07/19/04

LC040719

Val Zavala>> Tonight on Life and Times --

A neighborhood without books and the dedicated effort to nourish
some hungry young minds.

Maria Casillas>> Our kids don't have that level playing field
when they come to school nor do they get it when they go home,
not because the parents don't care, but because parents don't
have access in their homes and in their communities to books.

Val>> And then, a greener way for Los Angeles. Patt Morrison
shows us how big city life can be more nature-friendly.

All that and more straight ahead on tonight's Life and Times.

Life and Times is made possible through the generous support of
the L.K. Whittier Foundation dedicated to improving the quality
of life by supporting innovative endeavors in the fields of
medicine, health, science and education.

Val>> Many of us have so many books around the house that we
can't find a place to put them all, but imagine living in a very
different world where books are almost nonexistent. It's not a
figment of some writer's imagination. That world is real and
exists right here in our midst. It's a neighborhood where the
thirst for knowledge is unquenched and Toni Guinyard takes us
there.

Toni Guinyard>> It doesn't take long to realize that there is a
lot this Boyle Heights neighborhood does not have.

Maria Casillas>> We don't have a Rite-Aid, we don't have a Sav-
On, we don't have a Ralphs, we don't have a Safeway. We miss
many other what you call mainstream social capital kind of
activities and access here in these communities, but books are
essential to the life of the community. Our kids don't have
that level playing field when they come to school nor do they
get it when they go home, not because the parents don't care,
but because parents don't have access in their homes and in
their communities to books.

Toni Guinyard>> Access to books. Of all the things residents
here could ask for, they want books.

Rowena Lagrosa>> We've found out just recently that our library
at Roosevelt High School is the most heavily used high school
library, secondary library, in all of L.A. Unified and I think
that speaks to the fact that there is a hunger and a thirst and
a need for students to have access to quality literature books.

Toni Guinyard>> Going to the public library seems like such a
simple issue, but in this neighborhood, it's not. Some
libraries are not within walking distance. Others have limited
hours that are different from day to day.

Frank Bertran>> We are located in the county, so like any other
government entity, sometimes there are budget crunches and there
have been a few times where the local county library has had to
be closed.

Rowena Lagrosa>> There is an incredible need. I grew up in
Boyle Heights and I remember as a child going to the only two
libraries that were in the area. Forty years later, they are
the only two libraries in Boyle Heights. But the startling fact
is that we don't have a children's book store in the area.

Frank Bertran>> You know what it is in other more affluent
neighborhoods. You go to the local mall and they have a
Borders, they have a Crown Books. On Saturdays, they have
programs for children. They have storytelling. They make
children welcome into the stores.

Toni Guinyard>> It's an experience many of these Rowan Avenue
Elementary School second graders have never been exposed to.

>> "If I had a boat to make up music, we would love to dance La
Bamba and cheer up our hearts."

Toni Guinyard>> But now an effort is being made to provide the
community what it wants and needs. The void is being filled
with an annual book fair, the Feria del Libro. In just its
second year, the book fair attracted thousands, the turnout in
many ways dispelling doubts about the value of books and reading
to this community.

Maria Casillas>> These are second-class communities and we want
to teach them first-class values in the schools. We expect the
schools to produce first-class citizens, but the reality of
their lives is that, because of the lack of social capital in
these communities, it's very, very difficult.

>> "If you turn it this way, it's in English. And if you turn
it this way, it's in Spanish. So if you want to read it to
practice your English, you read it to yourself here. And if you
want to read it with your mom or you want your mom to read it to
you, you can read it here."

Toni Guinyard>> Ninety-five percent of the LAUSD students
enrolled in District Five are Latino. At home, most speak
Spanish and, at school, many struggle to read and comprehend
their lessons in English. But the Feria del Libro, the book
fair, makes it possible for culturally relevant books to be
placed into the hands of children and adults in this community
in words they understand.

[Film Clip]

Toni Guinyard>> Author, singer and poet, Margarita Robleda
Moguel, is unlike anyone these children have ever seen before.

Margarita Robleda Moguel>> My name is Margarita. I come from
Mexico. How many eyes do I have? How many ears? You can be an
author.

