 |
HOME |  |
SCHEDULE | |
PROGRAMS | |
KIDS & FAMILY | |
EXPLORE CA | |
SUPPORT KCET | |
ABOUT US | |
SHOP KCET |  |
| About Us | Contact Us | |
 |
|
 |
          |
|
|
 |
 |
||
|
|
Life & Times Transcript
9/13/07 Announcer>> Tonight on Life and Times -- Losing King Harbor Hospital is bad enough, but its closure also put another resource at risk. Dr. Susan Kelly>> This institution is the only one that will actually fight to keep doctors in this area. There is nobody else that's even stepped up in any way to try and solve what is a major workforce shortage and an access problem. Announcer>> And then, Jodie Foster is packing heat in a new vigilante drama. Will our critics feel "The Brave One" is on target? 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. Toni Guinyard>> An estimated one-third of all minority doctors working in Los Angeles County received their educations here at Charles R. Drew University. But when the university and Martin Luther King Medical Center severed their thirty-five year long partnership, some student doctors ended up scrambling and looking for other medical facilities at which to complete their educations, and their absence could have an impact on the future of health care in this community. It's a neighborhood where there was neither a hospital nor a medical school until after the Watts riots of 1965. Now, four decades later, in this community, access to medical care remains an issue, an issue made worse with the closure of King Harbor Hospital. Dr. Susan Kelly>> I work now in the most seriously medically underserved urban area in America. Toni Guinyard>> Dr. Susan Kelly is President and CEO of Charles Drew University of Medicine and Science. >> "They say that we forget half of what we learn in twenty-four hours and then another half of that in another twenty-four hours, so we have to review." Toni Guinyard>> A school that sits adjacent to King Harbor Medical Center. The impact of its closure is being felt not only in the community, but also at the university. For thirty-five years, it depended on King Harbor to train its medical students. Dr. Susan Kelly>> To be on a single pipeline, it's always danger. We know that. You would say that anywhere. You'd say that you shouldn't have one road in and out of a place. Toni Guinyard>> The road closed in December 2006 when the university pulled two hundred forty-eight of its students out of the hospital and scrambled to place them in other hospitals for training. Dr. Susan Kelly>> So if they don't train in South Los Angeles, how are we going to compete in a very, very tight market to get them to come and work here? Toni Guinyard>> About seventy percent of the students here tend to stay in the communities where they received their medical training or served their residencies. But with King Harbor no longer an option, a lot of these would-be doctors and medical personnel will have to leave this community and, in some cases, even leave the state. Dr. Susan Kelly>> We had twenty-eight ER physicians in training. Twenty-six of them have left the state. So if they train in Georgia, there's a very strong chance that they'll work in Georgia and they'll be lost to California always. Toni Guinyard>> You take that personally. Dr. Susan Kelly>> I do. Toni Guinyard>> To put the impact of the loss in perspective, just visit nearby St. Francis Medical Center. >> "Now take a deep breath. Once again." Toni Guinyard>> Where Dr. Harding Young is Chief of Staff. Dr. Harding G. Young>> There are three hundred doctors here on staff at St. Francis Medical Center, fifty-six of which are all graduates of the King Drew Center which is less than two miles from us. There is still a great need for a number of doctors crossing all specialties in this hospital here at St. Francis. We need orthopedic surgeons here. We need neurologists here. We need internists, family practitioners and the like. Dr. Susan Kelly>> The impact that I think the general public needs to understand is that this institution is the only one that will actually fight to keep doctors in this area. There is nobody else who has even stepped up in any way to try and solve what is a major workforce shortage and an access problem. Toni Guinyard>> Problems that Dr. Young is well aware of. He is working with the President of St. Francis Medical Center to recruit promising young doctors. Dr. Harding G. Young>> I've been in conference with him to try to look at ways that we can go out and reach out to other med schools. Not only the minority medical schools, but other medical schools here in California and surrounding areas and others where physicians that's here on staff have a link. Toni Guinyard>> For now, the road leads back to Charles Drew University. Its enrollment reflects southern California's diverse population. Forty percent of the students are African Americans. Twenty-eight percent are Latinos. Twenty percent are Asian and twelve percent are white and Native American. Most are here because they