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Mexico's Pushback on Arizona; Honoring Dorothy Height
Aired April 29, 2010 - 10:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: So will he be a Republican no more? Later today Florida Governor Charlie Crist expected to announce that he'll continue a Senate bid as an independent. Polls show Crist was being dubbed by -- or dragged rather by a Republican challenger. Marco Rubio became a darling of the conservative movement by calling for smaller government.
Your seafood, your summer vacation at the beach. Well, how about the offshore drilling controversy? Environmental and economic tragedy moving through the Gulf of Mexico right now.
An underwater oil leak that could devastate the entire Gulf Coast. Instead of 42,000 gallons a day, the Coast Guard says it may actually be five times that -- 210,000 gallons a day. Some of the surface oil was burned off and that first test went well, so more fires could be lit later today.
Now just this morning, a BP executive said that they'll take the military up on their offer to help, trying to sop up as much of that oil as possible before it hits the coast.
Reynolds Wolf is in Venice, Louisiana, right now. So Reynolds, what are they doing to prepare for the oil that's on its way?
REYNOLDS WOLF, AMS METEOROLOGIST: They're doing everything they can. We're actually at a place, for want of a better term, just called Bud's, that we have out here along the water. And again with the wind picking up, Rob, has been saying all day, the wind is expected to be increasingly strong as we make our way to the weekend. With that strong wind pushing that oil to cross the surface of the water, we can see, of course, in many places, namely here. Right in parts of Louisiana. No question.
They promise though, Kyra, we're going to be seeing that effect in some of the wetlands. We have nature preserve just to the south. It's called Delta National Wildlife Refuge. Beautiful place and at that spot, you have some 400 animals, 400 types of endangered animals. Beautiful place. And at that spot, you have some 400 animals, 400 types of animals that live in that area, different species, 400 species.
And again, having this move into their environment certainly a detrimental thing. They try to hold off some of the damage this oil can inevitably have. Governor Bobby Jindal is trying to get at least 50,000 feet of that protective barrier up and around some of the wetlands and try to stave off some of the oil as it spreads out. But it's a tall order, no question. Kyra.
KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: That's a tall order with you. That's for sure. Thanks, Reynolds.
Trying to get ahead of the slick. It's a matter of life and death for the Gulf Coast fishermen. Many are still getting back on their feet after Katrina. A good shrimp crop was expected because of very few hurricanes last year and this oil slick could kill it off.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
CHARLIE ROBIN, SHRIMPER: We just started to get back on our feet again. That's all we need is an oil spill to come in right now and devastate our grounds to kill our shrimp, and fish and oysters.
RICKY ROBIN, SHRIMPER: It's a disaster. It's a crying shame what's happening.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
PHILLIPS: Shrimpers are being given special permission now to get out of there and trying to harvest shrimp before the oil kills them all. Around 75 percent of all made in the USA shrimp comes right from that area.
Lawsuits, petitions and protests and don't forget the boycotts, all part of the fallout of the controversial Arizona immigration law. The first lawsuit is expected to be filed in Phoenix in just a few hours. There will be many more to follow, too, and then there's the boycotts. Officials in San Francisco and L.A. already pushing boycotts against Arizona businesses, trying to put pressure on that state to drop the law.
The friendly confines of Wrigley Field may seem a strange place for a debate over the immigration law but protesters plan to gather outside of Chicago's swathe of green before today's first pitch, the target? The cub's opponent, yes, the Arizona Diamondbacks. Organizers of the rally say that America's favorite past time will be hit with a reality check. Not sure how many protestors will show, but the group's Facebook page has 800 followers right now.
And Arizona Tea. You've seen it, it's everywhere. The company wants you to know something too. It's based in New York on Long Island. It's Arizona in name only, it just sounded cool. Hey, they couldn't exactly call it Long Island iced tea, right? The company posted the word on its web page and felt it had to come clean after there was so much talk online about a beverage boycott.