Toni Guinyard>> She is one of several award-winning authors who
not only participated in the book fair, but also ventured into
the schools.

Margarita Robleda Moguel>> Our kids need to see a girl like
them, you know? So when I come to the schools and I tell them I
am Margarita, I can make tamales, but I can play with words.
It's fun and I only have two eyes and two ears and, if I am an
author, you can be an author, they go like, ah.

Toni Guinyard>> You inspire this.

Margarita Robleda Moguel>> Yes.

[Film Clip]

Margarita Robleda Moguel>> When I go to the schools and I tell
kids, you know, let's pull out those words that say I can't and
let's put in words that say, yes, I can. And let's take out I
am stupid, I am dumb and let's put in words that say I am very
intelligent and I am very pretty. I am myself.

Toni Guinyard>> Sponsors of the book fair say allowing the
authors to make a cultural connection is crucial to fostering a
love of books and reading. They make no apologies for reaching
out to this community in its native language, Spanish.

[Film Clip]

Rowena Lagrosa>> In reading, students have an opportunity to
really make connections and engage in new learnings. When they
can make a connection in a book with their own experiences, they
really are encouraged to seek other opportunities and reading
and literacy simply opens the doors to the future for them.

Maria Casillas>> Ones own cultural and historical experience
sort of bring you to that curiosity of "I wonder what that girl
in this book who sort of looks brown like me might be doing?"
And so you start connecting your mind and your curiosity really
to the possibility that that person is like me and I want to
learn more about it.

>> "My baby's not well. Who can I tell?"

Toni Guinyard>> During this process of exposing these children
to a world that seems at times so out of reach, a clear message
is being sent about the value of their personal experiences and
their knowledge of not one but two languages.

[Film Clip]

Toni Guinyard>> But non-Spanish speaking students who also have
limited access to books are not being ignored. A connection is
being made.

[Film Clip]

Margarita Robleda Moguel>> This is our world, you know. So
when I say these words, it's not my language or your language,
it's ours, earth's. And at the end, we are so much alike.

Toni Guinyard>> We are so much alike. Just another community
filled with people who value books and reading.

Maria Casillas>> We need people to say to Borders, to Barnes &
Nobles, to Duttons, to Martinez Books and to others that come
into these communities that we are hungry for books. We will
buy the books. Give us a break. Just be here and we'll
respond.

Rowena Lagrosa>> We've waited long enough and I think that it's
important to offer those doors of opportunity for the students
in this area.

Toni Guinyard>> But rather than wait for a book store to open,
rather than complain about what they don't have, the Feria del
Libro is bringing the books to the children.

[Film Clip]

Val>> That neighborhood may never get a big mega book store,
but some investors are looking into what it would take to bring
a small independent store to Boyle Heights, just the kind of
place that kids can gather and share what they've been reading.

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Val>> He heard the sound of bullets hitting his car. He saw
some of the bloodiest fighting in Iraq and he lived side by side
with the soldiers of the First Regiment of the Second Battalion
of the First Division of Marines in Iraq. Tony Perry was an
imbedded reporter for the Los Angeles Times. He himself became
a casualty of sorts. He collapsed from heat exhaustion and had
to be treated by doctors. He went on to file more than fifty
stories from the front lines and witnessed firsthand the siege
on Fallujah. He's now back home fully recovered and full of
stories. Tony Perry, welcome back.

Tony Perry>> It's good to be back.

Val>> And congratulations on surviving. It must have been
quite an experience. Tell us, when did you go over, what was
the situation? You were in the Fallujah area, where there was
intense fighting?

Tony Perry>> I went over in early March when the Marines from
Camp Pendleton were going over to take over the Sunni Triangle
area from the Army's 82nd Airborne Division. They were taking
it over, so I went with them as an imbedded reporter and ended
up in Fallujah. Fallujah was the hot spot in the Sunni
Triangle. It was a hot spot of both Saddam Hussein loyalists
plus anti-Western sentiment and the thought always was that, as
Fallujah goes, so goes much of the Sunni Triangle.

The Marines were given the job of bringing stability and
security really to a city that didn't want either of those
things. In particular, I was there with the lead element that
was given the task of bringing peace to Fallujah. That was the
Second Battalion, First Regiment, the 21 of the First Marine
Division.

