|
|
06/13/05
Val Zavala>> Tonight on Life and Times --
What happens to America's wild horses when they no longer have a
home on the range?
Neda DeMayo>> Adopted wild horses go to slaughter. After title
is transferred a year later, many horses go to slaughter just
like thoroughbreds and any other horse that is unwanted.
Slaughter is an outlet.
Val>> And then, how did the construction of Disney Hall affect
Los Angeles? An artistic look at how one institution can
transform its surroundings.
It's all straight ahead on tonight's Life and Times.
Life and Times is made possible through the generous support of
the L.K. Whittier Foundation dedicated to improving the quality
of life by supporting innovative endeavors in the fields of
medicine, health, science and education.
And by a generous grant from Jim and Anne Rothenberg.
Val>> There are still places in California where horses run
free. A few years ago, a law was passed encouraging people to
adopt these wild horses, but it hasn't turned out as expected
and now many of these horses are being led back to the slaughter
house. Stephanie O'Neill Noe takes us to the central coast
where one sanctuary is working hard to save wild mustangs.
[Film Clip]
Stephanie O'Neill Noe>> Here at the Return to Freedom Wild
Horse Sanctuary in Lompoc, California, more than two hundred
mustangs roam free on three hundred acres of land, many of them
living in their original family band just like they did in the
wild. Neda DeMayo founded the sanctuary six years ago with her
family's life savings.
Neda DeMayo>> For many of the horses that have suffered through
roundups and chases, etc., that's an incredibly traumatizing
experience. When they arrive here, they're very herd-bound.
They're very connected that way and we try to maintain that
here.
Stephanie O'Neill Noe>> But the tranquility of their life at
this nationally renowned sanctuary belies an intense battle on
behalf of the wild horse, a battle that's become a top priority
for DeMayo and her assistant, Jill Anderson.
Jill Anderson>> "We'll have information on how to contact their
legislators, sample letters. We'll update them on the trip to
Washington, D.C. and all the lobbying efforts."
Stephanie O'Neill Noe>> DeMayo is waging a war many thought was
won thirty-four years ago with passage of the 1971 Wild Free
Roaming Horse and Burro Act, a law intended to protect wild
mustangs and keep them free. But now a new provision allows the
sale and immediate transfer of captured horses to the highest
bidder. The clause was quietly passed on to this year's
national spending bill by Montana Senator, Conrad Burns.
In response to questions from Life and Times, Burns said of his
amendment, "...many opponents of the legislation claim it only
to be an attempt to slaughter wild horses, but as a man who
understands their importance to the western way of life, this is
simply not true. Animals not adopted are placed in the
maintenance and long-term holding facilities costing Americans
about nineteen million dollars per year. Funds generated from
the sale of these animals will be used for the costs related to
the adoption of wild horses and burros..."
Nevertheless, in recent weeks, forty-one wild horses sold under
the Burns amendment and transferred to new owners were
immediately sold at a profit to slaughter houses. The slaughter
houses, in turn, sell the horsemeat which ends up on dinner
tables in Europe and Asia.
Neda DeMayo>> It was very depressing and there was a sense of
just complete -- how do I explain it? Deceit, I think, is the
word, of betrayal because even in countries where they eat
horsemeat, the American wild horse is seen as an icon.
Deanne Stillman>> Our country would not exist without the wild
horse. The wild horse blazed our trails, plowed our fields,
built this country.
Stephanie O'Neill Noe>> Deanne Stillman is a published author
now writing a book called "Horse Latitudes: The Last Stand for
the Wild Horse in the American West".
Deanne Stillman>> Thousands and thousands and thousands of
horses have perished in our wars and most of these horses were
rounded up from the open range.
Stephanie O'Neill Noe>> But the Burns amendment and the
slaughters it allowed are merely a symptom. Activists say the
real problem is that of the overall management of wild horses on
America's public land. While researching her book, Stillman
says she witnessed firsthand the trauma and serious injuries
wild horses suffered during capture.
Deanne Stillman>> I went to several roundups in Nevada last
summer. In one of them, I saw two foals being trampled in the
pens. The horses are in a frenzy. They were herding them off
the mountains down into this tiny corral, trampling foals. In
the corral, they're sorted, divided into male and female. The
foals are separated out, then they're herded into trucks and
hauled off to holding pens several hours away.
Stephanie O'Neill Noe>> The Bureau of Land Management, or BLM,
estimates there are about thirty-one thousand wild horses now
roaming free on federal land. The agency uses helicopters to
round up thousands of horses in order to accommodate other land
uses like cattle grazing. This year alone, the Bush
administration has directed the agency to remove from the range
ten thousand more mustangs.