A neighbor is complaining about Arizona loudly. Mexico says the immigration law breeds intolerance, hatred and discrimination and that's just the start. Our senior Latin-American affairs editor Rafael Romo joins me now with more.
Everybody is getting involved in this. Understandably.
RAFAEL ROMO, CNN SENIOR LATIN-AMERICAN AFFAIRS EDITOR: Yes, exactly. And about a quarter of the population is Mexican or of Mexican origin. In fact, according to the most recent census figures almost 1.7 million people of Mexican origins or born in Mexico live in Arizona. Mexicans are by far the largest Hispanic group in the southwestern state.
So as you can imagine approval of the Arizona immigration law has also sent shockwaves south of the border.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ROMO (voice-over): The Mexican Congress voted this week to condemn the Arizona immigration law and the foreign ministry is considering its legal options.
JULIAN VENTURA, UNDERSECRETARY FOR NORTH AMERICA, MEXICO'S FOREIGN MINISTRY (through translator): We can certainly join lawsuits and other actions initiated by organizations or the federal government as friend of the court. There are also other avenues that we can follow as soon as we know what the level or type of action different groups will follow.
ROMO: At a meeting with migrants, President Felipe Calderon also spoke against the Arizona law saying that no immigration policy can be above people's rights.
PRES. FELIPE CALDERON, MEXICO (through translator): Any regulation centered on criminalizing migration, a social and economic phenomenon opens the door to intolerance, hatred, discrimination and abuses in the enforcement of the law.
ROMO: Even Mexico's first lady weighed in, Margarita Zavala says she's concerned about the message Arizona is sending, an American state on Mexico's border.
MARGARITA ZAVALA, WIFE OF MEXICAN PRESIDENT (through translator): This legislation will always be a great concern because of the message it sends after being signed and of course, this is a legislation that radicalizes, discriminates and is unfair and violent.
ROMO: On the streets of Mexico City, people reacted with outrage.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through translator): I think we should do the same thing against Americans in our country, right? If they do this against us there, we can do that against them here.
ROMO: But others say the United States as a sovereign nation has the right to implement and enforce it's own laws, regardless of how they might affect Mexicans.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE (through translator): It's their country. It's up to them to like deciding what to do in your own house. You decide what the rules are.
ROMO: A study by the University of Arizona shows an average of 65,000 Mexican visitors and workers spend more than $7 million a day in the state.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE (through translator): We should stop traveling to Arizona so we don't help their tourism industry as an answer to the kinds of laws they're implementing.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
ROMO: And Mexico's foreign ministry issued an advisory to Mexicans living and working in Arizona saying they should assume that every Mexican citizen may be harassed and questioned without further cause at any time while in Arizona. The advisory points out that Mexico has five consulates in the state where they can go for legal advice in case of abuse by authorities.
Kyra, we've seen advisories from the State Department about Americans going to Mexico. The first one I see of Mexico warning its citizens about Arizona, about the U.S..
PHILLIPS: Wow! We'll follow it. Thanks. Rafael.
And just - what are we really talking about here? How big of a problem. We're going to try and put it in perspective. The Department of Homeland Security says there were 10.8 million unauthorized immigrants in the U.S. last year. That's actually down 800,000 over 2008. Now, the majority come from Mexico. More than 6.5 million. More than a million others come from other central-American countries.
One million come from Asia and another 700,000 from South America. Arizona has around 460,000 undocumented workers, but that ranks them just seventh on the list. California is tops with 2.6 million and then comes Texas, Florida, New York, Illinois and Georgia, all before Arizona.
Let's go back to D.C. and the funeral of Dorothy Height, the matriarch of the civil rights movement. You are looking at live pictures right now of the Washington National Cathedral. Hundreds of people have gathered to pay tribute to her. President Obama will deliver the eulogy and then poet Maya Angelou will offer a reading and then Camille Cosby, Bill Cosby's wife, will also do a personal tribute.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Let us now continue in giving thanks for Dorothy Height's life as our service continues.