Val>> Was that an impossible task? What happened there and how
did the fighting become more intense?

Tony Perry>> It's a daunting task. It's a very, very difficult
task and made even more difficult when four American contractors
driving through Fallujah, four civilians, were set upon,
murdered, their bodies burned and desecrated and hung up on a
bridge. That created in this country, I think, a political
firestorm, if you will, that probably reached the gates of the
White House and then required action.

Val>> Oh, absolutely. That's what sparked the plans to really
launch an assault on Fallujah which was called off at the last
minute. There was a truce.

Tony Perry>> Right. The Marines had always known Fallujah
would be difficult. Their plan had been to move slowly, to try
and engender some goodwill to work with those people in Fallujah
that aren't dedicated Jihadists or dedicated anti-Western
fighters to try and get some goodwill going to repair some
schools and clinics and roads and the water and sewer system and
bring power to parts of the city. To begin that, and possibly
to confront the fact that Fallujah has always been dominated by
a small criminal element even during the years of Saddam
Hussein. Saddam really couldn't even bring Fallujah to heel
sufficiently. They thought ultimately they would have to
confront those folks.

Unfortunately, the timetable got shortened down to no timetable
at all when the four Americans were killed and the White House
called for action and the Marines moved into action on the night
of April 5. They threw a cordon around the city. Twenty five
hundred combat Marines from Camp Pendleton surrounded the city
of 200,000, cut off all access to it and began a slow movement
to confront both the insurgents and also those people who were
sort of on the fence. Are they going to join the insurgency or
are they going to let the Americans be part of a program to
change Fallujah? So we were off to the races on April 5. The
combat began within hours and continued on and off, on and off
for nearly three weeks.

Val>> So you were right next to the troops as this fighting was
going on. How did they handle it? Were you impressed by the
professionalism, their morale?

Tony Perry>> These are combat-tested troops, many of them, two-
thirds of them, had been through last year's major combat phase,
the top wing of the regime. These are not just people picked at
random. These are combat-tested troops and that's why they were
chosen for the most difficult job in the most difficult area
outside of Baghdad in that country. As the Marine General,
James Maddis, said, when Marines are asked to move the piano,
they don't just move the piano bench. They move the piano.

Well, Fallujah was their piano and they were asked to move it
and move it they did for nearly a month in hand-to-hand combat
in many ways, urban combat, the most vicious kind of combat
particularly against an enemy that knows the area. It's his
territory. He knows every nook and cranny. He lives in those
houses. He's also quite willing to fight among women and
children and to take casualties of his own people, to bring down
fire power on his own people because he knows that, propaganda-
wise, any civilian that's killed, even if the deaths are caused
by the insurgents, any civilians killed get blamed on the
Americans.

The insurgents knew that they would probably lose the battle,
but win the propaganda war and that's what the Americans
ultimately realized. The White House, I think, and certainly
the Marines realized it and that's why, after a month of almost
daily and nightly combat and large casualties on all sides, the
Marines called a halt to it. They cut a deal. They cut a deal
with professional soldiers, people who've been in the Iraqi army
and were now part of the insurgency. They cut a deal with them
for the Marines to move out and for these folks to take over the
security duties in their own city.

Val>> Which leads me directly to the question. June 30 coming
up, the deadline to transition power to the Iraqis. Is it
possible? Is it going to happen?

Tony Perry>> Well, possible or not, it's going to happen.
They're dead set on it. The White House wants it. The U.S.
military wants it. But U.S. troops are going to stay there.
There are 140,000 U.S. troops there and the Iraqis who are
taking over their own country want those troops there, very
wisely realizing that they're not ready yet. I think it's going
to be a long time before the Iraqi security forces are able and
equipped to take care of everything that needs taken care of.
Now they're making strides. They are taking some of the areas
under control and asserting themselves, but it's going to be a
while.

Remember, one of the things that the U.S. did and the Coalition
Provisional Authority did amid a great deal of controversy was
disband the Iraqi army, a rather professional army with a good
officer corps and trained enlisted people. They disbanded them
for various reasons. So it was the Marines and the Marines
alone for several weeks, and that's just unacceptable to
everybody. I mean, the point is not for the U.S. to dominate an
Iraqi city or an Iraqi province, but rather to get it ready for
the Iraqis themselves to handle.