embrace the school's mission of serving the underserved. Dr. Susan Kelly>> It's terrible. How can we be twelve miles from Hollywood and be in the most needy part of the country? It absolutely boggles the mind. >> "We always tell the patient to take a breath and hold it. So when you take a breath. . ." Eric Hall>> It's important to me because those people usually don't have a voice, they don't have the resources that other people have. So it's our obligation, our pledge, to them that we will serve them. Toni Guinyard>> But it was the relationship between the university and the hospital that was of equal interest. Third year medical student, Candice Dawes, moved from Washington, D.C. to California. Candice Dawes>> Well, the Drew UCLA medical education program is unlike any other medical education program in the world. Toni Guinyard>> The program allowed med students to study their first two years at UCLA and then get their hands-on training at King. She calls it the best of both worlds. Candice Dawes>> A lot of us, the reason why we came to the Drew UCLA medical education program was that our third year rotations would be in a Drew Hospital, which is an area that caters to an underserved population. I think we were all a bit disappointed when the hospital closed and we were notified that we could no longer do our third year rotations there. Angel Soriano>> I don't want to say we got cheated, but I'm just saying that we won't get to see those type of injuries. Toni Guinyard>> The types of scenarios you can only duplicate in a classroom setting, in this case, radiography. >> "So go ahead and try that. I'm going to try to straighten you out on the table this way. That's about center right there." Dr. Susan Kelly>> In part, I would say where did we go wrong? We went wrong in a number of ways. One is to not find alternative places for our residents and our students to train earlier for our protection and for their education. That should have been done. This is all twenty-twenty hindsight, but I think everyone knows it. Toni Guinyard>> The sign outside King Harbor still gives the impression that the university and the hospital are joined at the hip as if one couldn't do without the other, but they are two separate entities. Dr. Susan Kelly>> We should have established our own identity much more carefully and more clearly. Mauhmar Sahaba>> The closure of King was not discouraging to me because I knew that Charles Drew was separate from King. I knew that. Toni Guinyard>> Getting the public to recognize the difference may be a challenge. Dr. Susan Kelly>> I think we should have gone on to the branding earlier. We should have resisted the loss of the word "Charles" in front of Drew and the loss of the word "University" after it. Toni Guinyard>> The university's success gets little attention. It is expanding, building a School of Nursing, and Science Magazine named it number one nationwide in terms of having the largest growth in the number of scientific publications. It's beating out larger medical schools for research funding from the federal government and, despite negative publicity, enrollment has increased. Dr. Susan Kelly>> We get eighteen hundred applicants. That's 1-8-0-0 applicants for twenty-four medical places, so we get to choose. Toni Guinyard>> But the university is getting the most attention from suing the county for one hundred twenty-five million dollars. Dr. Susan Kelly>> We believe not just that they broke their contract with us, but they broke their faith with this community in terms of the provision of health care, affordable, accessible health care for the most needy people. Candice Dawes>> If you look at the patient population here, there are over seven hundred thousand residents here who don't have a hospital in their community, so they definitely lose out. They have to travel further to see a physician. Toni Guinyard>> And when all is said and done, that is the one problem these students, future doctors, hope to cure by staying and working in the community where they're most needed. I'm Toni Guinyard 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". Saul Gonzalez>> For those old enough to remember, the name John Dean will always be synonymous with one of the great scandals of American history: Watergate. After serving as White House legal counsel to then President Richard Nixon, Dean implicated many top officials including himself in acts of wrongdoing. In more recent years, Dean has been a man on a mission. He wants to warn the country about what he believes are the unconstitutional excesses of the Republican party and the Bush administration. They're ideas Dean explores in his latest book, "Broken Government: How Republican Rule Destroyed the Legislative, Executive and Judicial Branches". Mr. Dean, it's hard to read your book without coming away with the thought -- at least it was for me -- that you believe a moral rot has corrupted the Republican party. Am I right or wrong? John Dean>> I don't