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Life & Times Transcript
8/4/07 Val Zavala>> Tonight on Life and Times -- Street racing is a dangerous part of southern California culture, but tragedy brought one racer to a screeching halt. Trais Hand>> Yeah, for the rest of my life, it's something you're never going to forget. John De Leon>> My sister was around the curve. You know, the young man never saw -- I mean, he was around the curve and there she was in the blink of an eye. Val Zavala>> And then, separating reality from romance. How centuries of popular culture have shaped our view of American Indians. It's all straight ahead 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>> He had just gotten his driver's license and he was tearing down the road in a street race having fun, but then his fun turned fatal. Roger Cooper goes to Riverside to see how police are cracking down on a major problem: illegal street racing. [Film Clip] Roger Cooper>> It makes for exciting scenes in movies like "The Fast and the Furious" and you can find home videos of it all over the internet on sites like YouTube. The movies about street racing and the videos that show up on YouTube can make it appear glamorous to some, but what happened at this curve in Riverside in October of last year was decidedly unglamorous. Sgt. Skip Showalter>> Basically, two guys lined up engaged in a street race. They lined up here on this street right here behind me. Trais Hand>> I remember going into the turn and losing control, but in detail, I don't really remember. Sgt. Skip Showalter>> And ultimately one of the vehicles lost control and hit this light pole behind me. It was taken completely out. Roger Cooper>> On the sidewalk near that light pole seated in a wheelchair was a thirty-eight year old single mother of two, Reyna De Leon. The racing car smashed into Reyna's wheelchair dragging her under the vehicle and killing her instantly as one of her children looked on. The driver of that speeding car was sixteen year old Trais Hand. That's going to be part of you from now on, isn't it? Trais Hand>> Yeah, for the rest of my life. I mean, it's something you're never going to forget. Roger Cooper>> Trais, walking here with his parents, had gotten his driver's license just a month before. Trais Hand>> I just kind of ran into somebody I sort of knew and just kind of got caught up in the moment. I mean, it wasn't something I really wanted to do. It was just something that happened and obviously I didn't intend to hurt anybody. Roger Cooper>> Emergency workers labored into the night. It took hours to dislodge the wheelchair and free Reyna's body from the wreckage. Sgt. Skip Showalter heads up Riverside Police Department's street racing enforcement efforts. Four recent deaths in Riverside can be linked to street racing. Sgt. Skip Showalter>> Street racing is becoming increasingly popular, unfortunately. It's resulted in a lot of fatalities here recently. There is one particular week I can recall where there were seven people killed with result of street racing in a week's time scattered throughout southern California. Roger Cooper>> Shortly after the crash, police phoned Reyna's brother, John. John De Leon>> And we were talking with one of the police officers and he said, "Well, your niece and nephew are here with us." I thought, "Well, that doesn't make any sense." He said, "Well, I'd really rather talk to you when you get here." I said, "Okay, that really makes me uncomfortable." He said, "Well, I'm sorry to say, but your sister didn't make it." Roger Cooper>> When John learned that street racing was the cause of his sister's death, his reaction was fast and furious. John De Leon>> My first instinct, you know, you want to rip somebody's head off. You're so angry and the rush of emotions. Roger Cooper>> But then he met the young Trais in the courtroom and something changed. John De Leon>> I have a sixteen year old son of my own and, for some reason, that really imparted back into my own son sitting there. I don't think that he went out with any kind of malicious intent trying to hurt anybody. I think he was caught up in that moment, you know, when we discussed earlier that they just make a decision. He didn't make a good choice and, unfortunately, the outcome cost my sister her life. Roger Cooper>> Trais was sentenced to a hundred six days in Juvenile Hall for street racing and manslaughter, and something more. He must appear at assemblies like this put on by Riverside Police at Martin Luther King High. As students file in, they pass Trais's wrecked car and Reyna's mangled wheelchair. >> "And we welcome both John and Trais today." Roger Cooper>> And they see something just as memorable, John and Trais appearing together and talking about the tragic afternoon. Trais Hand>> "Even though I wasn't really a street racer, I