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Memorial Service Held for Rosa Parks; Suicide Bomber Targets Shoppers; Officials Fear Avian Flu May Mutate

Aired November 02, 2005 - 13:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

DARYN KAGAN, CO-HOST: Former President Clinton, the Reverend T.D. Jake, Aretha Franklin, among the thousands gathered to honor Parks. We're bringing you live coverage of the service throughout the hour.
From the CNN Center in Atlanta, I'm Daryn Kagan.

TONY HARRIS, CO-HOST: And I'm Tony Harris. Kyra Phillips is on assignment. CNN's LIVE FROM starts right now.

In song, in words and in tears, saying good-bye to Rosa Parks. Her funeral began in Detroit about two hours ago, but really about an hour and a half ago. A celebration of her life and expression of thanks for an extraordinary woman who led an extraordinary life. Even in death, the civil right icon's role is clear. The church filled with dignitaries and ordinary citizens, whites and African-Americans, is testament to how Rosa Parks changed the world.

We'll be checking back as the tributes unfold to bring you live coverage of the service throughout the hour.

KAGAN: And as we look at live coverage, that's the Michigan governor, Jennifer Granholm, is the adopted home state of Rosa Parks. Michigan and -- Detroit, Michigan, her other hometown.

HARRIS: Rosa Parks lived 92 years, almost half of them in anonymity, the rest as a symbol of courage and the struggle for equality. We'd like to talk more about the woman and the icon with a man who knew her well, Ambassador Andy Young.

Good to see you, sir.

ANDY YOUNG, CIVIL RIGHTS ACTIVIST: Good to see you.

HARRIS: It's been great having you around for our coverage today. It really has been.

You know, I was wondering, I asked you just a moment ago, if this service were being piped in to schools throughout the country right now, so that grade school kids, high school kids all across the country could see this, would they, in part, be seeing a retelling, a re-living of the entire civil rights movement on this particular day in that temple?

YOUNG: Well, it would take a lot of interpretation, because I think what we've seen when you get a lot of preachers together, they tend to preach.

HARRIS: Yes, yes.

YOUNG: And while they are on the subject of the -- the thing that I think our students need to know is the quiet eloquence and dignity and politeness of Rosa Parks. That was where the power was. There's a hymn that says "It's not with swords, loud clashing, nor roll of stirring drum but through deeds of loving mercy that the heavenly kingdom comes."

HARRIS: Yes.

YOUNG: And I think that's -- I almost have a feeling that a lot of the ceremonies around Rosa Parks are not like Rosa Parks.

HARRIS: Yes.

YOUNG: And I think we need to remember Rosa Parks. And her power was not in her shouting or in her eloquence or in her emotion. It was in her calm and serene demeanor that demonstrated the power to change the world.

KAGAN: You were sharing with me, Mr. Ambassador, earlier today as we were watching the service that because of that, she might be somewhat amused that a church packed with 4,000 people is this final stop. You paid your last respects in Montgomery, Alabama. Tell us a little bit more about what that service was like earlier.

YOUNG: Well, it was a service that had a lot more children singing. And she spent most of her life working with children, with the NAACP youth group. It had people who spoke about her. And all of them stayed in five minutes or less. And then there didn't seem to be a lot of attempts to out-preach each other.

HARRIS: Yes.

YOUNG: And -- but, and the service was over in maybe an hour and 20 minutes.

HARRIS: Ambassador, I have to ask you, as I watch this day unfold and I'm watching -- and it's been moving, it's been quite moving to watch this morning, and into the afternoon. I have to ask you, as I look at this, I understand so vividly what the fight was then, how big the fight was, how great the stakes were. And I wonder today, what's the fight? What's fight, the great fight, of our time, the great fight for African-Americans?

YOUNG: Well, it may be the same fight, but it's in a different arena. It's not in the streets, it's in the suites. And we were marching because we couldn't get inside to talk to people. But now we're inside. And so in just about every business, there is some struggle for fairness, for honesty and integrity. And that -- it's not specifically racial.

HARRIS: Yes.

YOUNG: It's everything and everybody.

KAGAN: Let's listen in for just a moment. This, once again, is the governor of Michigan, Jennifer Granholm. Let's listen in.

GOV. JENNIFER GRANHOLM (D), MICHIGAN: ... Rosa Parks, that her greatness, her greatness lay in doing what everybody could do, but doesn't.