The lord be with you.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
PHILLIPS: He was a rising star in the Republican party, but now it appears that Florida Governor Charlie Crist is abandoning the GOP. Later today he's expected to announce that he'll continue his senate bid as independent. Crist appeared on track to lose the GOP nomination. His Republican opponent Marco Rubio has energized conservatives for calls for smaller government.
Smaller storm, smaller bad weather? Trying to look for a segue there? Again, is it getting any better?
ROB MARCIANO, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Sometimes there just isn't one, you know.
PHILLIPS: Oh!
MARCIANO: Just go with the animation and just slide right in.
PHILLIPS: And all those moving arrows behind you.
MARCIANO: I'll figure it out at some point. Hey, moving arrows in a good direction coming out of the south, at least, if you don't live along the immediate Gulf of Mexico, it's going to warm things up dramatically. 10 to 15 degrees above where you were yesterday in places like Memphis, Tennessee, Nashville up through Cincinnati, Covington, Kentucky and even up to the northeast where in some places it felt like winter.
Speaking of winter, we had some winter weather across parts of Alberta, Canada, and back to the Colorado Rockies and even places like Soda Springs, California. On the way to this, Sequoia National Forest is what it look like in the high country. Oh, yes, the hoodies, the flannels, the chains, the plows, all thought it would be retired for the summer. They were broken out big time yesterday. Caltrans in effect, trying to get everybody to where they need to be safely.
Speaking of snow, here are the official snow totals from the snow that fell across parts of New England, Jeffersonville, Vermont, 24.3. Two feet of snow. North Underhill seeing almost two feet. Mount Washington seeing 22 inches of snow. My goodness, that was a doozy of a spring snowstorm for northern New England.
Here's your warm up. 80s and even 70s getting into the Ohio River Valley and that's going to spawn some severe weather not only today, but tomorrow we start to move the severe line across the Mississippi and into parts of Chicago and even getting down into Nola late in the afternoon. So that may be something that the folks who are battling that oil slick we're going to have to deal with.
Here's the high. The center of - the last couple of day has been west of New Orleans. So that has been giving the oil slick an offshore flow, kind of pushing it out to sea or out into the Gulf. Now things are switching up a little bit and we're seeing a wind shift with the more southerly component and because of that - the forecast now is for that oil slick, or at least the leading edge of it to begin to make inroads towards the mouth of the Mississippi and all the wildlife refuge that are here.
And then potentially across the more populated areas in Mississippi, Alabama and the Florida coastline as well because I think we're going to see at least a two, two and a half day stretch where we see these winds, not only winds just out of the south but fairly strong winds. So much so that the National Weather Service has issued a coastal flood watch for the parishes around the mouth of the Mississippi River, including Lake Pontchartrain back to Biloxi. Not because of the oil slick, per se, but because of the winds, the waves and also we got a full moon happening right now.
So tides are unusually high. So they could see two to three feet tides above average and that certainly doesn't help the situation when you're trying to keep this oil slick, which as far as square mileage goes is about the size of Rhode Island and you're trying to keep it away from this area. First to be affected, unfortunately, are the wild life refuge just south of the Mississippi and it's just a bastion of wild life species that pretty much feed the entire Gulf of Mexico ecosystem. So it's a dangerous prospect and they're desperately trying to fight this thing as best they can. Kyra.
PHILLIPS: Yes. Tell my buddies in New Orleans, my shrimper buddies are very, very concerned. We'll keep tracking it, of course. Thanks, Rob.
MARCIANO: You bet.
PHILLIPS: Well, it's Thursday and that means it's time for our 30-second pitch. It's a half minute that could change the life of a job seeker who gets to reach out to any employers who might be watching.
Today's pitcher is Carl Nicolas, a manager in customer sales and service. His hardship actually began 14 months ago when his employer went bankrupt. Now he's also struggling to help family members back in his native Haiti. They actually lost everything in the earthquake.