made a tragic mistake that day and raced my car on a public street where not only did I put myself at risk, but I put countless other people in that area at risk." Roger Cooper>> Together they try to convince teenagers who often think they are invincible that street racing hurts people. John De Leon>> "I've got a niece that watched this incident take place about fifteen feet from her. I've got a nephew who frequently refers to wanting to go home. And we have to be the bearer of the bad news who says, 'You know what? You can't go home. Home isn't there anymore.'" Sgt. Skip Showalter>> But this new twist, having an actual street racer that's been convicted that's the same age as these kids, really sends a message that this is an ordinary kid and this could be me, and that's what we're really hoping to get across. Roger Cooper>> Does this program work? Cassy Cervantes>> I mean, it really did impact a lot of the seniors and even juniors. It's not a topic that, you know, we talk about a lot just because no one thinks it's going to happen to them. Roger Cooper>> Cassy Cervantes says the assembly makes her think every time she gets into her red Mustang. Cassy Cervantes>> Yeah, it's not just the driver or the person hit. It's the whole family, all their friends, and it takes a lot of courage for that boy to come up and talk about it, even the brother, and for them to be in the same room together. Roger Cooper>> Riverside Police are not just cracking down on street racers. They're also pulling over illegally modified street racing cars to check for stolen parts. And when Ontario Police found racing cars with stolen parts, officers took the vehicles to a wrecking yard where the cars were compressed in the giant jaws of this machine. Sgt Skip Showalter>> We also have a street racing ordinance that, if you street race in the city of Riverside, we will take your car and we will start the procedures for securing that vehicle so you'd never get it back. We have a seizure ordinance in place. We also have an ordinance in place where, if you're a spectator in our city, you will be arrested for being a spectator and charged with that. Roger Cooper>> But crushing cars and arresting spectators will never bring back John De Leon's sister. He often thinks how those few seconds have changed the lives of so many for so long. John De Leon>> It's just so not worth it. I mean, it's so not worth that brief moment for what could possibly be the other end. Trais Hand>> Because there's all these movies and stuff that try to make it look cool and this and that, but there's really nothing that comes good out of it. John De Leon>> Probably when this transpired, you know, my sister was around the curve. The young man never saw -- I mean, he was around the curve and there she was in the blink of an eye. Sgt Skip Showalter>> It's like you want to rewind it and just like some of those insurance commercials where everything rewinds and the vehicle gets assembled back into place and lives are okay. You wish you could hit the rewind button, but there's no rewind button in street racing. Roger Cooper>> But with law enforcement keeping the pressure on and Trais and John willing to speak out, police are hoping that more tragic events like this will never happen. I'm Roger Cooper for Life and Times. Val Zavala>> So what do you think? We'd love to know your response to that story. You can post it on our blog. Just go to kcet.org and click on the Life and Times Blog. 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>> When it comes to fighting insurgents in Iraq, any advantage that our troops have could be a life-saver and that's why the military is sponsoring a program that helps move good inventions from the lab to the battlefield. Here are a few of the latest technological tools that are being used or being tested for use in combat. Suzanne Finch is with the Center for Commercialization of Advanced Technology. It's a program funded by the Defense Department and it helps move ideas from labs, universities and entrepreneurs to the marketplace and eventually to the battlefield. Suzanne, you've got a couple of gadgets here, military applications. This one is the video clarification what? Suzanne Finch>> Yeah, this is the video clarification system. What this does is, if you are using a pair of digital binoculars or digital periscope or any other type of viewing device that has digital enhancement capabilities, as you well know, any time you magnify something by a great deal, it loses clarity. So what you see here on the left is what it actually looks like without the digital clarification software. What happens is, you get a lot of smoke, you get a lot of haze, you get a lot of distortion. What this does is that it actually takes that distortion out. It basically takes anything it sees and throws out anything that doesn't