2010-04-12 16:17:34

THE PURPLE INTERVIEW: Is Fried Chicken Killing American Democracy? Mississippi Says Maybe (But Haley Barbour Didn’t Get The Memo)

Filed under: Featured, Food, Rep. Mark Formby, The Purple Interview, politics
Posted by: John

by JOHN MARKS

Mississippi Governor Haley Barbour made national news this weekend when he gave Virginia Governor Bob McDonnell an attaboy for leaving slavery out of his state’s appreciation of Confederate history. The remarks have been seen by some as the opening shot in Barbour’s coming bid for the presidency, by others as one more intentionally provocative crack from the head of the Republican Governors Association.

But let’s suppose for a second it’s the fried chicken talking.

That’s not a conspiracy theory hatched by spelt-spouting liberals in Berkeley. His fellow Mississippians have been trying to tell him for months now that he needs to get in shape, and not just any Mississippians, but a group of more than 100 Republican and Democrat legislators in the state capital Jackson.

Every morning at 5 a.m., members of the state senate and house of representatives who spend most of their days fighting each other over policy issues gathered instead to work out and lose weight under the supervision of former NFL linebacker Paul Lacoste, whose fitness program is used by professional athletes for training purposes.

Last month, after twelve weeks of early mornings and restricted diets, the results were in, and they were spectacular. 105 members of the Mississippi political elite had lost 1,400 lbs. collectively. Governor Barbour, a heavyset man who enjoys Southern food as much as the next guy, was invited to join the “Fit For Change” program, as it was called, but declined to participate, citing his schedule. Members of his staff did join, however, and by the end of March, a mass of partisan bickering had become a disciplined 5K run through the streets of Jackson.

Is it fanciful to think that if Governor Barbour had done the fitness program with his fellow politicians he might not have been quite so quick to offend every potential black voter in the United States? Don’t take it from me.

In this week’s Purple Interview, we talk to Mississippi State Representatives Steve Holland, a Democrat who has represented the 16th District since 1985, and Mark Formby, a Republican who has served the 105th District since 1993. They are ideological opponents in a state where the partisanship runs thick as cream gravy (sorry couldn’t resist), but for the last three months they burned fat together, and by the end of the program, both men agree, the mood in the State House had improved.

It’s not just a question of civility, as we find out below. It’s also a matter of sanity in the state with the worst incidence of obesity and diabetes in the United States.

Again, we ask. Is this just Mississippi’s problem or could our over-eating be a major contributing factor to our public rage? It may not be as far-fetched as it sounds. Next week, as Mississippi legislators return to Jackson to hammer out a state budget, we’ll all have a chance to see whether a little fitness goes a long way in government.

I spoke first to Rep. Holland, the Democrat, pictured above.

Q: Let’s start by talking about just how bad the obesity problem is in Mississippi. It’s the worst in the country, right?

A: That’s absolutely correct. The Centers for Disease Control measured it based on some kind of statistical model, and unfortunately, we come out number one. It’s more prevalent in the Southern states than in any other region in the country.

Q: How do you see the effects of obesity in your district?

A:It’s amazing when you see the healthcare costs due directly to obesity. We have the most prevalent incidence of diabetes of any state in the nation, for instance, and that has a compound effect. We eat too much, and we eat too much of the wrong things. But we’re culturally and in many ways genetically predisposed in the South to eat good food and fried food, that kind of thing, and I know my grandmother and my mother always preached when we sat down, “clean that plate, there’s people starving in the world.” It’s one of these Southern cultural phenomenon that tells us we should eat and eat generously and largely, just as we live down here largely.

But the sad commentary on it is this. I can’t tell you the number of people who call me every year seeking disability primarily due to diabetes. And they come to see me, and I look at them, and they’re 125 pounds overweight, and I know the root cause for sure. We [[Mississippi]] have the highest percentage of people on Medicaid in the nation because of our poverty, so there you have it. It’s an absolute vicious and seemingly uncontrollable cycle.

Q: Before we start talking about solutions, let’s jump to another problem, somewhat different. Just how bad are the partisan politics in Mississippi these days?

A:It’s pretty bad. It’s historically been a one-party state over the last 100 years, and then from the 1980’s started to have a two-party system, which I endorse and think is healthy, but it’s got to the point now, mainly due in my opinion to one Haley Barbour, who is our governor, who is a Republican National Committee Member and a prophet of Reagan, who has an abhorrent, win-at-all-costs attitude about his politics, and unfortunately that has led to personal derision among good friends, and it’s led to the most impoverished state in the nation being divided not by those issues that cause our poverty but by personal matters, and so now you have a climate that is us versus them.