know that I would call it a moral rot. What I would call it is an authoritarian attitude and personality that has really taken charge of the Republican party. It started around 1994 when the religious right came into its full power, when Congress was switched to the Republican control, and it surfaced in its full glory. It really starts during the early Reagan years and goes on. It's an approach to government that is anti-democratic. The leaders demand that the party operate the way it sees it and they want to do it in the best interest of what they see as the party's interest and not the public interest. This has affected the democratic process. It really has eliminated the liberation within the Legislative Branch. It has aggregated power within the Executive Branch. And it really created a cookie-cutter type federal judiciary where all of the appointees are now clones of what they think is the ideal justice in the Antonin Scalia and Judge Thomas mold. It's resulted in, if you don't happen to have the right philosophy, you don't get on the bench anymore. That's very unhealthy for the federal judiciary as well. So I can't call it a moral rot. I do say that there has been a dramatic change in the way the processes work. Saul Gonzalez>> Now when you say they have an authoritarian mindset, they have an authoritarian agenda, does that mean Republican leaders willfully want to create a one-party state? John Dean>> Oh, absolutely (laughter). Saul Gonzalez>> A one-party state? John Dean>> Absolutely. This was Karl Rove's fondest dream. Unfortunately, it didn't work out for him, but they were using everything within their power to eliminate the Democratic party and to indeed make the Republican majority the dominant majority in the country, to make it all red rather than red and blue or even purple. You know, the authoritarians, the way they see the world, they just can't understand anybody else seeing the world any other way and they're perfectly willing to impose their will and their policies on the rest of the nation or anybody else. They are very aggressive in doing so. In this new book, I really am exploring the consequences of what that's done, and it's broken the system. While it's under repair in the Legislative Branch now that the voters finally got wise in 2006 and sent the Republicans packing, they are relentless in their effort to take control of the government and to indeed impose a one-party system. I don't think it will happen. There are about twenty-five percent of the American people who are authoritarian in nature. In other words, they'll follow -- Saul Gonzalez>> -- twenty-five percent of Americans you say essentially want an authoritarian regime? John Dean>> That's right. They do. Saul Gonzalez>> One out of four of us. John Dean>> One out of four, but that isn't enough to control the system. Saul Gonzalez>> How much to you is George Bush an architect of this mindset, a co-creator of this mindset, and how much just a reflection of larger forces? John Dean>> Bush and Cheney could not have done what they have done or tried to do, and that is to take Nixon's imperial presidency and put it on stilts and give it a little shot of steroids, if that authoritarian base hadn't already been present in Washington primarily on Capitol Hill. They took advantage of the situation. They have pushed the envelope a little further and I think that just the way things are working now, there's some push back. But I frankly, as somebody who spent a lot of years as a Republican, could not tell anybody to vote for Republicans until they change the nature of their party. Saul Gonzalez>> I could just imagine the Republicans sitting at home, good decent people listening to you, and saying, "You're full of it, John Dean. I mean, where you see a sinister conspiracy is basically just hardball American politics being played out. The Democrats have done it before. Certainly John F. Kennedy, FDR, Woodrow Wilson, they were no strangers to hardball politics. The same thing is happening now. You're just angry because it's sour grapes." John Dean>> No, not at all. In fact, I'm rather disappointed. I started this examination not knowing where I was going to come out and certainly didn’t plan to come out where the evidence just drives you to see this. This new book is a third in a trilogy. Nobody has attacked the first two books successfully because they can't. The facts are so solidly supported. I really sifted through the evidence to come to the conclusions that I think are inescapable to anybody who looks at the evidence. The fact that authoritarians control the Republican party isn't a conspiracy. It's a fact. It's just the nature of the way they operate. Saul Gonzalez>> But in saying that, you don't see what you're saying is similar to what Anne Coulter or Rush Limbaugh says about Liberals or the Democrats? John Dean>> Not at all. In fact, you know, I'm one who hopes they stay out there because they're the kind of people who will drive