Isn’t it great when government and corporations join to force behavior changes on people in the name of health? There used to be a word for that, but I cannot put my finger on it…

In a totally unrelated story…

A new health initiative in Jacksonville wants to force certain behavior choices corporate America and the city deem healthy. The Blue Zone Project is being launched in Jacksonville this month.

What is it exactly? Well, after a few hours of research… I am still not really sure. But from what I was able to find, it seems to be another pointless lefty program that will cost millions of dollars and accomplish nothing.

Our local TV stations covered the launch of the Blue Zone Project at the Fairgrounds this past weekend. It was portrayed at a new city-wide health program, funded by corporations, designed to help people make healthier lifestyle choices. The event had games for the kids, face painting, farmers market, health screenings and food trucks. The goal was to generate buzz for the project’s launch in town this month. However, the Blue Zone Project (BZP,) has been in the works for more than a year.

According to Cision, (a public relations website,) the “Blue Zone Project was launched in Jacksonville in June 2022 through an innovative sponsorship by Baptist Health, Brooks Rehabilitation, the city of Jacksonville, Community First Credit Union, Florida Blue, the Jacksonville Jaguars, Jessie Ball duPont Fund, Mayo Clinic, UF Health and the United Way of Northeast Florida.”

The program’s intent is to “make healthy choices easier through permanent changes to the built environment, food environment, policy and social networks.” Translation: the project’s leaders want to write legislation with corporate backing to force cities to redesign roadways and buildings, curb access to certain types of restaurants, force grocery stores to comply with demands, create new laws for us to follow because we are too stupid to make decisions for ourselves, and use social media to ‘nudge,’ us into compliance. Isn’t that great?

The Blue Zone Project is the brainchild of Dan Buettner. He is a National Geographic Fellow and the author of “The Blue Zones” and “The Blue Zone Solution.” After traveling the world, he decided he knew the “secrets to longevity.” Buettner claims he located five places where people consistently live to be more than 100 years old. He called these places, Blue Zones. Buettner and a team of “demographers, scientists and anthropologists,” came up with nine “evidence-based common denominators” these five locations allegedly have in common and dubbed them the “Power 9.” I won’t waste my time or yours breaking down the 9 denominators. I’ll list them. They are all axiomatic. Move naturally, Purpose, Downshift, 80% Rule, Plant Slant, Wine at 5, Right Tribe, Loved Ones First, Belong.

These super-smart scientists came up with an alleged “evidence-based” theory claiming, “putting the responsibility of curating a healthy environment on an individual does not work, but through policy and environmental changes the Blue Zone Project Communities have been able to increase life expectancy, reduce obesity and make the healthy choice the easy choice for millions of Americans.”

According to Dan Buettner and his pack of geniuses, you are too dumb to take care of yourself. Lucky for us, Dan is here to explain, in several of his horribly reviewed books, allowing the government to create behavior modification laws and allowing left-wing progressive groups to control the world around you, we all will live longer, happier, healthier lives. Trust them. They know better. “The goal for Blue Zones is to not only make the healthy choice the easy choice, but also the unavoidable choice.” Who doesn’t love unavoidable choices in their daily routine? It is so much easier when everything is decided for you. Apparently, compliance is bliss.

While searching around for answers as to what BZPs actually have accomplished, I couldn’t really find anything. I found websites claiming results, but nothing verifiable. For example, the Southwest FL BZP site claims there has been a 36% drop in tobacco use, 28% drop in poor nutrition, 17% drop in stress, 23% drop in obesity and 9% drop in lack of exercise versus the state of Florida. The closest BZP to Jacksonville is in Southwest Florida. I spent time scouring the website for answers. I finally sent an email to the Director of Southwest Florida’s program. She advised me to read a 70-page document explaining the project’s results. There are footnotes, but they direct you to studies conducted by other entities for different purposes. Nothing specific to the health claims on the Project’s SWFL website.

