What's the Epidemic?

This week’s blog really does not have anything to do with being a North Dakota farm girl except for the fact when I was younger, I do not remember a day where I would not have some sort of physical activity. This is about the youth of today, the thoughts being brought about of how much less active children are. After watching state wrestling this weekend, I began to think of the overweight students who do not participate in sports, I then decided to do some research. There is some really startling information that I found.

According to the National Bureau of Economic Research, since 1970, the fraction of children that are overweight has nearly quadrupled among 6 to 11 year olds and more than doubled among 12 to 19 year olds. These are very disturbing numbers. Could you imagine what these numbers will be like in 20 even 30 years if they keep going at this rate? What has changed to make this happen besides the typical response of video games? The same site also stated, “One possible contributing factor to the rise in youth overweight is decreased physical education (PE) in schools. For example, the percentage of high school students enrolled in daily PE classes fell from 42% to 28% between 1991 and 2003.

Fox News also did a report on physical education in schools. They found that most school PE was an elective and not required. They also found that if it was required there was no required amount of time to be active.

Nancy Brown, CEO of the American Heart Association, put it best on what we are trying to encourage. “The increasing number of exemptions and waivers — some for personal reasons, others because a child participates in another activity, like band — may hurt the schools' ability to teach children how to be healthy. PE doesn't have to be "calisthenics, mindless exercise and contests that favored the most athletic kids," but can be tailored to all types of children.”

To me these numbers are startling. Some say it's because of America and how we are that the youth is now mainly obese. What can we do to change this? In North Dakota we sometimes feel as if we are immune to many things that happen throughout the country. This obesity issue however is not one of them, what happened to goo old fashioned PE? Where when it was nice out students would beg the teacher to go outside and play kickball. Today there seems to be no begging to be active, which is being blamed on the schools like in the facts I found above, but really is it the schools fault, or should parents be pushing their children to make better decisions and get out and really play actively?

Home

Dierks Bentley has a way to make one really feel what he is singing. This song is no exception, I am biased in this blog to North Dakota but any American may be touched deeply by this video.

In last week’s blog I stated how proud I am to call North Dakota my home; well this week expanding on "home" is my intention.

Some people may not have a place to call home, we are so lucky to have that place here in North Dakota. I believe we sometimes take for granted just how much our home does for us. The security of our jobs that we have with our state is unknown in others. The safeness we feel when we close our eyes at night, is a long distant memory for some states. That our crime rate is low and many do not fear for their children's lives every day is a gift that fewer are having. The golden rule is a distant past, but we still have people who believe in it. However many are wondering, will this leave North Dakota now that we have all these people coming to our state for the money of the oilfield?

The crime rate is going up; we are seeing less moral values than before the oil boom. Is our state going to lose what we as North Dakotans cherish the most. Why we, despite the weather, do not leave this state. Why many love raising a family here. Why in many situations, people leave but always return.

Like Dierks said, we must never lose sight of who we are. No matter what happens with our state we must believe in and call it our home.

You Know Your From North Dakota...

Being the true blonde that I am I forgot to click the Post button for last weeks blog so here it is...

There are so many sayings out there that start with you know your from ________ when. Well through some research and asked some true North Dakotans, what they believed were the most true. Here comes the list.

You know your from North Dakota when...

1. The wind is faster than your truck.
2. You leave your keys in the car and the next morning it's still there.
3. You break down on the highway and somebody actually stops to help you.
4. You can see the stars at night.
5. People drive 200 miles to shop in a real mall.
6. The meat in your freezer is mostly deer.
7. A rodeo is more popular than a rock concert.
8. A yellow light means "Follow the car in front of you, no matter what."
9. You wave to someone on the highway because you recognize his/her truck.
10. Your definition of a small town is one that has only one bar.
11. You expect to be excused from school for deer hunting season and harvesting.
12. You lie awake thinking of uses for leafy spurge.
13. You have attended a formal affair in your best dress, wearing your best jewelry and your snowboots.
14. You know what's high by the 4th of July.
15. Your vacation means spending the week at the state fair showing livestock.

Yep, these are all so true. Even though most of these saying are pointed toward rural North Dakota there are many interesting things about our more populated areas of the state, here is a few facts about our state. These facts were taken from 50states.com.

1. The town of Rugby is the geographical center of North America. A rock obelisk about 15 feet tall, flanked by poles flying the United States and Canadian flags marks the location.
2. North Dakota passed a bill in 1987 making English the official state language.
3. Geologically speaking Hillsboro is located in a large, flat, and ancient dried lake bottom surrounded by some of the most fertile farmland in the world.
4. Milk is the official state beverage.
5. Westhope located on U.S. Highway 83 is a Port-of-Entry into Canada. Each year more than 72,000 vehicles cross the border at this point.
6. An attempt to drop the word North from the state name was defeated by the 1947 Legislative Assembly. Again in 1989 the Legislature rejected two resolutions intended to rename the state Dakota.
7. When Dakota Territory was created in 1861 it was named for the Dakota Indian tribe. Dakota is a Sioux word meaning friends or allies.
8. Dakota Gasification Company in Beulah is the nation's only synthetic natural gas producer.
9. Bottineau is the southwestern gateway to the Turtle Mountains, Lake Metigoshe and the International Peace Garden.
10. Petroglyphs carved into two granite boulders give Writing Rock State Historic Site near Grenora its name. Though their origins are obscure, the drawings probably represent the Thunderbird, a mythological figure sacred to Late Prehistoric Plains Indians. Outlines of the bird, showing its wings extended and surrounded by abstract designs, appear on both boulders.
11. The Canadian provinces of Saskatchewan and Manitoba on the north, Minnesota on the east, South Dakota to the south, and Montana as its western neighbor border North Dakota.
12. Max G. Taubert of Casselton built a 50 foot high pyramid of empty oil cans. It is believed to be the highest oil can structure in the world.
13. Devils Lake is the largest natural body of water in North Dakota. Devils Lake derives its name from the Native American name Miniwaukan. Early explorers incorrectly translated the word to mean Bad Spirit. Bolstered by the many legends of drowned warriors and lake monsters the name evolved into Devils Lake. This very fertile prairie lake grows large numbers of the fish known as walleye, northern pike, and white bass. The lake has earned the reputation of being the Perch Capital of the World.
14. This name Roughrider State originated in a state-supported tourism promotion of the 1960s and 70s. It refers to the First U.S. Volunteer Cavalry that Theodore Roosevelt organized to fight in the Spanish-American War.
15. The Dakota Dinosaur Museum in Dickinson houses twelve full scale dinosaurs, thousands of rock, mineral and fossil specimens and a complete real Triceratops and Edmontosaurus.

Being a rural state has its advantages and disadvantages but many feel great about being from North Dakota, a place where many call home. I'm proud to call North Dakota my home.