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Life & Times Transcript
10/15/07 Val Zavala>> Tonight on Life and Times -- Losing King Drew 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, a Mexican restaurant that's found the recipe for changing lives. 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, because 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. Fortunately, 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 the 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. Val Zavala>> I'm here in Boyle Heights just east of downtown Los Angeles. It's a thriving Latino community and there are tons of small businesses, but one of them is unique. It's called Homegirl Café. You'd never know it by looking, but this is not a typical restaurant. Nearly all the young women here, the waitresses and cooks, are former gang members. They've spent time in foster homes, youth camps and Juvenile Hall for violent crimes. Have some of these young women been incarcerated? Father Gregory Boyle>> Oh, sure, all of them. Val Zavala>> Father Gregory Boyle is a Jesuit priest who runs the now-famous Homeboy Industries started back in 1988. It offers troubled boys real jobs. The idea of a Homegirl Café was a logical extension. In only a few months, the word has spread and interest from young women who want a second chance has been overwhelming. Father Gregory Boyle>> Just the other day, I got thirty letters from Corona from the women's prison there saying, "Homegirl, Homegirl, Homegirl. What do you think? I'm getting out in October. Any possibilities?" Val Zavala>> But the café would never have come to be without chef and manager, Patty Zarate. Patty was Father Greg's receptionist for years and had worked with troubled youth. She was the perfect choice to get the café going. Patty Zarate>> I'm not a cook by training. I'm a cook by passion, I think. Yeah, I love to cook. Val Zavala>> Eileen Eberhart works here five days a week. This is her first paying job. Her father left when she was only six and her mother, a gang member, has been in and out of prison. Eileen Eberhart>> I started in like sixth grade. Like I didn't want to listen. I'd go to school and I'd ditch and like get into fights. I fought a lot. I'd get suspended from school, you know, and didn't want to do my schoolwork. I was failing. Then I started gangbanging when I like sixteen or seventeen. Val Zavala>> What kind of things did you guys do to get money? Eileen Eberhart>> We'd hustle, you know, and steal cars, rob people, different things. You have your own job and you do what you do on the side. Val Zavala>> Sell drugs? Eileen Eberhart>> You could do that. I don't do that. I used to help my homies and stuff, but I don't do that. Val Zavala>> So when you got in trouble with the law, it was for what again? Eileen Eberhart>> Possession of a concealed weapon. Val Zavala>> Eileen was arrested, charged and sent to a camp for young offenders for seven months. What was that like? Eileen Eberhart>> Ugly, no privacy, there's females right next to you. It was disgusting, but it showed me that I really want my freedom, you know? I don't want to go back ever. I don't ever want to go back. Val Zavala>> Today Eileen arrived at work late. Patty doesn't let it go unnoticed. Patty Zarate>> "Eileen, Eileen, at what time are you supposed to come?" Eileen Eberhart>> "At nine." Patty Zarate>> "What time is it?" Eileen Eberhart>> "9:30." Patty Zarate>> "You're supposed to be here at nine, you know? Get your hair tied, okay?" Val Zavala>> Patty is from Guadalajara. She infuses her dishes with fresh vegetables, fruits and interesting spices. Patty Zarate>> We Mexicans don't eat rice and beans at every single meal we have. We eat a lot of vegetables, especially in-season vegetables, so they are less expensive and better taste and better flavor and healthier. We don't overuse oils. We don't use lard at all. Val Zavala>> Business has been brisk, especially since the Los Angeles Times described the food as "delightful, delicious, fresh and original". Customers concur. What are you getting here? >> It's an omelet, a spicy omelet. Val Zavala>> Do you come here often too? >> They just brought us today. This is our first time. Val Zavala>> Where are you from? What part of town? >> Claremont. Val Zavala>> You came all the way from Claremont? >> Every time (laughter). We read about it in the Los Angeles Times and, the same day we read about it, we came up for breakfast. It was so good, so I wrote a letter to the Times and they printed it and that was fun too. Val Zavala>> But running a restaurant isn't as easy as it looks. Father Gregory Boyle>> We've worked out the kinks, you know, which there were initially. Especially when you have an influx of people, it was hard to kind of get them, you know, served quickly. I was here yesterday and it was five minutes, so I thought great, so progress. Patty Zarate>> We have good days sometimes, we have bad days sometimes. Val Zavala>> What's a good day and what's a bad day? Patty Zarate>> A good day, everybody cooperates, everything is ready on time and everybody is happy. Val Zavala>> For Eileen, these are good days compared to her past. Eileen's mother is in prison serving a life sentence for a gang-related murder. Do you visit her? Eileen Eberhart>> No, I haven't. I want to go visit her soon though. Val Zavala>> And do you keep in touch with her and tell her how you're doing? Eileen Eberhart>> Um-hum. We write to each other. Val Zavala>> And what does she think of what you're doing here? Eileen Eberhart>> She's proud of me. Father Gregory Boyle>> We're continually standing in awe of what people have to carry rather than stand in judgment of how they carry it. Val Zavala>> Across the street from the Homegirl Café is another sign of progress. A light rail line is under construction in the heart of Boyle Heights. It's due to open in 2009. There are also big plans for the Homegirl Café. Right now, they have only eight tables and six waitresses, but not for long. Father Gregory Boyle>> We're going to move to a ninety-seven seat restaurant that we're building at our new headquarters in the bakery over near Union Station. Patty Zarate>> I would like to have them at the new café as leaders. I only hope that I am not only teaching them how to cut onions and tomatoes, but also to take a leadership role. Val Zavala>> Diego Cardoso is a regular customer and long-time Boyle Heights resident. His paintings of life in East Los Angeles lend the café a warm, colorful charm. And what do you think Homegirl Café means to the area? It's not just your typical café. Diego Cardoso>> No, it's not. I think it portrays the hope for the future, for change, for a community to participate in economic development, for children to retain hope. It means a lot. Val Zavala>> As for Eileen, she's realized that serving meals beats serving time. Right now, she's sharing an apartment with a roommate and is trying hard to break old patterns. Eileen Eberhart>> I've had to because every write-up I got has been very impulsive, defiant, doesn't want to listen, hard-headed, you know, stuff like that. I've read so many write-ups like, okay, I guess that is what I am and then I started realizing that is how I act. I act on impulse. I don't think before I act. Well, I do, but not as much as I should, to put it that way. Father Gregory Boyle>> And it also stands as an invitation to employers. Oh, I get it. I'll give people a chance. All right, send me somebody. That's what you hope will happen. Eileen Eberhart>> I don't have an easy job where I just sit around and get paid, you know. This is my first job. I've got to work for what I want. Val Zavala>> So although the food at the Homegirl Café is delicious, the most important recipe they've created is the recipe for change. Homegirl Café is open for breakfast and lunch, six days a week, closed on Sundays. I recommend the mango salad. 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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