seem real so that you actually get a clarified photo. What this does is it allows you to see any troops, any tanks, anybody coming over that hill or anybody coming down the road and you can see if this is a friend or a foe. Certainly with a lot of friendly fire episodes prominently in the news, this can certainly help take away some of those incidents. Val Zavala>> I see. Here we have some vehicles. Suzanne Finch>> Right. Those are vehicles just going down the road. This was filmed in San Diego. As you can see, without the video clarification system, it's a lot harder to see. So you won't necessarily see that insignia on that tank or you won't necessarily see who that is in front of you. This helps to clarify that and lessen a lot of potentially fatal situations. Val Zavala>> Now this next one is really interesting. It's a small viewing device attached to the helmet. Suzanne Finch>> Right. This is a monitor just like any other monitor you would have on a computer except that you can put it on and a soldier that is in theater can then look to see any type of image that he can see on his computer. But what makes it a little bit unique is that he can also see through the image. Val Zavala>> So his eye isn't blocked with the image in this little gadget? He sees through it? Suzanne Finch>> Correct. He can see through it, so he can see a wall or a barrier or, more importantly, somebody possibly ambushing him from the right. Val Zavala>> But he's getting additional material as if it's projected on whatever he's looking at? It's translucent? Suzanne Finch>> Exactly right. Val Zavala>> Now wouldn't that be really distracting? Suzanne Finch>> Not necessarily. It depends on what use he's doing it for. In other words, if he's medical triage, for example, he may be out in the field trying to treat a soldier that's down. He can then immediately get information that can help him treat the soldier on the ground. If he is in an unfamiliar setting or a building or someplace that he is not familiar with, he can also be looking at a map to help him get from place to place. Val Zavala>> So as if you're looking at a translucent map and then also being able to see the reality of the building or the landscape or whatever. Suzanne Finch>> It doesn't compromise your field of view and that's very important. Certainly when you're looking for insurgents or possibly in an unfamiliar situation, you want to be able to have your full field of view, but also allow yourself to get all of the pertinent information you need in order to execute whatever it is that you're trying to go out and do. Val Zavala>> Has this actually been tried by soldiers, Marines? Suzanne Finch>> It has. It's actually in use right now in the United States military as well as in several European and Japanese applications as well. So it is in the field and, in fact, they have been so busy that they've really been swamped with orders. It's not just necessarily for battlefield instruction. It can be used for maintenance purposes and, as I also mentioned, medical purposes as well. So I think it's the hands-free applications that really prove the metal of this device. Val Zavala>> I also talked with Gioia Messinger with Avaak, a company in San Diego who developed this little camera. Gioia Messinger>> These are all wireless cameras. They're completely wire-free. What you can do is, you can toss them in a room. They're durable. They will always land with the little lens up looking at something, or you can leave them behind and peel and stick them and put them in any place in a building. Val Zavala>> Wow. Gioia Messinger>> What you're seeing here is Dan, the photographer here on the side, and one of these cameras is actually taking the image. There he is. There's the picture of the camera. Val Zavala>> I see. It's a still picture. Gioia Messinger>> It's refreshing twice a second right now. Val Zavala>> So have these actually been used in combat yet? Gioia Messinger>> Not yet. They're being tested in Fort Monmouth, New Jersey for exactly that purpose. They're interested in deploying these relatively quickly, so probably by the end of the year. Val Zavala>> Now if it does get out in the consumer market, it could also be abused. I mean, people could put these in -- you know, strange wacko people put them in dressing rooms in department stores. You know how that is. It gets in the wrong hands (laughter). Gioia Messinger>> You know, we've all lost our privacy. There's ten million cameras in London today. When you go to the mall, you're photographed or imaged twenty to thirty times in a day already. So consumer privacy in terms of video is already out there. I don't think that we're just encouraging more about loss of privacy. I think it could be used in many beneficial ways to create content. You know, YouTube is such a huge thing right now. This is a way of potentially creating video communities where, you know, you have fifteen cameras and you can let your neighbor actually see a few of them. You know, you can let your friends see a few of them and your friends can let you see what you're seeing. That kind of stuff. It essentially gives you pixels everywhere. You have the ability to put imaging, you know, in many, many domains that we haven't seen before. Val Zavala>> You're right. Our privacy is out the window these days (laughter). Well, Gioia, thank you so much. Gioia Messinger>> Thank you so much for having us. 