It shouldn’t be that way. It shouldn’t be that way in any state, in my opinion. A child that does not know how to read is a nonpartisan child who needs a good, strong public education system regardless of whether the parents are millionaires or paupers. But Barber brought a level of bitterness and rancor to the political arena like nothing this state has ever seen, and it’s not only prevailed for seven years of his administration–we have one more year of it–but it sad to say, it’s almost this permanent scar that’s there. A major issue comes up, and before you can even get to the issue, whether it’s funding for higher education or healthcare, you got to get through the partisanship before you can ever get to the issue.

That’s not the way I prefer for a political institution in a political arena to operate.

Q:Has it damaged the ability of the legislature in Mississippi to get its most basic work done?

A:Absolutely. No if’s, and’s or buts about it. It can be proven by issue after issue after issue. Of course, I happen to be a Democrat and was born that way and will die that way. I’m an issue man first and foremost, but I almost have to get up in the morning and look myself in the mirror and say, “Okay, Holland, get mad at somebody, because it’s going to come the minute you walk into the capitol building, so you might as well get your anger vented now, so that you won’t go off on somebody.” Instead of being pro-active on the multitude of issues facing our state to enhance the quality of life of our people, instead we have to deal with this defensive kind of politics.

Republicans can’t pass anything, but they can kill everything, and Democrats don’t have enough votes to stop that from happening. So we just struggle in this abyss of political partisanship to the point that it’s hard to get anything done, and it’s so frustrating. I’ve served 27 years now, thanks to God and the good people of Lee County, Mississippi, in the House of Representatives, and I’ve never seen a low like it is now.

Q: So given the atmosphere of partisanship, how did the idea of working out together come about?

A:For ten to twelve years I’ve had a series of health setbacks due to many things. I own three funeral homes and I’m a pine tree farmer, and I have four children and a grandchild now, and I’m very active in the life of my community, and in addition to being a Thomas Jefferson legislator, which means I go to the state capital 90 days out of the year and make laws, and I just over-extended myself in time and stress, and it started leading to health problems, and instead of doing something about it I kept piling things on, taking on more.

I went from an average of about 240 in weight to 340 over the course of a couple of years and never could shuck it. I would go on these diets and programs, and I’d lose twenty five pounds and gain thirty five back.

Finally, I collapsed in May 2008, only to find out that I was in full congestive heart failure. I had high blood pressure and diabetes. I’m telling you there was not much more that could happen to a guy in his early fifties. My doctor said.”Holland, you take the weight off or you will not see Christmas this year. You’re into early systems failure, but the problem is that it’s happening fast to you. One system after another is going to go, and you’re ultimately going to die from this.”

And so, we labored over it and thought about it and tried to figure out the best approach, and my doctor suggested gastric bypass, and basically decided I wouldn’t live through that surgery, so we went to a less intrusive procedure, a lap band, and it was the very tool I needed, and I really had a mental adjustment as well as a physical adjustment. I told myself, “It is time to take control of your life again,” and I pared back my number of commissions. I gave up being the church musician and organist.

Q: You were the church organist on top of everything else?

A: My schedule was so unbelievable that there was not one ounce of time for me, and I was so unhealthy I couldn’t do anything. Then I got mind and matter together on the same page, and I started losing weight rapidly and methodically and eating properly, and I started to lose 85 to 90 pounds within little over a year. I was walking religiously. I had not got to the point where I could run, but buddy I was walking three and four and five miles a day, long before the sun came up. But it was working.

So about Thanksgiving of last year, everyone was standing up an taking notice and I was getting so much affirmation mentally for the weight loss I’d had, and the biggest thing was that my blood pressure was coming back to normal, my diabetes was leaving, I was slacking off on meds, month by month, cholesterol got excellent. I was also in bed by ten o’clock, getting the proper rest instead of trying to work all day and play all night.

So it call came together, and this lady called Angela Ladner, head of the Mississippi Psychiatric Association, a dear friend of mine, called me one day and said “Steve, I want to issue challenge to you. I’ve been involved in fitness program with a man named Paul Lacoste and he has got this unbelievable 12-week program, and I would like for you to participate.” We talked about it, and I decided that I would do it, but I wanted all my colleagues to participate, too. I wanted to lead by example. And I got so much affirmation, and being in the position of chair of the public health and human services committee, and literally having a Lazarus story of my own, I said I want this to be for everybody in the legislature, so we can be a shining example for all of our citizens in Mississippi as well as examples for other state legislators to emulate all across the nation, especially in the South, where obesity is the most prevalent.

