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Life & Times Transcript
05/18/06 Val Zavala>> Tonight on Life and Times -- It's one of the toughest illegal immigration proposals in southern California. What will San Bernardino voters do? Joseph Turner>> I got tired of hearing state and federal officials pass the buck and continue to make excuses, so I said, hey, I think there's things we can do at the local level to mitigate the harmful effects of illegal immigration. Val Zavala>> And then, a big weekend for Tom Hanks and director, Ron Howard. "The Da Vinci Code" opens. But if you're not in the mood for a blockbuster, there are alternatives. Our FilmWeek critics size up your choices. All this and more on tonight's Life and Times. Announcer>> 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 Zavala>> San Bernardino has been getting a lot of attention lately. It's the center of a controversy over a tough anti-illegal immigration bill, one that's headed for the ballots. San Bernardino is a blue-collar town of about two hundred thousand people. About a third of them live in poverty and about half the population is Latino. Hena Cuevas takes us there. Hena Cuevas>> Sixty miles east of Los Angeles, San Bernardino's residents are at the center of the national debate on immigration. At issue is a tough initiative that will send an unwelcoming message to those in the country illegally. Patrick Morris>> It's not the kind of attention that I would desire as the new mayor. Hena Cuevas>> Patrick Morris became San Bernardino's mayor last March. Less than three months into the job, he heard about a resident who was pushing a zero tolerance policy toward illegal immigration. Patrick Morris>> I think it's quite unhealthy for a city like our own with limited public resources to divert those resources to become essentially a surrogate immigration agency for the feds. Hena Cuevas>> What the initiative proposes is this: It would make it illegal for landlords to rent to undocumented tenants. It would require all city business be conducted in English only. And it would prohibit the city from using tax dollars to establish day labor centers and also require they check the employment status of those getting jobs. The man behind the initiative is twenty-nine year old Joseph Turner of the group, Save Our State. Joseph Turner>> I got tired of hearing local politicians say that there's nothing they can do about illegal immigration. I got tired of hearing state and federal officials pass the buck and continue to make excuses, so I said, hey, I think there's things we can do at the local level to mitigate the harmful effects of illegal immigration. Hena Cuevas>> Two thousand signatures would get his initiative on the ballot. So with the help of local volunteers, he targeted shopping centers and malls. Getting the required numbers of signatures was a bit of a challenge, since those gathering the signatures had to be residents of the city of San Bernardino, which meant Turner couldn't accept the help of other volunteers from other parts of the state. So he decided to go ahead and do it the old-fashioned way, walking down neighborhood streets, knocking on doors and asking people to sign his petition. Joseph Turner>> I wanted to connect with the people of the city of San Bernardino and get a vibe for what they were feeling on the issue. I must say, I was pleasantly surprised by the reaction that I received. Hena Cuevas>> He got more than the two thousand signatures he needed, so earlier this week the initiative was brought to a vote at the City Council. Residents packed into City Hall to make their voices heard. At least two hundred inside, another two hundred more waiting outside for their turn at the microphone, and there was no shortage of supportive opinions. >> "I'm here to show my support for Joseph Turner and his initiative. Some say that his initiative is harsh and that he is a racist. I don't believe his initiative is as harsh as Mexico's treatment of people that invade their own southern borders." >> "Here we have a patriot that's come before you with a petition to speak his mind and evidently he has some other people that believed in the petition." Hena Cuevas>> And plenty of voices against it as well. >> "I would ask the Council to not pass this ordinance, but in addition to that, to send a message to this community that we don't need these problems." >> "This initiative presented to you is very divisive, very hateful and very unconstitutional." Hena Cuevas>> It's that part, the legality of the initiative, that concerns Mayor Morris who served as a judge for thirty years. He says the ordinance is sure to be challenged in court. Patrick Morris>> If this initiative passes, we're required by the initiative to defend it all the way to the Supreme Court. It is surely unconstitutional, but that doesn't diminish our obligation to defend it. Hena Cuevas>> As an example, he cites the statewide effort in 1994 to pass Proposition 187 which denied public benefits to those in the country illegally. Proposition 187 passed with nearly