Oh, Carl. Double whammy for you. You're actually single and helping your sister and her kids, right?
CARL NICOLAS, JOB SEEKER: Correct. Yes.
PHILLIPS: So tell me what you're doing? What happened? Did she reach out and just say we're desperate?
NICOLAS: Yes, of course. What happened to me, I had been sick. I had surgery and when I got healed and ready to go back to work the company went bankrupt, so I've been looking since then. It's been tough, you know, and everyday hunting, but nothing concrete yet.
PHILLIPS: And you have, you're multi-lingual, right?
NICOLAS: Correct.
PHILLIPS: OK. How many languages?
NICOLAS: Well, I speak English. I speak French. I speak Creole and I have a strong understanding of Spanish.
PHILLIPS: Oh, my gosh. There you go. I knew there were some hidden talents there and I know you moved here from Haiti in 1994. I was looking at your resume. It's amazing. You have tremendous experience. You have all these languages, you're supporting your sister which I know, has been tough for you. So let's get down to it. Are you ready for your 30-second pitch?
NICOLAS: I'm ready to go.
PHILLIPS: All right. I'll start the clock. Carl, take it away.
NICOLAS: During the past several years I have achieved much in customer service sales and hospitality with a wide range of domestic and international clientele. I have set policies and procedure, implementing a recruiting strategy, selecting interview, (INAUDIBLE) appraising job contribution and performance. I have bolstered sales to a new level with staffing and training of personnel (INAUDIBLE) customer inquiries, sales transaction and reservations, also including property management. I have the skill that would actually help me contribute to the success of any company that would hire me.
PHILLIPS: You got it right on the mark.
NICOLAS: All right.
PHILLIPS: Oh, no, Carl, thank you so much.
NICOLAS: Thank you so much.
PHILLIPS: Carl Nicolas. Yes, it was a pleasure and you know, it made our heart sink when we read about the story, not only about your struggles, but your family there in Haiti, and we will try and support you as much as we can.
NICOLAS: Thank you so much. Thank you for having me.
PHILLIPS: Thanks, Carl.
NICOLAS: Bye-bye.
PHILLIPS: If you want more information, you can go to my blog, cnn.com/kyra. You can find out all kinds of information there about Carl Nicolas. You can also get his e-mail nicolascarl2@yahoo.com.. And then if you're interested in participating in 30-second pitch, you can just send us an e-mail to 30secondpitch.com and we'll try to help you out as well.
Forget E.T., General (INAUDIBLE), little green men or the bar fights from "Star Wars," NASA would be happy to find microscopic life out there. A little bit of algae or bacteria. Maybe an amoeba. It could be huge.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We boldly go where no man has gone before.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
PHILLIPS: Hey, if there's any excuse to hear Captain Kirk's voice and play the original "Star Trek" them, we're all over it. It's a good little mood setter for the next few minutes in our discussion here.
We've got some news from the final frontier. Scientists think that they found evidence of water on an asteroid. The space rock is about 300 million miles from the sun, between Mars and Saturn. Astronomers used a telescope in Hawaii and found water and some organic compounds on it.
The bigger picture here. Scientists think this could be more proof that asteroids and comets gave the earth its water and organic material. OK, so if there's a giant ice cube with stuff swimming around it, what else is out there? Is that just the tip of the space iceberg? Is E.T. out there as well, just waiting for our call?
CNN's John Roberts had a fascinating talk with NASA's director of Planetary Science about that plan to try and find more life out there. Life you'd see under a microscope and not necessarily landing in your backyard, right, John?
JOHN ROBERTS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, I mean, perhaps, you know, the closer confines of the solar system, Kyra, but who knows what's really out there beyond the extent of the planets, but it's an exciting week for space enthusiasts and scientists who have presented about 28 different projects to NASA.