We will all say today that the greatest tribute that we could pay to our improbable warrior is to continue battling and to do so in a way that honors her life. And I, like you, imagine a day when the war will be won, when a brilliant 8-year-old chess player has the same chances in life, whether she lives in Lavonia, or off of Livernois.

Whether the -- we know that this war will be won when the son of a barber on Grand River receives from each of us the same looks of hope and words of encouragement, as the son of a doctor in Grand Rapids.

We know that the war will be won when the city of Bloomfield Hills and the city of Detroit have the same college graduation rates. And the same low prison incarceration rates, as well.

We know that we will be winning Mrs. Parks' war, our war, when it's yesterday's news that a newly elected governor or senator or president is a woman or a person of color. Yesterday's news.

We know that we will be winning the war when people in the state of Michigan do not have to vote on whether diversity in our university classrooms is a good thing.

We know we will see signs that we are winning this war when love overwhelms fear and acts of quiet strength become our daily bread.

So good night, Mrs. Parks, from the state of Michigan, to our own gently powerful war hero. Because by your actions, you have given us your final marching orders. We are enlisted in this war. And on behalf of the state of Michigan, ma'am, we are reporting for duty.

KAGAN: Jennifer Granholm, the governor of Michigan, with a very dramatic speech there, saying -- and let me bring back in the former ambassador here. She said, "The greatest part of Rosa Parks is that the greatest lay in what everyone could do and what few do do, but she did."

YOUNG: True. It's a very good thing. And I mean, I was growing up in the South at that time. And we did little playful things against segregation.

KAGAN: For instance what would you do?

YOUNG: Well, there was a sign that said "For colored patrons only." And we'd always take it down and put it on the floor. And...

HARRIS: But it's a protest, yes, in your own way. YOUNG: But it was a childish protest. I remember even throwing them out the window. But it was the dignity and the planning and the determination of her whole life that made this protest...

KAGAN: I'd like to put a question to both of you, actually. Because this picked on something, Mr. Ambassador, you were saying, that Rosa Parks spent so much of her time with children and young people.

YOUNG: Yes.

KAGAN: We're almost 50 years to the day that this protest took place. So much has happened in 50 years. What the children of 50 years ago faced, versus, then, perhaps, Tony, when you grew up...

HARRIS: Sure.

KAGAN: ... to now when you're raising two children, how do you pass on the message and the stories and the importance of continuing the work and the cause, to children today?

YOUNG: Well, with my children, who are now your age, older, we had to teach them to be nonviolent in their own relationships. That when their teachers -- when their classmates got angry with them, you didn't get angry back.

HARRIS: Yes.

YOUNG: It's the way I was raised. My father used to say, "Don't get mad in a fight. When you have a disagreement, don't get mad, get smart. You have to use your head to think your way through it."

And the problem is that we made the mistake of thinking that we were free and that these conditions no longer exist, so we didn't teach our children enough.

HARRIS: You know what, and, Daryn, I'll answer it this way. I will tell you that, as I raise my children, it sort alludes to the question I asked the ambassador at the top of the hour, as to the fight. What is next? How do you keep pushing that bar forward? How do you fight complacency from setting in? And how do you make your children -- as you know, I have a 10-year-old son; I have a 7-year-old daughter. How do you make them aware of what came before them in a way that is real for them, so they feel it, so that they know it in their hearts, and that they can move forward and understand that there is still plenty of work to be done?

KAGAN: Advice from our statesman, perhaps.

YOUNG: I think you ought to let children be children.

HARRIS: Yes.

YOUNG: And as they learn, as they come into conflicts, then you remind them. But, you know, there's so little time to have fun. There's so little time to be a child. I even think that it's all right for little children to fight. And then as they become teenagers, you teach them to be nonviolent.

HARRIS: I see.

YOUNG: But you don't want...

HARRIS: Having the fighting as a frame of reference.

YOUNG: You don't want them to be cowardly. You help them to see that fighting really doesn't answer any problem.

HARRIS: Yes.

YOUNG: And that they learn to listen to each other and to disagree without being disagreeable.

HARRIS: You know what's interesting...

YOUNG: It's the process of growing up.

HARRIS: Yes. What's interesting about that, as I sit here listening to you say that, is that you want to be mindful of not giving your kids, necessarily, your perspective and allowing them to -- is that sort of what I hear you saying? To allow them to...