There are some interesting tidbits in the 70-page document. $15.3 million dollars has been raised for Collier and Lee counties to implement really important life-changing things like 150 signs in parks, ball fields and beach access points to ask people not to smoke. Smoking outside isn’t illegal in those counties, yet. Hopefully, they added a pretty please with some sugar for good measure. A Food Policy Council to force people to eat Blue Zone Diet approved food no one wants to eat. “Traffic calming measures,” meaning bike lanes and traffic circles. “A corner market makeover,” so you can pick up fresh fruit and veggies along with your beer, cigarettes and lotto tickets. And it will take them six years to figure out how to increase walking and biking.

I actually laughed when I read this statistic. Apparently in San Francisco’s Mission District, a BZP initiative increased retail sales by 60 percent by becoming “pedestrian and bike friendly.” Really? That neighborhood is currently so dangerous I was able to find a map of all the daytime rapes charted along the streets. There is open drug use everywhere. The streets are littered with slumped over crackheads, human feces, tents and garbage. But don’t worry about the health of those people. We are focused on the health and wellbeing of people with money.

The document goes on to celebrate all the churches partnering with the BZP. I use the term ‘church,’ lightly. One of the churches proudly claimed on its website it is an “affirming,” church with the rainbow jihad triangle symbol imposed over the Jesus fish symbol. Isn’t that great? I cannot think of anything more Christ-like than celebrating gay sex. If I had a nickel for every time my Sunday School teacher touched on expressing God’s love through sodomy, I would have a combined total of… zero.

Back to those five places Dan Buettner dubbed as Blue Zones, where people live to be 100 years old or older. One of those cities is Loma Linda, California. Buettner claims Seventh Day Adventists live a decade longer than most Americans. Buettner suggests exercise, vegetarianism, abstaining from smoking and no alcohol attributed to their longevity. If Seventh-Day Adventists sound familiar to you, your Spidey senses are correct. This is the same group that helped create Timothy McVeigh’s favorite profit of God, David Koresh. This group would not be my first choice as a trustworthy example of health and wellbeing, but that is just me.

It should be noted, I fully support encouraging people to become healthier versions of themselves. I did it. After birthing two watermelons back-to-back, I didn’t recognize myself anymore, so I hit the gym. I transformed my body and life. However, before I started on my weight loss journey, no one could have “nudged” me to “make better choices.” Certainly not a stranger in a blue T-shirt, no offense. I understand most people working with the BZP are wonderful do-gooders trying to make a difference in people’s lives. That is important, commendable work. The issue here is our city government joining this group and corporations, with the goal of forcing us to live a certain lifestyle.

Buettner’s “Power 9” categories are all just ‘best practices’ ideals everyone already understands. All of his research basically boils down to living a conservative life, with a spouse and children, practicing a religion, physical activity, downtime, a healthy diet and regular exercise, as the secrets to longevity.

It seems like the entire program is a massive marketing campaign for certain people to get rich off the backs of corporations and taxpayers in the name of health. The whole idea is flawed from the beginning. No one can force anyone to live a healthier life. My sister’s favorite saying applies perfectly: “You can’t tell grown folks what to do.” She is right. That is why this campaign uses words like “nudge,” and phrases like “only choice.”

While this program has been in the works for some time, it is important to note, the BZP was bought into town with a republican mayor in office. While I am not a Curry fan, republicans are not as willing as the left to take away your freedom of choice. Jacksonville’s mayor-elect, Donna Deegan, just like every democrat loves a good socialistic feel-good marketing campaign. Deegan says health will be a major component of her administration. Deegan’s transition team is ripe with democrats ready to take power. The head of Deegan’s new health committee, Dr. Carolyn McClanahan, was one of the doctors begging the city to cancel the RNC in Jacksonville because of COVID. She also accused the governor of hiding COVID figures in order to open schools. She believed forcing people to mask and staying home to wait for a vaccine was the cure. When a doctor believes a piece of filthy Chinese paper covering a face will prevent a virus, that doctor is in no position to give health advise to a city of more than a million people.

We will spend millions trying to fix something impossible to fix and accomplish nothing. For our city’s sake, I hope we scrap our relationship with the Blue Zone Project before it turns into another LERP, I mean, Shipyards.

No, wait… sorry. I mean Berkman Plaza, wait, no. I mean the Skyway…