We had our second meeting with Coach, and Coach got so excited he just could not contain himself, and we started getting it together.

Q: Tell me about Coach Lacoste.

A: He played football at Mississippi State and went on to play pro ball for several years, and he’s this big old hunk of a man. He’s a little old teddy bear in cobra snake clothes. Mean as hell on the one hand, and so warm-hearted on the other and believes so strongly in what he does and his mission and his goal in life, which is to teach people to take care of their own health and be healthy. He’s a trainer. He trains other players. We bonded in the first meeting. It was love at first bite for us, and we started the process of notifying colleagues of what we were going to do.

It was going to be $795 a piece. Though I’m a Democrat, I’ve got enough money to be a Republican, if I wanted to be, and I could pay my own way, but so many of my colleagues couldn’t, so we got corporate sponsors to sponsor this, and we started meeting in early January for 12 consecutive weeks at 5 and 6 a.m. every weekday morning, two miles from the capital building, and we did this boot camp style work-out that was nothing short of phenomenal.

The start and the finish figures are enough to just blow your mind. Collectively, in 12 weeks, we lost a little over 1500 pounds.

Q:That’s amazing.

A: It is amazing. But here’s the great spin-off that I did not expect at first. It became a very strong bonding experience among legislators, and those that work with us, bonding in the sense that it was a congregant experience. We boosted each other up. We found out in the process, maybe for the first time in seven years, that it didn’t make a damn if you were a Republican or Democrat. If you were obese, you had health issues. It was an equality thing that all of us get into the game and take care of ourselves and take care of each other as we take care of ourselves. And we wound up this year getting along better than we have in seven years. There are no if’s and’s or but’s about it. It was Coach LaCost and his training program.

Q:Let’s go back a second. When you first floated this idea, what was the response from your colleagues in the State House?

A:It was interesting. All of the forces came together in a karma style experience. A year or so before, my colleagues knew that I was dying, and they surrounded me back in 2008 with this enormous show of support and understanding and empathy to do better, to go through my surgery and get on a greater plane, and I don’t think I could have gone through all that as successfully as I did without their support.

Q: You’re talking about Republicans and Democrats.

A: Yessir. Even the Governor, who is grossly overweight, by the way, and I begged, I just begged him to join us, and he did not see that he had time to do it, and he now admits that he should have done it. His office participated, and they actually won in our internal competition for the most percentage weight loss among the house, senate and governor’s staff, and we bonded so strongly with them. Unfortunately, the Governor was not part of it, but we got to know his staff. I think because I had gone through the Valley and reached the mountain top already, even before this happened, it was like just because I requested, folks responded.

We started out with 111 members that signed up, and on ending day, we had 105. And except for one or two that just could not deal with it, mentally or physically, the others were injuries. It was so intense that some of their bodies just couldn’t take it, and they wound up. One guy broke three ribs in the process of the exercise.

Q: What was it exactly that you all were doing?

A:We would show up at 5 or 6 a.m.–there were such large groups Coach couldn’t manage them in one work-out. You showed up and you started running. I had not run a step in twenty years, maybe longer. We did an extensive amount of running, and then stretching exercises and calisthenics, cardio, areobics. You just name it. It was this cornucopia of major one-hour exercise. There were no breaks of any nature. And Coach knows what he’s doing. He’s got his program down to an absolute science. He had assistant coaches who would take us into areas where we really had deficits, but everybody got the general dose.

We started out running a mile the first day we were there. Twelve to fifteen of us upchucked that day.

A: Oh boy.

Q:It was that bad. We were that out of shape.

I did not miss one day, not one single day, and the amazing thing is that historically you couldn’t even get legislators into the capital for an 8:30 meeting, you know. My God, nobody missed these things. They got so collegial and got so healthy so quickly that it was like. We had folks who would show up at 4:15 and 4:30 to prepare for the 5 a.m. class.

At the end, we ran a 5K. We had an awards ceremony and a weigh-in, and of course you had the biggest loser, like the TV show, biggest percentage loser, and it was just this absolutely phenomenal event, running through downtown Jackson with your colleagues, many of whom 12 weeks earlier couldn’t even walk, much less run that distance. It just built a level of bond and camaraderie that we haven’t seen in a long time, to such a point that I am so committed to continuing this as long as I’m a legislator, but to taking it to 49 other states, and to every county in the state of Mississippi and challenge folks to take responsibilities for their own health.

If I didn’t have to work for a living, I swear I’d sell all my wordly goods and do nothing but this for the rest of my life because I’m such a new person. I cannot describe my new body, my new life, my new attitude about being well. I might be by God dead as hell in the morning, but I’m going to die happy and healthy.