Neda DeMayo>> By the time a single horse is captured and in a
holding facility, it's cost the taxpayers is about thirty-two
hundred dollars per horse. You've got, you know, contractors,
helicopters, helicopter pilots, wranglers, brand inspectors,
vets, etc. Very expensive endeavor.
Stephanie O'Neill Noe>> This year, the BLM will spend about
thirty-nine million dollars on the removal and management of
wild horses and burros. Half of that will go to caring for the
captured horses and another eleven million dollars will go to
the Adopt a Mustang program intended to help the BLM relocate
some of the wild horses into the backyards of private citizens.
And while adoption success stories do exist, so too do tales of
tragedy.
Neda DeMayo>> Adopted wild horses go to slaughter. After title
is transferred a year later, many horses go to slaughter just
like thoroughbreds and any other horse that is unwanted.
Slaughter is an outlet.
Stephanie O'Neill Noe>> Many other adopted mustangs are doomed
to lives of neglect by well-intentioned, but misguided,
adopters. Some horses like this malnourished stallion that was
brought to the Return to Freedom Sanctuary died early deaths.
Neda DeMayo>> Managing wild horses in the wild like they're
supposed to be managed is a lot cheaper. We would save millions
and millions of dollars a year by managing horses where they
are.
Stephanie O'Neill Noe>> DeMayo says the Return to Freedom
Sanctuary provides a working model for managing wild horses
without capturing them. A key part of her program is annual
birth control shots that are given to mares through a dart gun.
[Film Clip]
Stephanie O'Neill Noe>> Keeping wild horses in the wild will
also require support from cattle ranchers who raise their herds
for only part of the year.
Neda DeMayo>> But when they remove the cattle, the water is
shut off. Well, you know, keeping the water on and paying the
state for the water for the horses is a lot cheaper than
removing the horses. The public needs to tell the government
that we want our wild horses out there. There are other
solutions.
Stephanie O'Neill Noe>> Helping to alert the American public
about the mustangs' plight is this soon to air public service
announcement featuring actor, Viggo Mortensen, from the film
"Hidalgo".
Viggo Mortensen>> "Hello, I'm Viggo Mortensen. I'm here to
talk to you because I'm concerned about the recent gutting of
the 1971 Wild Free Roaming Horse and Burro Act."
Stephanie O'Neill Noe>> In response to the forty-one horses
death, the BLM has, for now at least, stopped the delivery of
more than nine hundred horses sold under the Burns amendment.
Meanwhile, Virginia Congressman Nick Rahall has introduced H.R.
297 which would reverse the Burns amendment.
Neda DeMayo>> I think what we have now is an opportunity and I
think now, more than ever, we need the public's support. This
is not the time to get complacent. This is not the time to
relax.
Stephanie O'Neill Noe>> For Life and Times, I'm Stephanie
O'Neill Noe in Lompoc.
Kcet.org is the place to look for the very latest on Life and
Times. You'll find previews of upcoming stories, transcripts
and audio of past episodes and links to some of our most
interesting features. Just go to kcet.org and click on "Life
and Times".
Kevin Smith>> And now for this Life and Times story update.
Southern California is famous for its public beaches, but how
public can they be if the public can't get to the beaches? It
turns out the public part of the beach is only the wet sand from
the ocean to the high tide line. Any use of the beach above
that requires a so-called easement which the California Coastal
Commission negotiates with property owners in exchange for
development permits.
Steve Hoye>> They're like gold. We've actually tried to open
two of those easements and actually have been sued by both of
the homeowners on those occasions.
Kevin Smith>> One of the most controversial easements is the
one that runs through this gate right next to the home of music
mogul and DreamWorks co-founder, David Geppen. Geppen sued to
stop the easement from opening in 2001.
Steve Hoye>> Mr. Geffen made a commitment to the people of the
state of California to open up that easement in exchange for
actually being able to develop his property and for building a
seawall in front of his house.
Kevin Smith>> Geppen finally settled the dispute in April and
handed over the keys to the gate. Meanwhile, his neighbors have
taken up the fight. Their lawyers say they never signed a
provision allowing public access and may file a separate suit to
stop it. In the meantime, the group Access For All is working
to open yet another access point a half mile away. Those
property owners are expected to cooperate.
Steve Hoye>> We'd actually have some people here during the
summertime as opposed to having this vacant rich man's paradise.