Val>> So, militarily, we could be there for years and years and
years, but politically is another question.

Tony Perry>> Sure. I mean, how long have we been in Europe
after World War II? These things don't happen quickly. Yeah, a
politically different issue. The Marines and the Army are
instruments of policy and, when the policy shifts, the Marines
shift and the Army shifts. We saw that in Fallujah. When the
policy shifted, when the policy went from armed conflict to
accommodation and let's cut a deal, the Marines did that.

If the Marines had had to move on the insurgent stronghold after
a week or a month of skirmishing and casualties, hundreds of
insurgents would have died. They would have been wiped out.
They would have been pushed into the Euphrates and all that
fought probably would have been killed, all those who didn't
surrender. We would have had probably sizable Marine
casualties, but what we most definitely would have had is
sizable civilian casualties. While the insurgents found that
acceptable, the U.S. realized that that was a loser politically
and propaganda-wise. They couldn't inflict those casualties and
then come out a winner and turn over this country to its proper
governors on June 30. That's why they cut the deal.

Val>> Tony Perry, thank you for your hard work, your reporting
and keeping us in touch with a world half a world away.

Tony Perry>> Thank you.

To send a comment or a question to our program, you can reach us
by mail at this address:

Life and Times
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Los Angeles, California 90027

You can also call our viewer comment line (323) 953-5555) or
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Val>> Energy shortages, rising demand for water and breathing
in smoggy air. It's all part of the daily reality of urban life
in Los Angeles and, on the worst days, many of us think there
must be a better way and maybe there is. Patt Morrison takes us
on a Green Tour of L.A. with a writer named Rob Steiner.
Together they explore a more nature-friendly approach to city
life.

Patt Morrison>> Rob Steiner, long-time visitor to Los Angeles,
short-time resident. You've concocted the Green Tour, but it's
not what we think of as green. This is a different Los Angeles
that you're showing us.

Rob Steiner>> Yes. You know, I've always been fascinated with
Los Angeles. Everyone talks about it like it's this great
amorphous mass, but in fact beneath the surface, there are many,
many natural features here and there are also many components of
what you might call a more environmentally-friendly lifestyle.
It's really below the radar screen. I believe that, with the
Tour, we can make people more aware of all the things that would
comprise a more environmentally-friendly city.

Patt Morrison>> So when you talk about green, you aren't simply
talking about picture postcard moments with jacarandas and
ponds. You're talking about something that's really the
machinery of environmentalism as well.

Rob Steiner>> Yeah. Of course, we have the natural features
here. We have the Santa Monica Mountains. We have lots of
lakes, you know, from Lake Hollywood to Silver Lake to even Lake
Malibu. We have rivers, the Los Angeles River, Ballona Creek,
but we also have things such as Farmers Markets and we have
community gardens which are manmade but also natural. We also
have technologies such as solar roofs and we have now more
environmentally-friendly transportation in the emergence of the
hybrids. So I'm trying to look at the whole picture and have
people become aware of the whole picture instead of just seeing
little bits and pieces of it.

Patt Morrison>> And this house near Slauson and Western in Los
Angeles is a model of what Los Angeles maybe once was and could
be again.

Rob Steiner>> Absolutely. I mean, Andy Lipkis, I think, is a
great visionary. I think he's somebody whose --

Patt Morrison>> -- he's the head of Tree People.

Rob Steiner>> Yes, he's the head of Tree People. I think he's
someone who's really looking at the big picture and trying to
solve a great number of problems with simple technological
solutions.

Andy Lipkis>> We receive half the water we need in rainfall,
but we throw it away, pollute it, create flooding and ruin our
beaches and our tourist economy by just getting rid of the
water. In fact, local building code requires us to throw the
water away right now. What we've done with this house is five
simple things. We took all the water that runs off the roof
just with ten dollars of hardware move the downspout from the
roof drains from the driveway to the lawn. We put a berm eight
inches high all the way around the lawn, so --

Patt Morrison>> -- it retains the water.

