ABC's National "Stay at Home Week"

ABC, in a not-so-surprising yet utterly enraging move, has declared the week of September 21st to be National "Stay at Home Week." Apparantly ABC is encouraging Americans to avoid the outdoors and the dangers of going to new places and trying new things. Now I'm sure this is not an attempt by ABC to protest nature, but I'm offended nonetheless. In an age where children spend less and less time outdoors (see Richard Louv's Last Child in the Woods) and we all spend more and more time in front of the tv and computer (in 2007, men, women, teens, and children spent, respectively, 4hrs35min, 5hrs14min, 3hrs21min, and 3hrs25min a day watching tv, and TWICE that on the computer!) do we really need to encourage the nation to spend more time watching tv and sitting on the couch? I know that it would go against their bottom-line, so I'm not holding my breath, but it would be nice to see an organization with such wide-reaching influence, promote a closer connection with the outside world, or at least a more active lifestyle. The Public Trust does not have that sort of influence (yet), but as the Executive Director I'm declaring the week of September 21st to be National "Go to a Park and Play Week." It's simple, take your kids and go down to the local beach, pasture, swimming hole, big-oak tree, creek, whatever, and show them that entertainment started with the wonders of nature, not Must See TV.

To learn more about ABC's "Stay at Home Week," you can visit http://abc.go.com/primetime/nationalstayathomeweek/index?pn=index

To learn more about going outside, you can visit http://www.nps.gov