Well this topic has started some flack.  So far, everyone that has addressed this issue has been against it.

To recap:

I have said that I would like to institute a mandatory exercise hour for all State-level Civil Servants, and to encourage every level of government to adopt this measure. It would be done in the first hour of the workday and I would be doing it as well.  I would televise or Internet feed me and my staff exercising so the people could exercise right along with us.

These are my reasons why and my assertion that it is right and legal:

   1) It has been done with great success by business, especially in Japan.  It has increased productivity and team work.  It instilled a greater sense of well being in the employees and increased their clarity and focus, not to mention the health benefits

   2) Civil Servants are accountable to the People and responsible unto them.  The People are owed productivity and fiscal responsibility.  Fewer Sick Days and lower Insurance Premiums address that issue, as well as, the other benefits covered in item 1 above

   3) Already other Civil Servants, such as, the Military, Police, Firemen, and even schoolchildren have a mandatory exercise program
 
   4) It cannot be construed as punishment or taking someones freedom away because it is not harmful or inhumane and it is not forbidding them any right.  Who is going to argue that they have the right to be sick, sickness is a condition, not a freedom


The arguments that have been offered against it are:

   1) It is a violation of freedom

   2) I do not want to pay for an hour of them not doing their jobs

   3) You cannot demand that anyone exercise


#1: covered by #4 above, in my arguments for the program

#2:  a) It would be done in the first hour of their regular workday, an extra hour would not be added

       b) The amount of productivity that you would get from this program would more than offset the loss of one hours work

       c) In "Personal Endorsements" I have a report on a experimental new policy that is being tried in Arizona.  The government there has started a 10 hours a day, 4 days a week schedule for Civil Employees.  It has saved them a serious amount of money and the people seem to like it, as well.  If we were to institute the same plan, the extra hour would be immaterial.

#3:  a) Military, Police, and Firemen already have a mandatory fitness program.  Then the argument becomes, "Yes, but they have to for their jobs, which require physical effort".  Any physical action by a person is a physical effort.  Being productive, efficient, and actually at work is both an expectation and requirement of any job.  An exercise program accomplishes these things.

       b) Our children are required to participate in fitness/exercise programs at school.  They are certainly not Civil Servants, and exercise is not necessary for their school work.  If a parent was to argue against their child participating, solely on the basis that it denies their child's freedom or their Parental Rights, I doubt that too many people would support that parent.  Many might even think that parent guilty of abuse or not in their right mind.  Yet you cry foul when it is applied to an adult.


Well, I have made my argument and I am ready for any comments on this subject.  Ultimately I will do what the people want me to do.  I am not here to further my agenda, but to serve the people.  Let the games begin!