Andy Lipkis>> It retains the water instead of running off. We
took the driveway and took whatever water was left going down
that and put a little drain across the bottom and it goes into
what we call a dry well, a little box that treats any oil, and
puts it in the ground. In the back yard, we took all the water
from the roof and it goes into a cistern, a tank that's only two
feet wide, but it holds 3,600 gallons and it goes from there
right into the irrigation system and it supplies all the
irrigation water for the lawns.

Patt Morrison>> And we also have the eco-house, an example of
how you can live green. Not only growing fruits and vegetables
of your own, but living within a house that's more
environmentally friendly.

Rob Steiner>> Yes. Julia Russell has been there for many, many
years and has been a pioneer in Los Angeles in showing us how we
can live a more ecological lifestyle.

Julia Russell>> Essentially, we are living in such a way and we
have installed systems and products in this home that allow us
to live sustainably even in an urban environment, and that
sustainability includes recycling, solar energy, growing some of
our own food, composting, xeroscape front yard which means
drought-tolerant. We save water in the front yard.

Patt Morrison>> And here is your conscientious kitchen.

Julia Russell>> Yes, that's right. We have a solar tube for
light all day long even on gray days, so we use no electric
lights in the kitchen during the day. Our compost drawer makes
it very easy to compost all organic waste. I am able to cut my
vegetables here. Any waste goes directly into the compost
drawer and then, when it's about three-quarters full, I open it
up, take it out and then it goes to the big bins in the back.

Patt Morrison>> And Bimini Slough which was once one of the
many creeks that criss-crossed Los Angeles and it did run with
water during the rainy seasons.

Rob Steiner>> There's been a restoration at the Bresee
Community Center there of an ecological park.

Patt Morrison>> Jeff Carr is Executive Director of the Bresee
Foundation and has been here for seventeen years, so he has seen
the entire project evolve from a street of abandoned cars,
trash, garbage trucks plying their trade, to this little park.

Jeff Carr>> I have indeed. Actually, almost a hundred years
ago before it was a street, though, this was actually a water
shed and there was something that fed into the Ballona water
shed and Ballona Creek and then actually even --

Patt Morrison>> -- which fed ultimately to the Ballona
Wetlands.

Jeff Carr>> That's right. Then also underneath our building
which is right next door is the historic Bimini Baths and the
Bimini Hot Springs which were around in Los Angeles from early
in the nineteenth century until 1951.

Patt Morrison>> What is it that we have here now?

Jeff Carr>> Well, we created some green space here because
we're in the park-poorest part of the entire city of Los
Angeles. This is actually called a Bio Swale which actually
runs through here and that's actually a unique feature, I think
one of the first places in Los Angeles to do this. Basically
the city has a problem with storm drain runoff, so what we've
done here is actually create a system using natural plants and
like a lasagna system underground that allows, as the water
comes here, there is a trash receptacle that filters out the
hard trash and then, when the water flows through, it will
actually flow through this swale and the various plants that we
have planted will actually remove and cleanse some of the toxins
that are in the water before it actually gets to the storm
drains.

Patt Morrison>> Which is just what happened before we started
messing with it a hundred years ago.

Jeff Carr>> That's exactly right.

Patt Morrison>> Even people who consider themselves
environmentally conscientious would be surprised at the list of
places that are green.

Rob Steiner>> Right. I mean, most people have seen the Ferris
Wheel in Santa Monica, which is the world's first and possibly
only solar powered Ferris Wheel. The solar panels on the
Convention Center, so many people have probably driven right by
it and not even realized there are panels all around that
facility. There are quite a number of establishments where you
can go and be certain that you're getting products that are more
environmentally-friendly. If somebody wants to live a certain
way, in a more environmentally-friendly way, if you know where
everything is, then you're more likely to do it.

Val>> Rob Steiner is more than happy to share his Green Tour of
Los Angeles. If you're interested, just drop us an e-mail and
we'll tell you how to contact him. In the meantime, our thanks
to all the friendly folks at the Skylight Book Store in Los
Feliz for sharing their space. And that's our program. I'm Val
Zavala. For everyone at Life and Times, thanks for watching.
We'll see you next time.

Life and Times was made possible through the generous support of
the L.K. Whittier Foundation dedicated to improving the quality
of life by supporting innovative endeavors in the fields of
medicine, health, science and education.