sixty percent of the vote, but was later found to violate federal law. Patrick Morris>> The same issues exist here. The right of a citizen to petition their government is at stake here and those with limited English-speaking skills have the right to petition the government. Hena Cuevas>> For example, under the initiative, this man at the microphone would not have been provided a translator. >> "Good evening. My name is Roberto and I'm a worker in the city of San Bernardino." Patrick Morris>> I cannot and will not support a ballot initiative like this because it does not offer us a solution to the challenges we face as a city or as a nation. Hena Cuevas>> The initiative may not have the support of the mayor, but at least one councilman, Chas Kelley, is fully behind it. Chas Kelley>> The federal government's responsibility is to protect the borders and they're not doing so, so that's why I support this issue. I'm hoping that this can be an example to other municipalities and we can move forward to do what the federal government's failing to do. Patrick Morris>> It's not the city's mandate to be engaged in these kinds of issues. The control of our borders and the handling of immigration and naturalization is, under Article 1, a federal issue. Hena Cuevas>> But that's precisely why Turner says he decided to take matters into his own hands. If the government isn't going to enforce existing laws, then the people have to take control. Joseph Turner>> I am an angry white man, you know. I'm not angry because I'm white. I'm angry because I'm an American who's frustrated with the massive invasion of illegal aliens in this country who refuse to assimilate and adopt our culture and values and our language. Hena Cuevas>> Turner also had three minutes to convince the Council to pass the initiative. Joseph Turner>> "Americans are tired of pressing one for English. They're tired of feeling like foreigners in their own country. And they're tired of watching their communities turn into third world cesspools, period." Hena Cuevas>> At the end of a long and emotional session, the San Bernardino City Council rejected the initiative. It will now go before the voters in a special election. According to Mayor Morris, that election will cost the city about three hundred thousand dollars, not counting the additional money needed to enforce the provision if it passes. Patrick Morris>> It wastes community monies and resources. It divides us culturally. It sends a bad message to business. Hena Cuevas>> Turner says he's already gotten calls from Escondido and other cities inquiring about his initiative. Joseph Turner>> And I think my opposition is scared, very scared, that this is going to spread to other local governments all throughout the country. [Film Clip] Hena Cuevas>> But with the city so divided, Turner is aware his initiative may not pass. He says, for him, the effort is symbolic as well. Joseph Turner>> There's only so many things that people can do to truly effect change and I believe that passing an initiative like this at the local level will put enormous amount of pressure on our elected officials at the state and federal level to do something about illegal immigration. Hena Cuevas>> Now cities throughout California and beyond will be watching closely as the deeply divided voters of San Bernardino go to the polls this September. I'm Hena Cuevas for Life and Times. Announcer>> Kcet.org is the place to look for the very latest on Life and Times. You'll find previews of upcoming stories, plus transcripts and audio of past episodes and links to some of our most interesting features. Just go to kcet.org, scroll down the page and click on "Life and Times". Val Zavala>> Teenagers are experimenting with sex at younger and younger ages, or are they? If you take a look at the media, everything from Britney Spears, to advertising, to the internet, you can't help but see this sexualization of youth. For a frank conversation, we brought three opinionated people together in the kitchen of CommUnity Advocates president, David Lehrer. Karen Stabiner is a journalist and author of "My Girl: Adventures with a Teen in Training", and Kaveri Subrahmanyan is a professor of family studies at Cal State Los Angeles and a researcher into children's digital media at UCLA. David Lehrer got our discussion going. David Lehrer>> Kaveri and Karen, you can't drive on the Sunset Strip and look at billboards. You can't turn on your cable television and not look at what's on late at night on various stations. You can't go to the internet without realizing how sexualized our culture has become. Is it different than it was? Is it just more present or is there a greater intensity than fifteen, twenty or forty years ago? Karen Stabiner>> It's more blatant than it used to be and there's certainly more of it because we have more conduits for communication. Kaveri Subrahmanyan>> And they're closer to home. Karen Stabiner>> And we can't keep them out. Kaveri Subrahmanyan>> And they're on twenty-four hours a day. David Lehrer>> Well, it sounds like you're