Issue date: 1/30/04 Section: Editorial

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Rachel Ammons / Staff Artist [Click to enlarge]

Staying in shape was much easier when I was young. But since then, afternoons of street football and driveway basketball have been replaced by smoking at coffee shops and surfing the Web for the most up-to-date fantasy sports information.

And of course I didn't drink beer when I was 12. As far as you know.

So now if I want to stay healthy, I have to take time out of my busy schedule to work out. And if I don't exercise regularly for the rest of my life, I'm likely to end up like many other Americans: out of shape and at a higher risk of developing high blood pressure and/or diabetes - both major risk factors for heart disease and strokes.

Many of us students fail to make the time to get fit. And some students even object to Hendrix's bare minimum requirement of healthy recreation: two semesters of a physical activity. The College is right in making students spend just a couple hours a week exercising before they can get their diploma. I don't see why a physical activity shouldn't be required every semester.

As America's health care costs rise, politicians argue for incomplete remedies like tort reform and importing prescription drugs from Canada. But the fundamental problem remains. Americans, as a whole, eat too much junk food and don't exercise enough.

Our bloated nation is suffering because of this, and the problem extends far beyond hospitals.

Take a look at our current economy. Despite an increase in productivity, this country isn't creating enough jobs, which should be a concern to students considering our looming entrance into the workforce.

In an effort to avoid paying for more rising health insurance benefits, many employers are making their employees do more work, only sometimes for better wages, instead of hiring new help.

Often times, employers pass these rising costs onto the employees. Nearly 70,000 California grocery store workers went on strike last year largely because their corporate employers wanted to shift $1 billion in health care costs to the workers.

The money's got to come from somewhere. And there appears to be no end in sight for these rising costs, with estimates for health insurance costs over the next five years to rise 15 to 20 percent per year.

Compulsory fitness benefits not just the individual exercising but in fact the whole country. It only makes sense that a college whose motto is "Unto the whole person" would not neglect students' physical health.

While words like "compulsory" and "fitness" might not sound too appealing, consider that the school offers swimming, judo, bowling, flag football and ballroom, Latin and swing dancing, just to name a few, this semester alone.

For more information about getting involved in a physical activity or an intramural sport, contact Laura Monroe at 450-1382.

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