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. Val Zavala>> They've been romanticized, dehumanized and documented. They are Native Americans and the way we depict Native Americans through our history says as much about us as about them. Well, now the Huntington in San Marino has a revealing exhibit surveying the evolution of Native American images. Hena Cuevas takes a look. Hena Cuevas>> It's a collection spanning four hundred years, taking a look at how Europeans and Americans have depicted Native Americans from the first description by Christopher Columbus of the New World to black and white photographs that portray the spirit of the noble Indian. Kathryn Hight>> It was a very narrow view, but a very romantic and very exciting view of Indians. Hena Cuevas>> Kathryn Hight is the curator of the exhibit. She says the collection shows how, through the years, images have shaped our perception of the Indian. Kathryn Hight>> The question that I ask was why were they made and who were they for? What we see is that they were made by Europeans using their mythic traditions, their method of making the human body, their ideas about what landscape is. Hena Cuevas>> She says the first sketches were most likely produced as propaganda to get people to move to America. They show peaceful scenes so that potential settlers wouldn't be afraid. There is also a section devoted to the best known Indian woman in America history, Pocahontas. So why is the Pocahontas exhibit the most popular? Kathryn Hight>> Because everybody knows Pocahontas. If they haven't seen it here in a school book, they've seen her in the Disney movie or they've seen her recently in "The New World". So people come out and make a beeline to find out who she is and what she is. They are often surprised when they find that this is the only true picture that was taken of her in her lifetime as an English lady. Hena Cuevas>> And she doesn't look at all like the images that we've been led to believe. Kathryn Hight>> No, and they were all made up in the nineteenth century. The one in the middle which is made up by a man who painted fashionable ladies' portraits, Matthew Sully, and the one that's the most well-known, I think, is from the 1860s when she becomes the Indian princess of the forest and that's what's picked up by the movies nowadays. Hena Cuevas>> Hight points out that it's just as important to notice what isn't included in the images. Kathryn Hight>> We never see pictures after the first few years of farmers and yet Indian people all across America farmed. We never see women and yet women were very powerful. They were often the leaders of Indian communities. Hena Cuevas>> As Native Americans assimilated, they also commissioned portraits of themselves as business owners. These are from the 1820s. Where would images like this have been published? Kathryn Hight>> They were first part of the War Department gallery. Each of these people, not the woman, but the others would all have negotiated with the government and had an oil portrait made. Then Thomas McKinney took each of the oil portraits, had them made into lithographs and they were put out either individually -- you could buy them individually -- or in a portfolio that was very expensive. Only the very richest people could buy them, but you could also buy them separately. Hena Cuevas>> How surprised are people when they come to the exhibit and they see an image like this one, for example, of a Native American dressed in the European style outfit? Kathryn Hight>> They're enormously surprised and one of the things that is even more surprising is they say, "Well, did they put on those clothes when they came to Washington?" I said, "No, this is what he would have worn as he looked over his big plantation in Georgia." Hena Cuevas>> But perhaps no other medium has had a bigger impact than film and its popular westerns, and these photographs taken in the 1920s by Edward Curtis were a big influence on filmmakers at the time. Kathryn Hight>> The beautiful western landscape, the lonely chief on a horse. Hena Cuevas>> Because this is a posed photograph. Kathryn Hight>> Absolutely, and probably dressed. Curtis was famous for having a trunk that he took around and, if you didn't have quite the right headdress, quite the