most Americans to the middle and they'll make a good judgment. I'm convinced that people, if they get the evidence, they make the right decision. I don't come out here as a partisan. Just as people were not very happy with my Watergate testimony, who were great believers in Nixon, they're not very happy with the testimony I'm putting in these books either. But I can only speak the way I find it and I find that to be my role. Saul Gonzalez>> Particularly with Watergate, how does that overshadow or shape your views now in the early twenty-first century what you experienced thirty years ago serving in that imperial presidency? John Dean>> Well, you know, my experience is that of an insider and I saw how the system worked. I saw how it can go wrong. I've seen how people have taken what should be lessons of Watergate and learned how to avoid them and how to succeed is to not get caught. I know how the system works from a little different perspective than most people do and I suppose that has inevitably shaped my view. I can't believe that people are unwilling to look at the book we wrote, which was how not to do it, and they're now having adopted that as a philosophy in a governing style that the American people, when they discovered it last time, said this is unacceptable, but yet they seem to be able to sort of just not even want to look at right now and I'm telling them it is bad if they look at what's really going on. Saul Gonzalez>> And, again, as you've written before and said before, what we're experiencing right now under the Bush administration is worse than Watergate, worse than the experiences of thirty-plus years ago. John Dean>> In a nutshell, the reason it's worse is that nobody died during Watergate. Nobody was tortured during Watergate. I can't say that isn't the case today. Saul Gonzalez>> John Dean, whether people disagree with you or agree with you, you're certainly a man who takes the study of government seriously. Thank you for joining us on Life and Times. John Dean>> My pleasure. 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 from director Neil Jordan who did "The Crying Game". Jodie Foster and Terrence Howard star in "The Brave One", the story of a public radio host who goes on a rampage after being the victim of a violent crime. [Film Clip] Larry Mantle>> I'm joined this week by critics Claudia Puig of USA Today, and Jean Oppenheimer of Village Voice Media. Jean, what did you think of "The Brave One"? Jean Oppenheimer>> Well, like Jodie Foster's last film which was "Flight Plan", "The Brave One" is a very big commercial studio picture and it has a lot of the negatives that to me big studio pictures have. Jodie Foster is a very intelligent actress and she's fine in it and Terrence Howard is actually terrific. But the plot is just ridiculous. I mean, she just happens to be in all these places where these bad things are going on. She leaves no evidence behind. Her scenes with her boyfriend, which take up the first part of the movie, are just completely dippy. I mean, they are so sappy that they might as well have just been shot through gauze. They have this really, you know, over the top love song playing in the background. What is the film really about? Female empowerment? I mean, I think that maybe it would have been a much more interesting film to look at whether she was conflicted about what she was doing and how she dealt with that. If that was the intent of the movie, it surely wasn't there. Larry Mantle>> A couple of years ago, David Cronenberg directed and Viggo Mortensen starred in the critically acclaimed film, "A History of Violence". Well, this time, Cronenberg directs and Mortensen stars with Naomi Watts in the film, "Eastern Promises" which is set in London's Eastern European underworld. [Film Clip] Larry Mantle>> "Eastern Promises", Claudia. What did you think? Claudia Puig>> Well, much is being made of the brew mayhem and the very, very bloody steam bath scene involving a very naked Viggo Mortensen, but the movie is a lot more than that and it's not as sensationalistic as that might sound. But it's a very gripping thriller with some very spectacular performances, I think. Viggo Mortensen with a good Russian accent. He and Naomi Watts make a connection. She's a midwife in a London hospital and uncovers something that could lead to the undoing of this particular crime family. Armin Mueller-Stahl as head of the family, I think is excellent. His son is played by Vincent Cassel and he's excellent as well. I found it to be a very engrossing thriller. Larry Mantle>> Do you agree, Jean? Jean Oppenheimer>> No, I don't (laughter). Actually, every critic I've talked to who's seen this film really loved it and it just didn't work for me. Larry Mantle>> Like "A History of Violence" was so well-received, the previous Cronenberg film. Jean Oppenheimer>> Oh, I thought "A History of Violence" was really wonderful. Viggo Mortensen is mesmerizing in this. There's no doubt about that. But