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“[PEACEBUILDERS reconnects] the openness of childhood to the possibilities of the world.” -Roy Craft, Director, Martin Luther King Jr. International Chapel, Morehouse College
Visit the website for my children’s book biography PEACEBUILDERS: DAISAKU IKEDA & JOSEI TODA, BUDDHIST LEADERS, here.
This makes me feel very concerned about Sasha and Malia. As if they are not already under a looking glass, they’ve got their mom on TV saying they are overweight. This is from Yahoo’s news’ Shine :
“Two weeks after announcing the unnerving news that childhood obesity has tripled over the last 30 years, and unveiling her own initiative to combat it, Michelle Obama has offended critics by discussing her own ‘wake-up’ moment—when the family pediatrician told her that daughters Sasha and Malia were becoming overweight.
‘In my eyes I thought my children were perfect,’ Mrs. Obama said at the January launch of her initiative. ‘I didn’t see the changes.’
While innocuous to some, this comment has set off both valid and not-so-valid criticism in the blogosphere—everything from calling the first ladywell-intentioned-but-misguided to hinting that she could be tipping off her daughters’ future eating disorders.”
I wish Michelle had have read and heeded my letter regarding her new obesity initiative: “Mr Obama, Please Make ‘Pro-fit’ Not ‘No-Fat Your Message“. I am just horrified by this latest development in the realm of obesity madness, and I will keep the first family in prayer.
On Monday I received this note from writer Kristi Bernard:
“I just wanted to let you know that I have chosen your blogs for the Silver Lining Award. Your blogs inspire, uplift and promote wonderful things. I had was awarded the Silver Lining and the purpose of it, is to promote blogs that help others. Please accept this award and post it on your blog.”
So…
Here it is!
I’ve also added it to the “Fear–t’s So Yesterday” menu. There are plenty of blogs I want to pass this goodness onto. Check back here to read about at least 5 of them.
Congratulations on your new position. I know you have already done much to improve the overall health of our nation’s children. For instance, the White House garden you spearheaded is a great way to promote community gardening. I applaud you for the healthy example you’ve set thus far.
I don’t mean to detract from my praise, because I offer it sincerely. But I really hope you’ll rethink calling your latest initiative one on “childhood obesity.”
Mrs. Obama, you may or may not be aware that research does not support the idea that obesity per se is a health problem. What any physician worth her or his salt knows is that the top health problems in the U.S. are caused by folks leading sedentary lifestyles and eating non-nutritive foods.
Focusing on body-size can lead to disordered eating. As a child who suffered with eating disorders—bulimia and anorexia—and as the mother of two daughters and a son—two preteens and one teen–who have always been thin, but who have nonetheless voiced the concern from time to tome that they are “fat,” I urge you to not give national sanction to the destructive hype that saturates every aspect of our society vis a vis body-size.
I urge you to not perpetuate the destructive falsehood that body-size matters when it comes to fitness. Please take the emphasis off the size of children—who are already vulnerable due to their age and social and emotional development—and place it, instead, on fitness and nutrition.
With an emphasis on fitness and nutrition, perhaps we can ensure that recess and some form of physical activity take place in every school every day, and that all schools, regardless of the mean income of the community in which they are located, are places where fresh fruits and vegetables are part of every lunch and breakfast, and where candy and chip vending machines, corporate-backed hallway posters featuring candy bars, fast food restaurant coupons, and fundraisers that promote processed foods do not exist.
With an emphasis on fitness—not body-size—perhaps every community will have well-maintained sidewalks, bicycle paths, and at least one functioning swimming pool. Perhaps every community will provide safe green parks where children can freely play without fear.
This would be costly, I know. Creating the kind of environments I’ve described requires more than pointing a finger at a child of a certain body-size with a tisk tisk and the shake of a head. The reform I’m talking about would require a long-range plan and community effort.
Based on what you’ve done so far, I’m certain you are already thinking along the lines of some the proposals I mention here. All I’m asking, as you go forward, is that you remove the term “obesity” from whatever plans you have in mind.
If long life and good health are the goal, identifying a person as obese won’t get us there. If it did, we’d all be healthy, because the obesity alarm has been sounding loud and clear for decades.
But the truth is, labeling someone as obese creates zero positive value. On the other hand, helping a person become physically active and a healthy eater creates immeasurable benefit, regardless of how much that person weighs.
Science shows that a typical thin person who does not exercise and who eats non-nutritive foods is no healthier than a typical heavier person with a similar lifestyle. Similarly, the typical plus-size person who is physically active and eats nutritiously is a healthy person.
Look around you. Except for on television, in movies, and in magazines, people come in all shapes and sizes. And so does good health.
Before you start traveling around the country helping to create a generation of kids who are bullied for being fat “because Mrs. Obama said you are”, or dying from purposely starving themselves “because Mrs. Obama says fat is bad”, please read The Obesity Myth—Why America’s Obsession with Weight is Hazardous to Your Healthby Paul Campos.
You have an enormously powerful platform, Mrs. Obama. Please do more with it than repeat and amplify a message that has destroyed the psyches of far too many young people—young people who, if they don’t totally succumb to despair, grow into adults who are deeply, deeply wounded.
To spread the word about our need for contributors to our upcoming book of stories of organ donation related to people of color, Forest Hill Publishing has created a Facebook page to share brief tales from those who have signed on to this project.
Please pass this news on to those who have been directly or indirectly affected by organ donation or the need for a transplant. All ages are welcome. The Facebook page is here:
These are my friends Andrea and Marques Cain–a mother and son–after they received the hearts that saved both their lives. Their unprecedented story inspired this project. Read it here.
Reviews of my juvenile biography PEACEBUILDERS: DAISAKU IKEDA & JOSEI TODA, BUDDHIST LEADERS, have started to arrive. Here they are:
“Ms. Perry has reconnected the openness of childhood to the possibilities of the world.” -Roy Craft, Director, Martin Luther King Jr. International Chapel, Morehouse College MORE
“[PeaceBuilders is a] carefully documented chapter book [that] makes Ikeda’s story accessible to younger readers…a user-friendly resource.” -Yana V. Rodgers, Director, Rutgers University Project on Economics and Children MORE
Forest Hill Publishing will launch a new book relaying the true stories of transplant recipients and donors of color. People of color represent a disproportionately high number of people who need organ transplants–and die because the didn’t receive them–and a disproportionately low number of people who serve as organ and tissue donors. Click here to read more about this reality.
Our hope at Forest Hill Publishing is that our upcoming book will inspire many more people of color to become organ and tissue donors.
If you are an organ transplant recipient or donor, or a relative or friend of one, and you’d like your story considered for this project, please send a 2 – 5 sentence description of your transplant experience in a message with “Transplant Story” in the subject line to email @ foresthillpublishing.com.
If you are selected, we will send you a questionnaire. By April 1, 2010, you will need to return it to us, completed. If you have questions about this project, please email us.
To read an article about the the mother and son heart transplant recipients who inspired this book, click the image below, or click here.
Thanks many of you for emails and phone calls about my family in Haiti. Most of our family have been accounted for. However, for many many people this is not the case. The sadness is overwhelming, and the needs are great.
If you are looking for a way to help, my brother Nick Jean-Baptiste is spearheading the fundraiser for his company Macquarie Capital Advisors to raise funds to donate to Direct Relief International, a reputable non-profit organization currently providing medical assistance on the ground in Haiti. Macquarie will match 100% of your donations if you make them through their established web link (see below).
Please continue to send prayers to ease people’s suffering. The glimmer of hope is in the rebuilding of Haiti, an effort I hope we can all take part in, even in a small way.
