 26, 2005, Episode #314 on which Huckabee appeared (I checked the transcript on Maher’s site.) I’ll end with this, what Cowboy Junkies’ John Timmons reports in his Summer Tour Diary
I’ve learned that there’s lots to eat in America, but no food.