right jewelry -- Hena Cuevas>> -- the right look? Kathryn Hight>> Or the right look, he would help you out. That, of course, is what the movies have done. They have picked up a lot of what he did. He would dress people, create war parties, create the scenes of tepees. At the same time, the Indians had moved into living in houses, living on reservations and had ordinary jobs of some sort or other. Hena Cuevas>> Hight says this historical record shows Indians not only as they lived, but as artists wished they had lived and, in the process, they turned them into legends. Kathryn Hight>> It's not a simple story. The movies and television have made it much too simple and, when you really begin to look, you can find little hints in the books and in some of the pictures of how complicated the story was. Hena Cuevas>> The exhibit at the Huntington runs through September 7. I'm Hena Cuevas for Life and Times. Val Zavala>> When it comes to spirituality, California's got it all from traditional churches to eccentric individuals. Well, all this week, we're featuring the work of student reporters from USC's Annenberg School for Journalism. They've gone on a magical mystery tour of California for us and the first stop is the Lake Shrine Temple in Pacific Palisades. Lindsay Watts reports. Lindsay Watts>> Drive a few blocks up Sunset from the Pacific Coast Highway and you can go from sixty to zero in just seconds. [Film Clip] Lindsay Watts>> The Lake Shrine is a meditation garden owned by the Self Realization Fellowship, but you don't have to be a member to enjoy the serenity and natural beauty here. Brother Atmananda>> This is sort of a sanctuary for people to come to even if they have nothing to do particularly with our organization. This is definitely a place where people come to spiritually recharge and renew. Kelly Corbin>> It's the difference between grinding your teeth and gritting your fists like this and then you walk around kind of going, "Ah, today's a nice day." Lindsay Watts>> Self Realization's founder, Paramahansa Yogananda, came from India in the 1920s. He based his fellowship on yoga and meditation designed to bring a deeper connection to God. Pallavi Vyas>> Self Realization Fellowship is not a traditional religion. It's the science of yoga. It's the science of knowing God and that's what this place is really about. Lindsay Watts>> The Lake Shrine opened in 1950 and it's had visitors from all over the world, but not everyone comes with spiritual intentions. Brahmachari Thomas>> We have all kinds of people who come. We had one lady who said she came for about eighteen months before she realized it wasn't a park. Lindsay Watts>> Self Realization prides itself on being nondenominational. Surrounding the lake, symbols from many world religions. Krishna plays his lute around the corner from a life-sized Jesus perched over a waterfall. This is one of the only places on earth where you can visit the ashes of Mahatma Gandhi here in this thousand year old sarcophagus. Pallavi Vyas>> I think there is such a strong vibration of the divine out here because I think Yogananda did it with that and I think millions and millions that come here think of God while they're walking around the lake. Lindsay Watts>> But this is Los Angeles and even this tranquil oasis has received the influence of Hollywood. The land was previously owned by an executive from Twentieth Century Fox. He added a few creative touches to the property that are still around today. This could explain why some aspects of Lake Shrine look more like a movie set than a place of worship. For example, the houseboat which was featured in a little-known 1930s film. Yogananda slept here as he was building the Lake Shrine. And this, a model of a sixteenth century Dutch windmill. This is where Yogananda held his services. Today those services, complete with chanting, are held at the Hillside Temple. Hundreds of worshipers gather each Sunday. Paul Fishman>> It's just really something that just really helps me center and introspect. Michael Dunn>> I'll meditate, you know, for as long a time as I've got in my busy day. In Los Angeles, where you can find a place where you can actually be peaceful for a few minutes is rare. Brahmachari Thomas>> Yogananda himself said that Los Angeles, the City of the Angels, would become one of the most spiritual cities on the planet in time. Lindsay Watts>> Los Angeles as a holy city? Well, maybe that's a stretch. But after a visit to the Lake Shrine, you might at least be open to the possibility. For Life and Times, I'm Lindsay Watts. Val Zavala>> Our thanks again to student journalist, Lindsay Watts. She was part of a program at USC's Annenberg School for Journalism. And that's our program. I'm Val Zavala. 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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