Rep. Holland went on to say that the fitness program had a direct and extremely positive effect on the budget negotiation process in the State House, normally very contentious. As a direct result of the better bodies and improved spirits of the legislators, he says, Members of the House were able to avoid a special session, which would have been mandated by the Governor’s Office, and go into the next few weeks of budget haggling without the usual rancor.

Q: How did that happen?

A: We sat down with Republicans for the first time in years and asked them how they wanted to be involved in the budget process. They said they just wanted to be informed, and we invited them into the process, I mean the inner sanctum, the holy of holies, and what came out of it, in the end was, they agreed to adjourn for thirty days, if we would agree with a hardcore revenue estimate. I don’t think it ever would have happened if we hadn’t bonded and learned to trust each other and to say hey what is it we can do to help you understand what we’re doing or help us understand what you want.

It was a win-win all the way around.

Next I spoke with State Representative Mark Formby, a conservative Republican who doesn’t see eye to eye with Holland on most any issue. For the fitness program, he set politics aside and got healthy.

Q:What’s your sense of the obesity problem in Mississippi? How severe is it? Was it something you were concerned with?

A: Absolutely, and not just as a legislator, but also as a father. You can’t help but notice the problem. The problem is everywhere. Also, as a fifth generation Southerner, a fifth generation Mississippian, I am aware that a lot of the problem that we have in the South has to do with balance. There was a time when we ate lots of carbohydrates, rich foods and fried foods, but at the same time we were very hard-working, logging, farming society. Well, we quit logging and we quit farming, but we continued to eat fried foods and lots of carbs, white bread and corn. It’s been obvious, but it’s also obvious that the problem is not just the food intake, but the amount of physical exercise.

Q:From your perspective, since Rep. Holland seems to feel that the fitness program had a positive effect on relations between Democrats and Republicans, how bad has the partisan atmosphere been in the State House?

A:The question itself is tough, because our demeanor towards ach other as persons, I think, has always been cordial. Now as far as the degree of partisanship, it has grown tremendously as the Republican party’s numbers have grown to almost half the house, when you count the conservative democrats. Our numners are almost half. In the past, we were not as partisan because the party I was in did not have the numbers to compete. So I think that defines the problem.

Q: How well had you known Rep. Holland?

A: We’ve served together in the House for 19 years. I know Rep. Holland extremely well from a social standpoint as well as the fact that we are adversaries in a lot of areas.

Q:How did you respond initially to the offer of this fitness program?

A:It was offered to the entire legislature. I have always been a walker. When I’m in session I will usually walk a couple of miles a day, two or three times a week, and thought I was fit until I got into this program. But I decided to do this program just because it was being offered.

Q: Did you do this in part in the interests of collegiality?

A:It absolutely had to do with the fact that it was participatory by the legislature. First of all, I was already walking. Second of all, I don’t normally get up at 5:30 in the morning to go work out. That was not appealing to me. The thing that pushed me over the line was that it was a House and Senate competition, as well as the fact that it was being sold as an example to the general populace, and I certainly wanted to be a part of that.

Q:What was the greatest challenge in the fitness regimen for you?

A:22 Degrees at 5:30 in the morning. very unpleasant on the front end. And then the truth is it was just a grueling exercise. It was a challenge to get up. It was a challenge to face the cold. It was a challenge many mornings to make the full hour. The wonderful thing about it was that in the first fifteen minutes of very day, probably half the people in the class were saying they wouldn’t be back the next day in their minds, but five minutes after completion, when you walked out of there on those cool crisp mornings, having done it once again, I was glad to come back. It’s amazing not just the physical effects this kind of exercise has on you, but the mental awakening it creates in your mind.

Q:Have you personally struggled with weight issues?

A: The reason I exercise is that I do fight it genetically. My father passed away four months ago and was probably one hundred pounds above a healthy weight, as was his father, so it is something that I have always fought. Probably the difference [[between me and Representative Holland]] is that I have managed to fight it. I’ve never crossed the 200 pound mark, and my optimum height to weight should be about 176 pounds. I typically run around 184, but when I started this program, I had got up to 196. I was approaching 200 pounds for the first time in my life, and I think that kind of threw a panic on me.

Q:Republicans and Democrats were both involved in the program, and you said there was already a cordiality in the chamber, but Representative Holland feels that the exercise together created a bond across political divisions. How do you see it?

A:Certainly it was a chance to get to know people better. Holland and I have been in the chamber together for almost twenty years, and it’s hard not to know people when you’ve been there twenty years. However, there are lots of members who had been there for three to seven years, so it was certainly was an opportunity to get to know those people in a venue outside the chamber.