convincing me. So it is qualitatively different than it was even twenty years ago, ten years ago, before the internet was so omnipresent. Kaveri Subrahmanyan>> Unfortunately, yes. I hate to say that. Karen Stabiner>> I mean, I think we could argue that Betty Grable was as outrageous in her day as what we're seeing, as Britney Spears is today. Kaveri Subrahmanyan>> There are more Betty Grables today. Karen Stabiner>> There are more Betty Grables. They're all over the place. Again, these are not the days of three-channel network television. Kaveri Subrahmanyan>> Not just saying less, but saying more and more expletive statements and at a younger age, I think. David Lehrer>> But America's always marketed, you know. Cars have been marketed for fifty years with sexual innuendos and the subtext was that this will make you -- but there's something different today, I think. It's that explicitness and its omnipresence. Karen Stabiner>> Well, and there is the sense that, if you are sexually active, you are somehow cool. You know, the Abercrombie & Fitch scandal of a couple of years ago revolved around producing thong underwear -- I can barely say it -- for tweenage, let alone teenage, girls with little sayings, little sexually -- David Lehrer>> -- on the underwear? Karen Stabiner>> Oh, yeah. So that implies that someone is seeing the underwear who's reading it. They've come out with a recent catalog because for a while they stepped way back and said, oh, we're so sorry. We'll be responsible. We're good marketers. Now they've come out with yet another sexually explicit catalog. So the whole notion of what you wear gets confused with your sexuality. David Lehrer>> And it's also marketing that kind of stuff that eleven and twelve year olds is almost obscene itself. Karen Stabiner>> Yes. I mean, the things that we were looking at when we were seventeen, eighteen or nineteen years old, if you go to a newsstand now and just look at the covers and look at the cover lines on the magazines directed at tweenagers, you're going to see things that you sort of feel bad that they're having to deal with. David Lehrer>> Okay, so it is bad. Kaveri Subrahmanyan>> Well, I think the sexualization of adolescent subculture has always been present. I just think that as adults, it's been on the outside. But I think with the sexualization of the media and its openness on the internet, we're just getting a window on the teen life that we didn't have before. David Lehrer>> On the one hand, then, it's hyper-sexualized. But on the other hand, both of you in your research suggest that it's not as bad as popular media seems to suggest it is. It may be exaggerated and a bit hyped because it's a great story. Kaveri Subrahmanyan>> I would have to agree, yes. There certainly is one sexual comment every minute, but there are two comments in which adolescents are trying to find partners. So in the scheme of things, it's not as much, but it is pretty intense. Karen Stabiner>> And in the bad girl literature which everyone out there who has a teenage girl has probably bought, if you total up the numbers of girls who were interviewed for that research and then you look at the source because everyone of those girls only qualified as the subject if she had the problem the author was writing about, you have an entire body of literature upon which we base many of our conclusions. It's two thousand girls with a problem in a population of millions. If that were a medical study, we'd throw it out. David Lehrer>> Okay. The media has been rife over the past couple of years with stories about adolescents and oral sex as if it were an epidemic. Do you find that true from your monitoring the internet and from your personal life, being a parent of a junior high school student? Kaveri Subrahmanyan>> Well, I don't know how common it is among younger adolescents, ones who are still in middle school, but I do think some of the stories may have an element of truth among high school students. Last night I asked my daughter who's a junior if the stories about oral sex among teens were really true. She seemed really upset and she was like, "Yes." So my next question because, you know, I like to think that she doesn't engage in these activities, was whether she was an outlier and she was even more vehement in answering yes. Also, another anecdote comes to mind. Of course, keep in mind that these are anecdotes. These are by no means recent studies. Last year or the year before, there was a field trip of sorts. I guess it was something where the high school students took the bus to one of the theme parks. I forget which. She really didn't want to go on the bus. I was really hesitant to have to drive, you know, two hours and then go back another two hours at midnight to pick her up. I was asking, "Can't you just take the bus?" She really did not want to take the bus. I kept at it and finally the answer came out that a lot of oral sex goes on in the back of the bus. She really did not want any part of it. David Lehrer>> I've never been on a bus like that. I'm going to ride Greyhound