nothing in this movie felt spontaneous to me. Everything about the plot, the characters, the emotions, all felt very mapped out to me in advance. You know, like I was looking at a movie. Also, I'm not usually good at figuring things out in films, but this for some reason, I was able to figure out within about fifteen minutes. Then the rest of it didn't have the tension or thriller aspect that it will for people who just haven't figured out what's going on. One of my biggest complaints, however, is that the dead girl provides voice-over narration through much of the film. She's reading excerpts from her diary and her story is really terrible. Her voice is teary and wavering and overly-dramatic music plays underneath it. I just think that it gave the whole film this very melodramatic feel. Larry Mantle>> Paul Haggis had tremendous success with his film, "Crash", that he wrote and directed and, of course, won the Oscar for Best Picture. Haggis is back as writer and director in the film, "In the Valley of Elah". It stars Tommy Lee Jones as a father who is searching for his Iraq war veteran son who's gone missing. Susan Sarandon is also in the cast along with Charlize Theron. [Film Clip] Larry Mantle>> Jean, did you take to "In the Valley of Elah"? Jean Oppenheimer>> Well, as I recall, I was the only FilmWeek critic who really loved "Crash". I think that more people will like "In the Valley of Elah". I didn't like it as much as "Crash" actually, but what worked for me is that it's a really quietly political film. It says a lot without hitting you over the head with it. Tommy Lee Jones is terrific in this film and everybody will be talking about his performance. Susan Sarandon plays his wife. One of the things I liked so much about his performance were the little things. You can tell his relationship with his wife through very minor things, the expression on his face when he's talking on the phone to her. It's not really affection. It's more of a deep caring that comes from years of being married to somebody. Also, Paul Haggis, the writer-director, I thought really took some risks here in how he presented some of the characters. I think, when you put that all together, it's quite moving. Larry Mantle>> Do you agree, Claudia? Claudia Puig>> I do agree, and I also agree about "Crash". I actually liked it quite a bit. There's a feeling like there's a little "Mystic River". Paul Haggis wrote that as well. I think he was influenced a little bit by Clint Eastwood in his directorial style because I got bits of that. The thriller aspect, though, I think is secondary to the anti-war statement and to the performance of Tommy Lee Jones. You might as well just give him the Oscar now, as far as I'm concerned. I agree about the details. It's such a magnificent performance. Susan Sarandon wasn't on screen very much, but she was also very powerful in some of her scenes. Charlize Theron, who we haven't mentioned, plays a kind of low-key, very subtle role, but does a very nice job. She has an interesting connection with Tommy Lee Jones's character who's looking for his son who's missing after returning from the Iraq War. I think it's a very powerful anti-war film and just amazing performances. Larry Mantle>> The Beatles Songbook is at the heart of the new film, "Across the Universe", directed by Julie Taymor who's also known as a choreographer of stage as well as film musicals. Evan Rachel Wood and Jim Sturgess star. [Film Clip] Larry Mantle>> "Across the Universe", Claudia? Claudia Puig>> This is a very high-concept movie. It takes thirty-three Beatles songs and they're the core around which a kind of rock musical is built. They don't have necessarily to do with the song, but sometimes they do and sometimes they don't. The really elaborate staged musical numbers are the best, the ones that go along with revolution. There's kind of an anti-war thing there. This is all set in the 1960s. There are some cameos that are interesting by Bono, who looks actually like Sonny Bono, which is interesting (laughter). The romance between Jim Sturgess and Evan Rachel Wood just doesn't work. It's kind of wan. But he has a nice kind of youthful Paul McCartney quality which does work and he has a great voice. Some people do better with the songs than others. There's a lovely gospel version of "Let It Be". If you like the Beatles, it's worth seeing, but it is quite long and does drag and there are some set pieces that just don't work as well as the others. Larry Mantle>> Thanks for joining us for another FilmWeek on Life and Times. I'm Larry Mantle of 89.3 KPCC joined by critics Claudia Puig of USA Today and Jean Oppenheimer of Village Voice Media. You can hear the full hour of FilmWeek on AirTalk on 89.3 KPCC Friday mornings at eleven. Thanks so much for joining us. 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:  | |
|
Home | Features | Arts | Health/Science | OC Edition | L&T Blog | Archives | About Us | Contact Us | Privacy Policy | Terms of Use |