Q: And there weren’t so many opportunities for it to happen otherwise?

A: I think that’s probably accurate. When we’re in the chamber, we’re working on issues, and issues are the things that divide us. In order to get past issues, we need to get outside the chamber and find those places that unite us and certainly this program gave us a common goal and a common focus and anytime you have more and more people chasing a common goal, you get along better. That’s part of the process.

Q:I don’t want to overstate this, but Rep. Holland felt, once the fitness program was over, things improved politically between Republicans and Democrats in the State House. It even led to a better process when it came time to deal with the budget. What’s your perspective?

A:I don’t know if I want to step that far. I know exactly what got us through the process. What I can truthfully say is that the program itself helped to ease late session tensions. Usually by the end of the session, everybody is at everyone’s throats, and there are a lot of screaming fits and animosity on the floor, but it seemed this year, even though the process was a political process that ended up getting us to that agreement about the budget, it was done with lighter hearts, with a smoother demeanor among members. We were definitely on two different sides, and we managed to get to a point of agreement, and while it took a couple of days, it does seem that we did it with less grandstanding and less animosity toward other members.

Q:Did that feel good?

A:Well, I think our side actually won so obviously did. But it always feels good when we negotiate to a point of agreement.

Q:How bad are the divisions in this country? Are they any worse than at other times?

A:We’ve been in this situation for 200 years. There have always been people who believed that government should be bigger and more powerful, Federalists in the old days, and people who felt government should be smaller and leaner and the people given more responsibility. That battle was argued at the time the Constitution was being written, and it’s been raging ever since. What’s happened is that were many, many more people who were pro-individual rights, and fewer people who were pro-government and what’s happened over the past 200 years is that the pro-government has grown.

We’ve gone to a time when the country is radically split philosophically. This last election showed that. It certainly was not a race about race. We elected our first African American president in a country that has only 14 percent African Americans, so obviously the race itself wasn’t about race. It was about issues, and more than half the country supported a candidate that I would consider to be a Federalist, by the old definition.

Q:So this effort with fitness, in a polarized environment, it’s perhaps a small gesture, but Rep. Holland believes it’s something that could be reproduced elsewhere. Do you you think it can help in its own modest way ease some of the tensions?

A:I think in more than just a modest way. I’m cautious to go too far down the road on a specific issue, but there’s no question that being healthy, being physically fit is a mental, physical and spiritual condition, it really is, and the participation in the process is good for people. Bear in mind that outside the legislation process, people are equally split when they go to work, but they don’t fight about it all day long, because that’s not their job. Our job is to fight about it.

Therefore, when we can find an opportunity to step outside that arena, it’s a a good thing. If they offer it again next year, I think you’ll see participation grow, and the reason for that is I really believe those who didn’t participate this time feel like they missed out on an opportunity. Part of that is the enthusiasm they saw, the camaraderie, a newly found team spirit, and I know there were people who wished they’d taken part.

Q: Representative Holland told me that Governor Harbour wished that he’d taken part, but he had time issues. Did the governor say anything to you about it? Is he aware of it?

A:He’s very aware of it. I think when he says he has time issues, he means the fact that the governor represents the state on the road a lot and he is also the current chair of the Republican Governors Conference, and he was typically gone two or three days a week. This program ran five days a week, and the less you did it, the less effective it would be. His grand concern was that he would have been sporadic at best in his ability to participate.

Q:Is it your sense that he wishes he could have done it?

A:He hasn’t said that specifically, but his staff certainly participated, including his chief of staff, so he was very aware of the day to day goings on. There’s a quote out there, and I say this tongue in cheek, but he was asked if he was going to run for president, and his answer was, “If you see me drop 50 pounds, watch out.” It could be that he was scared of he participated in this program people would think he was running for president.

Comments (3)

3 Comments »

1. Impressive and timely scoop, John.
   Great to see these legislators serving as practical role models….

   Comment by Craig — April 12, 2010 @ 4:22 pm

2. ok so i want to have a team liberal bbq vs. team conservative bbq this summer at our Dinner at the Square. Thinking that team conservative was a natural fit (and team liberal a bit of a stretch) I started there. Turns out our board member Bryan Desloge, conservative and County Commissioner, doesn’t really do BBQ.

   Huh?

   Note that he is very fit and thin…

   You should interview him next.

   Comment by Liz — April 12, 2010 @ 10:37 pm

3. Notice that I didn’t say barbecue is killing American democracy. That would be unpatriotic. Even saying this about fried chicken makes me weep.

   Comment by John — April 13, 2010 @ 4:21 am

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