YOUNG: You want to give it to them, but you want to respect where they are.

HARRIS: I see.

YOUNG: And you want them at 2 1/2 to be 2 1/2. And you want them, by the time they're 10, to be a little wiser.

HARRIS: Sure.

YOUNG: But don't try to make them old folks before their time.

KAGAN: Plenty of time for that. Apparently, also plenty of time for this funeral, which continues to go. Because, as the ambassador was explaining, a lot of folk having a lot to say.

HARRIS: Oh, Daryn, this will go today.

KAGAN: This will go. And it's been going since 11 a.m. Eastern. We're continuing our coverage. And we are back in a moment.

(MUSIC)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HARRIS: And Daryn, what a wonderful opportunity we're having to take in this funeral, the funeral for Rosa Parks at the Greater Grace Temple, with the ambassador, Andy Young, here in Atlanta. It has been a wonderful morning and afternoon. And we'll be checking back in on the funeral service throughout the afternoon here on CNN.

KAGAN: As we can see from that live picture, a number of dignitaries, politician from across Michigan, Detroit, and all across the country, gathered there in Detroit. We'll be dipping in and out of that, as the afternoon goes on.

Let's welcome back in Ambassador Young, as we've been listening to this ceremony, as it goes on. The theme that people seem to pick up on is the class, the classiness of Rosa Parks.

YOUNG: Yes. And I think just the fact that the governor, the two senators, the mayor, the former president, all felt obligated to be there...

HARRIS: Yes.

YOUNG: ... says something in itself. And that the problem is that everybody wants to say too much.

KAGAN: Yes. Which is why we're keeping you here...

YOUNG: Yes.

KAGAN: ... way past when you agreed to. We do appreciate that.

We do have other news to get to, as well. And we will get back to the funeral in just a moment. We also want to tell you the latest in Iraq.

And in central Iraq, it did begin as a day for buying new clothes and shopping for food ahead of a holiday. It ended, though, in carnage. A suicide bomber striking near a Shiite mosque and a busy market in a town south of Baghdad. It happened in an area that is known as the Triangle of Death, and it targeted the town all too familiar with such attacks.

Our Aneesh Raman is live now from Baghdad with the latest.

Aneesh, hello.

ANEESH RAMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Daryn, good afternoon.

It happened in the town of Mussayib, as you say, south of the Iraqi capital. A suicide car bomb detonating in the town's center near a Shiite mosque, near restaurants, near shops. At least 20 people now confirmed dead, upwards of 60 others wounded.

It comes, as you mentioned, at the end of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, at the beginning soon of the festival of Eid. A number of people were out on the streets, buying clothes, festive shopping, if you will, when this explosion took place.

Mussayib itself has seen violence before. It's seen one of the deadliest bombings in Iraq. In July of this year, a bomber detonated next to a fuel truck, at that point killing upwards of 100 people.

Again, the insurgency brutally attacking the Shia civilian population. Among the dead in Mussayib, women and children. Earlier today, north of the capital in the town of Kirkuk, a car bomb detonating there. That explosion left two people killed, wounded seven others. Among the wounded there were two women.

Kirkuk is an ethnically diverse area. It is not a majority Shia area like what we saw in Mussayib, but it is an area that has seen increased volatility. It's an area that all groups, the Sunnis, the Shia, and especially the Kurds, essentially are looking to have under their control, their political control.

Also today, Daryn, west of the capital, around the town of Ramadi, the U.S. Military announcing that a helicopter went down earlier today. It killed, that explosion, two U.S. Marines. Subsequently, the U.S. military says they had air strikes fired upon an insurgent safe house.

But the insurgent attacks, again, coming at this restive, festive week for Iraqis, and again, shows the insurgents' strong desire to attack the Iraqi civilians, Daryn.

KAGAN: Aneesh Raman, live from Baghdad. Thank you for latest from there -- Tony.

HARRIS: And Daryn, let's take you to live pictures now. This is from New Haven, Connecticut, and East Rock Park. Some of you may be familiar with this particular area. And on the scene right now, we have a woman climber who is stuck, Daryn. And she's stuck 50 feet blow the summit. And a rescue operation is under way right now.

I don't think we've seen -- there we go, there's the picture right now of the woman who was stuck and the rescue operation that is going on right now. I can't -- I guess the rescuer is on the left there of your screen.

