Dear Editor:

Your fine newspaper has brightened my day for many years, but there is something that scares me.

In promoting next Sunday’s “The Big Help,” you list eleven featured employers, nine of which are
hospitals or drug companies.

While it is true a large part of the Massachusetts economy is related to the medical field, these numbers reflect
a frightful trend locally, and nationally. We are getting sicker. With more than half of all adults on daily medications,
and teenagers suffering from obesity, diabetes, cancer and bipolar disorder in record numbers, we cannot
afford to continue on this path. Along with many people in my profession, I believe this is the culmination of a
long spiral downward in the welfare of our nation and our way of life, from which we may never recover.

It would be easy to lay blame, as beer, soda and fast food companies, the dairy and meat industries,
and our low government standards for toxicity in air, water, food and products are blazing the trail.
But many doctors, hospitals and drug companies are also selling out our health to make a buck, despite
the work of a few on the cutting edge who recommend getting back to nature, and are acting more responsibly
as corporate citizens.

Will we wake up from our slumber, in time to prevent the unraveling of life as we know it?

Only if we can learn to value clean air, water, food and ideas, and put these ahead of short term profit,
idolizing criminals, and electing ignorant and corrupt politicians to lead us.

I would love to see the Boston Globe be on the forefront of this very important shift, by bringing
on more natural diet and lifestyle columnists, as well as writing more about social and environment
change. If nothing else, can you give reduced-cost employment ads to green companies, so people
can feel good about how they are feeding their families?

Thank you, and happy 2010,

David L. Kagan, MBA, Health Educator
508-333-4153
www.KaganMedia.net
www.linkedin.com/in/nature

P.S. I would gladly write a weekly column for you, I have a great name for it, and I think it would be a HUGE hit.