Val>> President Bush has been trying hard to sell his social
security restructuring plan to America's senior citizens, but
what about the younger generation, people in their twenties and
thirties? They have the most to lose if social security goes
under.
James Lockhart>> "But it's really the next generation and your
generation that we really need to fix social security for."
Val>> That's why a top administrator with social security met
with journalism students at Los Angeles City College. He's
Deputy Commissioner James Lockhart and he projected a picture of
what social security might look like over the next few decades.
James Lockhart>> "We're not in crisis today, but we will be if
we don't fix the problem."
Val>> So what do you tell young people? How do you convince
them that social security is going to be around for them, but at
the same time, certain changes have to be made?
James Lockhart>> That's a good question. I mean, what we try
to tell them is that the country is aging. There aren't enough
babies being born. People are living longer. And in just
twelve years, there's not going to be enough taxes to pay
benefits. So we really need to make a change so that they'll
have the option to get their social security benefits. If
nothing is done, their benefits will be cut by about thirty
percent.
Val>> And the change you're suggesting and you're explaining to
them is what?
James Lockhart>> Well, we're telling them what the changes
could be. Increasing taxes is one. Slowing the growth of
benefits is another, or some sort of increasing the rate of
return through personal accounts. The payroll tax has increased
twenty times in the history of the program. The maximum tax
when social security was started seventy years ago of you and
your employer was sixty dollars. Today it's over eleven
thousand dollars. Well, it's tough.
There are some tradeoffs that are going to have to be made.
Certainly, increasing payroll taxes again. That's been done
twenty times. It's not really a very attractive option and the
President has come out very much against increasing payroll
taxes. We've increased the retirement age at times. We've
slowed the growth of benefits. Those are not always attractive
either. So then people start talking about maybe we should
increase investment returns either by taking some payroll taxes
or invest in a trust fund directly in equities.
Val>> You were saying that young people are more open to
investing in their own retirement themselves basically through
these personal accounts, but that puts a lot more responsibility
on them. Are young people sophisticated enough financially to
get a good return?
James Lockhart>> More and more, they're investing in their
401(k)s and they're getting comfortable with that. They also
have the IRA options. They're much more comfortable. It's
going to take some real education here because there are maybe
forty to fifty percent of the American people who have never
invested and that's going to be very, very important to do a lot
of education and also offer them some alternatives that are
relatively simple. One of the alternatives they're talking
about is a life cycle fund that would have a higher amount of
equities when you start out and it would automatically reduce
your equities as you get closer to retirement age.
Val>> In other words, less and less risky investments as you
get older.
James Lockhart>> Right. So it might be eighty percent stocks
when you're age twenty and, at age sixty-five, maybe twenty
percent stocks. That would automatically adjust the risk as you
get closer to retirement.
James Lockhart>> "In fact, for about eighty percent of the
American workers now, they pay more in social security and
Medicare taxes than they do in income tax, so that's a pretty
regressive tax."
Val>> Okay, so someone like me, and I'll give you a hint. I'm
as old as Disneyland --
James Lockhart>> (Laughter) I can't believe that.
Val>> (Laughter) These personal accounts, would I be required
to take some of my social security money and put it in personal
accounts or is it simply an option?
James Lockhart>> It is an option. It's voluntary and you
wouldn't have to. Certainly, the changes will be phased in so
that, if you're close to fifty-five, the changes wouldn't be
large either way, whether you volunteered or didn't volunteer,
but if you're younger, the changes would be bigger. The idea is
they would have a lot more time to invest in the personal
account if they decided to have one.
Val>> And yet, the personal accounts, the economists and so
forth have shown that the likelihood of you coming out better
with a personal account is very low. In fact, you're probably
better off just staying put.
James Lockhart>> Not really. It depends. If you take a
personal account, you volunteer for a personal account, you are
giving up something of your social security benefits. Certainly
not all of it, but a part of it. Over the long term -- and I
come from a financial background -- you can really look at very,
very few periods in the stock market history that you wouldn't
have been much better off with a personal account.
Over the last ten years, the Thrift Savings Plan which is the
federal 401(k) plan that they're designing personal accounts
about, their two stock options have had over eleven percent per
annum return even though there were the bad three years. Over a
longer term, they've had positive returns as well. So I think
the option is, yes, there is more volatility with a personal
account, but over a longer period of time, you'd probably do
better.
Val>> So if these personal accounts, let's say they pass and
they're voluntary, but people are skittish and conservative and
no one really takes advantage of them, then what kind of
possible impact could they make in terms of fixing social
security?