Fifty feet below the summit, woman climber stuck. This is East Rock Park in New Haven, Connecticut. And we understand the woman was able to call for help on a cell phone she was carrying. So that rescue operation is ongoing right now. We'll check back on that scene in just a couple of minutes and see how things are going.

We'll take a break and come back with more LIVE FROM right after this.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KAGAN: To our daily dose of health news now. To Washington today. Public health officials follow up on the president's plan to fight a potential flu pandemic.

Representatives from the Centers for Disease Control, the Department of Health and Human Services and other agencies huddled with the Senate Appropriations Committee. They were talking strategy and deployment of federal funds. The experts continue to insist it's a matter of when, not if.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) MICHAEL LEAVITT, HHS SECRETARY: Pandemics, the bottom line is, they happen. Ten times in the last 300 years and three times in the last 100 years, viruses have mounted a massive pandemic assault that have made masses ill and millions -- caused millions to die. They happened before. They'll happen again. And we need to be prepared.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HARRIS: And that's why the president wants Congress to cough up more than $7 billion to put into an anti-pandemic war chest. Although there's no pandemic circulating among people right now, the potential is there, locked inside a strain of avian virus that has the full attention of scientists and global health officials.

CNN medical correspondent Elizabeth Cohen explains how bird flu could morph into an efficient human killer.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ELIZABETH COHEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Avian flu, or H5-N1, has infected more than 120 people so far in at least six countries.

ROBERT WEBSTER, ST. JUDE CHILDREN'S HOSPITAL: The virus in Asia is killing more than 50 percent of humans infected. In this virus learns to transmit human to human and maintains that level of killing humans, we've got a global catastrophe.

COHEN: Under an electron microscope, flu viruses look like spiky creatures, akin to tiny hedgehogs. H5-N1 may seem unassuming in the lab, but to be sure, it has the ability to cause a public health crisis. In fact, experts say that H5-N1 resembles the strain responsible for the 1918 flu pandemic. That strain mutated to spread between people and ultimately killed as many as 50 million around the world.

Today there have been a handful of human to human transmissions of avian influenza. Symptoms so far have included sudden high fever, coughing, sometimes with blood, difficulty breathing, and diarrhea.

Avian flu certainly does not spread easily. But scientists warn that H5-N1 could change to become an explosive killer. It could mutate on its own, like the 1918 flu did, or it could combine with the common flu that circulates every year.

Let's say this chicken farmer has the regular flu, which always spreads like wildfire from person to person. Then he gets infected with H5-N1 from one of his chickens. Now both viruses are in his cells, where they exchange some of their eight genes. It's called reassortment. If they shuffle the genes just right, the H5-N1 strain can pick up the gene that would help it pass from person to person like the winter flu does. That's the biggest fear of all.

Elizabeth Cohen, CNN, Atlanta.

(END VIDEOTAPE) HARRIS: Avian flu and pandemic preparedness are also the topics on "HOUSE CALL WITH DR. SANJAY GUPTA," Saturday and Sunday morning at 8:30 a.m. Eastern, only here on CNN.

KAGAN: At this hour, thousands of people gathered at the Greater Grace Temple in Detroit to honor civil rights pioneer Rosa Parks. There you have Senator Barack Obama of Illinois making remarks, one of many politicians that are doing exactly that today. And we'll have more on what Senator Obama has to say in a moment.

Also, this is ahead.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Let me have a seat.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: No, I'm tired. And my feet hurt.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KAGAN: Little lessons, celebrating the legacy of Rosa Parks, out of the mouths of babes, you might say.

HARRIS: Yes.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HARRIS: Want to update this developing story now. Wow, there was someone down there with her just a moment ago. But I understand -- I'm getting word that we're getting closer to this actual rescue attempt of this woman climber who is stuck.

Pictures coming out of New Haven, Connecticut. And this is East Rock Park. The woman is stuck about 50 feet below the summit there. And you see the rescuers getting ready to launch its attempt to bring her up to the summit. She got stuck and, Daryn, she was able to call for help.

KAGAN: She brought her cell phone.

HARRIS: She brought her cell phone with her.

KAGAN: Went rock climbing, and she brought her cell phone.

HARRIS: Yes. So we're going to continue to watch the situation and sort of monitor it, as the rescuers get closer to this attempt.

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