from now on (laughter). Kaveri Subrahmanyan>> For two hours, this was a Friday night. I was stuck in traffic at midnight for two hours. I said it was worth it. David Lehrer>> Well, maybe these impossible stories aren't so possible. You know, when was the moment when this all happened? I mean, is it Bill Clinton's, you know -- Karen Stabiner>> -- well, he certainly changed the definition of sex. You know, it's okay because it isn't real sex. David Lehrer>> As a result in the work environment, I think the whole Monica Lewinsky thing changed the nature of what can be discussed at the workplace. I don't think the common vernacular for oral sex, as a person who manages people, ever would have come up in the workplace after Monica Lewinsky. Karen Stabiner>> But seeing that and everything else we're hearing certainly -- I mean, in my generation, my parents never uttered the words oral sex in my presence. Kaveri Subrahmanyan>> But look at the literature, going back ten years, fifteen years. You always see the same sexuality. You see the same things in the literature, so they're not new things. Karen Stabiner>> No. I think it's just a constant challenge of parents as to how we're going to deal with it. Sarah was telling me something a few days ago. It was just a report of something that went on at school. It was about academics. It was not some major watershed where all the alarm bells were going off. I was listening, but I was doing sixteen things at once. I was multitasking. At some point, she said to me and she pulled herself up and said, "You know, there's a difference between hearing and listening." I was stunned because, of course, she's absolutely right. I think that a lot of parents understandably, given everything that we're trying to deal with, sometimes barely get to hearing. You know, listening is a luxury for Sunday afternoon ten minutes before dinner and I think, again, it comes back to our responsibility. They're being bombarded. David Lehrer>> I think there's probably nothing more important that most adults do than raise good children. Kaveri Subrahmanyan>> Absolutely. You've got to make time for it. You know, don't work as much or work fewer hours. I don't know, but really make time for our kids. Karen Stabiner>> Or just be dog-tired at the end of the day and never have time to comb your hair. David Lehrer>> On that prescription for further exhaustion, I want to thank you both for joining us today. Announcer>> 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. Larry Mantle>> Welcome to FilmWeek on Life and Times. I'm Larry Mantle of 89.3 KPCC. Our first film this week is the adaptation of Dan Brown's best-selling book, "The Da Vinci Code". The novel has been adapted by screenwriter, Akiva Goldsman, the film directed by Ron Howard, and it stars Tom Hanks and Audrey Tautou. [Film Clip] Larry Mantle>> I'm joined this week by critics Henry Sheehan of henrysheehan.com and Lael Loewenstein of Variety, rejoining us after maternity leave, giving birth on March 15. Welcome back, Lael. Lael Loewenstein>> Thank you. Larry Mantle>> Well, Henry, start us off, please, with "The Da Vinci Code". Henry Sheehan>> Oh, this is like a real stinker. I mean, this is just really bad. I never read the best-selling book, but it must have had some qualities as a page-turner. But this movie, simply as a thriller, it just doesn't work. It's a two and a half hour movie, but I'd say it's two hours and fifteen minutes of people standing around talking and trying to explain what the whole thing is about, and about fifteen minutes of blown action sequences. It's about a professor of symbology played by Tom Hanks who stumbles on a big secret kept by elements of the Roman Catholic Church that Jesus married Mary Magdalene and has a descendant. What this means, ultimately, is never made clear, which is good because I can't figure it out either, but didn't want to by the end. I just wanted to leave the theater. Larry Mantle>> Lael, what did you think? Lael Loewenstein>> Yeah, I pretty much agree with Henry. The problem for me was not all the controversy and the much ballyhooed scandal that this may inflict upon the Catholic Church, but really the fact that Tom Hanks looked so bored in this movie. He looked like he was just tired of being in this movie and Audrey Tautou who plays his sidekick -- he's a symbologist and she's a cryptographer -- her presence in the film is completely nonsensical. It makes no sense at all and she looks like she just wants to get out of the movie too. They absolutely looked bored and I felt pretty bored too. It's very un-engaging. Long, convoluted, but very un-engaging. Larry Mantle>> The documentary, "Sketches of Frank Gehry", is directed by filmmaker, Sydney Pollack, who happens to be a friend of the noted architect. The movie not only shows many of the fascinating architectural creations of Gehry, but it also tells about his rise in Los Angeles to become a major architectural force. [Film Clip] Larry Mantle>> Well, Lael, did you feel like you really got to know Frank Gehry after seeing this film? Lael