James Lockhart>> Well, it's just really one part of social
security reform, personal accounts. They're also going to have
to look at those other areas I mentioned. Probably to get
solvency, there will some reduction or slowing down of the
growth of benefits. What President Bush mentioned the other
night was to actually have the benefits stay the same for the
lower income, but as you get higher income, your benefits might
slow down. That would incentive people actually to take those
personal accounts, so I think there will be a pretty high pickup
amongst the younger generation.
Val>> The President has really gone on a campaign trail in
favor of these personal accounts and yet he's getting a lot of
resistance. Is there going to be some point where he's going to
have to compromise?
James Lockhart>> Well, I think what's going on is that he's
really trying to tell the American people and educate the
American people that there is a problem and we need to fix it
sooner than later. Yes, there is a lot of controversy about
personal accounts. Younger generations seem to like it. Older
generations are not going to be eligible because, in fact,
anybody fifty-five and older, benefits are not going to be
changed and they're protected. So there's a lot of discussion
going on.
Congress has all the options on the table and both Senate
Finance Committee and the House Ways and Means are going to be
picking up legislation in June. They're going to have to make
the tradeoffs and hopefully we can get a bipartisan fix here,
that we can get the Democrats and Republicans talking together
because, in many ways, social security is the most important
government program and it really does need a bipartisan fix.
That's what really President Bush would like.
James Lockhart>> "What we need to do is to try to seek a
permanent solution, something that will really fix the program
long-term rather than just fixing it for another ten years or
something."
Val>> Mr. Lockhart, thank you for spending a little time with
us.
James Lockhart>> Thank you, Val.
To send a comment or a question to our program, you can reach us
by mail at this address:
Life and Times
4401 Sunset Blvd.
Los Angeles, California 90027
You can also call our viewer comment line (323) 953-5555) or
contact us the fast way by e-mail at kcet.org.
Val>> The Walt Disney Concert Hall isn't just a new home for
the Los Angeles Philharmonic. It's a new face for downtown Los
Angeles. But how does the old and the new get along? That's
the subject of an exhibit at the Redcat Gallery. Vicki Curry
talked with its curator, Allan Sekula.
Allan Sekula>> I realized that this was going to be a time of
great transition in downtown Los Angeles and that Disney Hall
would be linked to this and that looking at it over a period of
six years might be intriguing and might lead us to all kinds of
questions.
Vicki Curry>> Allan Sekula, a professor at CalArts, recruited
four fellow artists to participate in this long-term project
they titled "Facing the Music".
Allan Sekula>> And I more or less framed the project as being
about the broader context of downtown. We wanted to sort of map
out the good and the bad. You know, in Los Angeles sometimes
that's annoying to people because there's such a strong sense
that the city has to be boosted. But I actually think the
city's too mature to need that kind of purified conversation.
Vicki Curry>> Allan, we're here at the corner of First Street
and Grand Avenue in downtown. You see this as kind of the
crossroads of this transition that downtown is going through.
Allan Sekula>> That's really the intersection that's been named
as the new center. The thing that struck me so strongly was
that you did have this idea of a cultural and spiritual avenue
that's got the cathedral, MOCA, the Museum of Contemporary Art,
the Mark Taper, the Music Center and the Disney Hall. There's a
strong axis of culture and then this other axis with the
courthouses, the Los Angeles Times, City Hall. What you have is
a kind of mix of different period styles. Los Angeles is a city
that's often embarrassed by its architectural past, so one of
the things that struck me was the way that this sort of civic
frontage, the public buildings, kind of retreat in the face of
this new development of the cultural avenue.
Vicki Curry>> There's one piece in particular that you think
really epitomizes the recent changes that happened here. It was
not too long ago located here. What was it?
Allan Sekula>> Well, there was a bust of Lincoln that used to
confront the jurors as they crossed the street from the parking
structures and, you know, came in in the morning to do their
jury duties. With the widening of Grand Avenue and the
introduction of this kind of a curve into Grand Avenue, the
decision was made to basically hide Lincoln, to move him back,
so Lincoln becomes kind of ghostly here and kind of hidden.
Vicki Curry>> Sekula and his collaborators became intimately
familiar with the neighborhood of Bunker Hill as they spent
countless hours recording the creation of Disney Hall.
Allan Sekula>> Billy Woodberry ended up making a two-hour film
which more or less follows the building of the Hall.
[Film Clip]
Allan Sekula>> I think what he's done is to make a city
symphony film which is, you know, the genre of film in the
1920's that really looked at urban rhythms and the kind of city
as an almost kind of organic machine.