Loewenstein>> I did. I really liked this documentary. One of the great things about it is that it was made by Sydney Pollack who's a long-time friend of Gehry. Despite the fact that they have been such close friends, he approaches the architect as kind of a layman would, so he doesn't bring any assumptions. He asks what people find so great about Frank Gehry and they talk about the fact that he's really an artist. He's a first person who came to architecture and, instead of taking no for an answer when he envisioned doing things with different materials and different shapes and different kinds of movement, he said, "Why not? Let's do it anyway." So the challenge is how to capture the beauty and the dexterity of Gehry's designs in two dimensions and Pollack really does it quite well, I think. The conversations that they have and the running dialog throughout the film kind of unveils both of their attitudes and ideas about talent. Pollack at one point says, "Talent is liquefied trouble" and you really do get that feeling from this film. Larry Mantle>> What did you think, Henry? Henry Sheehan>> Well, I agree with Lael. I think everything she says is true, but I thought there was also a distasteful side to this film which, instead of trying to place Gehry in the context of architectural history -- and I don't mean it had to be dry in that way -- but it could have said, you know, first came modernism, then post-modernism and then, you know, here's where Gehry fits into that. It really only mentions that in passing. It kind of chronicles his embrace by the crème de la crème of Hollywood. I mean, the people who comment on his art are Mike Ovitz, Michael Eisner, Barry Diller and even Pollack himself. I mean, it's not just Pollack filming Gehry. There is another cameraman filming Pollack filming Gehry, so that Pollack's own endorsement of Gehry somehow has some value and Gehry's position as a poor Los Angeles kid who rose to the top of his profession, which is what Ovitz did, which is what Eisner did and I think is what Diller did. He mimicked them. He's one of them. You know, I didn't really like that. I thought this should have been more about architecture and less about the social rise and triumph of Frank Gehry. Larry Mantle>> And finally this week, the drama, "Clean", starring Maggie Cheung. The film is directed by Olivier Assayas. [Film Clip] Larry Mantle>> Henry, your review of "Clean"? Henry Sheehan>> This is, I thought, a very interesting and very good film by Olivier Assayas recovering from the disaster of his previous film, "Demonlover", which was a terrible thriller. This is a character study which is what he's best at starring Maggie Cheung who starred for him in a wonderful movie called "Irma Vep" a few years back. Here, Maggie Cheung is a junkie, the widow of a once-big rock star who's been reduced to playing in small-town Hamilton where he dies. She kind of goes back to Europe, making a half-hearted attempt to come clean, but unable and unwilling really to shake off her addiction while her in-laws including Nick Nolte, her father-in-law, take care of her son. She tries to get her son back at the end. It's very hard to really describe a plot, but there's a great deal of character action. Cheung is a great actress. Even when we see her in positions or situations in which you think, oh, this is a very bad person, you're still interested in her. You still even like her. There's a lot going on with her friends and ex-friends and her in-laws. I was fascinated by the movie, really engrossed by it. Larry Mantle>> You agree, Lael? Lael Loewenstein>> I think I saw a different movie (laughter). I disliked it intensely. I felt that Cheung never really got into the heart or the soul of her character, so it felt very, very superficial. The movie to me felt very underwritten, so you're kind of watching this woman go through the struggle to stay clean and to reunite with her son, but you don't feel any sort of emotional affinity for her. I will say that the camera work by Eric Gautier was wonderful. There's a lot of great camera movement, particularly in Paris. You get a real sense of the energy of the city and the dynamism of the city, but not so much from Maggie Cheung's character. Nick Nolte, on the other hand, has a nice supporting part as Cheung's father-in-law and he's very kind of understated and mellow in contrast to her over-acting. Larry Mantle>> Thanks so much for joining us for another FilmWeek on Life and Times. I'm Larry Mantle of 89.3 KPCC joined this week by critics Lael Loewenstein of Variety and Henry Sheehan of henrysheehan.com. Please join us again next week at this same time for the next FilmWeek on Life and Times. Val Zavala>> And, of course, you can hear a full hour of FilmWeek Friday mornings at eleven on KPCC public radio. And that's our program. I'm Val Zavala. For everyone at Life and Times, thanks for watching. We'll see you next time. Announcer>> 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. Sponsored in part by:  | |
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