Vicki Curry>> Photographer James Baker realized early on that
scores of people were recording the construction process, so his
interest turned elsewhere.
Allan Sekula>> In the end, what Jim decided to do was to look
more at the kind of downhill slide from the old Bunker Hill site
toward the river, toward the zones of homelessness, toward the
zones where Hollywood films that are what they often call the
gritty look at the city are made and the kind of interaction
between homeless on the streets and film crews, but also a look
at the space around the courthouse here, around the halls.
Vicki Curry>> Anthony Hernandez also looked beyond the corner
of Grand Avenue. He turned his camera east on First Street
where the Aliso Village Housing Project was being torn down, and
west to the half-finished Belmont Learning Center.
Allan Sekula>> So we were interested in both the architectural
triumphs and the architectural embarrassments or scandals. You
know, there's the fact that here was a school that had been
built without a proper environmental site evaluation and then
led to this huge waste of money and lots of controversy.
Essentially, what he's playing with is construction, demolition
and abandonment. Those are really the three main themes.
Vicki Curry>> When it came to photographing the Disney Concert
Hall, Hernandez took an unusual approach.
Allan Sekula>> I think what Anthony was interested in was
avoiding the building's seduction. You know, the kind of way
that photographers have really been caught up in the building's
luminosity and its curves. I mean, it's almost as if the
building is made to invite photography and yet, if the building
is really going to serve human needs, some of those curves have
to be mediated with right angles, straight lines, level floors
(laughter) and the like. So he almost deliberately sought out
rather banal aspects of the building.
Vicki Curry>> Aspects that are similar to any building, even
Belmont.
Allan Sekula>> Architecturally, there's not much to distinguish
them, so he's suggesting that, despite the exceptionalism of
Frank Gehry's architecture here, there's certain ways it's still
just a building, you know.
Vicki Curry>> Photographer Karin Apollonia Muller was drawn not
to the construction site, but to the landscape surrounding it.
Allan Sekula>> When Grand Avenue was widened, quite a few of
these ficus trees were cut. What she's showing here is this
series of cuts of trees which are effectively opening up a view
of Disney Hall.
Vicki Curry>> But at the same time, a designer was creating
elaborate gardens at the Hall and needed mature trees to
instantly bring them to life. Muller learned that private
homeowners were selling their trees to Disney Hall.
Allan Sekula>> And she discovered an elderly woman in a very
modest little house near Culver City who had a Pink Snowball
tree that the landscape architect, Melinda Taylor, was
interested in. The woman agreed to sell her tree.
Vicki Curry>> Muller documented the workers' transplanting the
tree from the woman's house to the new gardens.
Allan Sekula>> You know, it's like a sad fairy tale because the
tree died and had to be replaced with another tree.
[Film Clip]
Vicki Curry>> Sekula's own work for the project focused on the
opening night of the Concert Hall.
[Film Clip]
Allan Sekula>> What I made was a kind of film about these Los
Angeles elite in downtown where they don't entirely feel
comfortable, at least at night, you know, where the corner of
First and Grand is a bit -- you feel like it's almost a rushing
torrent and people are a little bit afraid that they'll be
washed away. They're looking out into the lineup of limousines
hoping to see their car, you know, and be carried away back to
the west side.
[Film Clip]
Vicki Curry>> These artists point out that however celebrated
Disney Hall may currently be, only time will tell what impact
the building will have on the life of Los Angeles.
Allan Sekula>> The public lots that are now devoted to jury
parking will be taken over by commercial real estate
development. We'll see what happens. I mean, I think in time
the idea is that we'll be in the middle of a canyon of
skyscrapers. It will be sort of hemmed in. You know, it will
be yet another little architectural jewel set in this bigger and
more nondescript urban profile.
Val>> "Facing the Music" will be on display through May 29 at
the Redcat Gallery. And that's our program. I'm Val Zavala.
For everyone at Life and Times, thanks for watching. We'll see
you next time.
Life and Times was made possible through the generous support of
the L.K. Whittier Foundation dedicated to improving the quality
of life by supporting innovative endeavors in the fields of
medicine, health, science and education.
And by a generous grant from Jim and Anne Rothenberg.
Val>> Next time on Life and Times --
Just when you thought it was safe to send the kids to the
movies, can you really trust the rating system?
>> Parents need to look beyond just the age-based rating. They
need to look beyond the PG, the PG-13 and the R and go to the
next step, which is reading those content descriptives which the
MPA provides.
Val>> That's next time on Life and Times.
Sponsored in part by:
|