That NASA is considering to go out there to the planets, the asteroids, the moons, to try to see what's out there, whether or not there might be life. That asteroid that you mentioned, 24 thermos is one of the promising targets. They are also talking about Titan, which you're looking at there. This is a methane lake on the surface of Titan. That's one of Saturn's moons. They're also thinking of going back to Mars for a return trip as most of those rovers that just analyzed the soil on the surface, actually bringing some back.
That's a look at what the rocket would be like to bring the samples back. But they think that one of the most promising targets would be Jupiter's moon of Europa. It's basically just a frozen ball of ice but potentially an ocean underneath. Here's what Jim Green, the director of Planetary Sciences at NASA told me this morning about that.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JAMES GREEN, DIRECTOR, NASA PLANETARY SCIENCES: Europa is just a gem of a world. It's a water planet or rather water moon. We believe there's more water on Europa than there is in the world, on earth. And so consequently, that water which is being harbored underneath the ice shell may indeed contain all types of life. So we're anxious to go there. We're anxious to study it and we're anxious to see how that life could survive over these billions of years.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
PHILLIPS: I love when he says all kinds of life. You know, we can't forget Stephen Hawking, right? About what might be out there. His warning. ROBERTS: He has got a documentary, noted physicist Stephen Hawking in his documentary, coming out next month, in which he warns we should be careful about which neighborhood we go looking around in because you never know what's out there and then any extraterrestrial life in this universe may be more alien than E.T..
So, what are the chances that they're out there flying around in ships, looking for a place to go, probably pretty slim but remember that movie, "The Andromeda Strain," where a meteorite crashed on earth with a virus onboard that started killing anybody. Kyra, I know we talked about this, just recently.
PHILLIPS: Here comes all our space, geeky stuff.
ROBERTS: The mutual desire -
PHILLIPS: That's right. Go up in space.
ROBERTS: Our mutual desire to go out there in space, yes.
PHILLIPS: That's right. I know.
ROBERTS: Wouldn't you love to do that?
PHILLIPS: I would love to be the first journalists to go up there, you, me and probably everyone else at all of the other networks.
ROBERTS: And I pity the poor alien, the hostile alien that came across you on the space track.
PHILLIPS: Hey, as long as he gives me what I want, there won't be any issues.
John, thank you.
ROBERTS: You'll kick his butt.
(LAUGHTER)
PHILLIPS: Right. We'll see you later. Quick break, more from the CNN NEWSROOM, straight ahead.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
PHILLIPS: Two coal miners in western Kentucky trapped under ground after a mine-sealing collapse late last night. A rescue operation is happening right now. So far no one's been able to contact those missing miners. We understand at least two others escaped. It's happening at the Dotiki Mine. It's been 15 years since anyone died in that mine. But the operator, Webster County Coal LLC, has been stuck with nearly $100,000 in penalties so far this year. That's according to the Mine Safety and Health Administration.
A lawsuit on the way in Arizona, looking to put a hold on the controversial new immigration law. It's the first of many expected challenges to the law requiring police to check citizenship. The law is scheduled to take effect in 90 days after the legislative session ends. That could happen today.
And the god mother of a history-making movement. President Obama getting ready to deliver the eulogy at Height's funeral, a celebration of her life has just gone underway, rather about half an hour ago there at the Washington National Cathedral and boy, what a life she led.
She was on the front lines, as you know, of the civil rights movement, marching and planning with the Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr., and for more than four decades she led the National Council of Negro Women, on the forefront of change and on the forefront of change for gender and voting rights.
In 1994, Height was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom and in 2004, the Congressional Gold medal. Dorothy Height, as you may remember, died last week. She was 98 years old. Now if you met Height you were not likely to forget her. She left an indelible mark through her hard work and kindness, and of course, with those stylish hats.
CNN's White House correspondent Suzanne Malveaux had the chance to meet her many at times and quite an influence on your life, Suzanne.
SUZANNE MALVEAUX, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Absolutely, Kyra. I mean, what was so amazing about her is that she was around. She was always around. She was so accessible. The fact that I even had a chance to get to know her over the years, she was always at these functions whether it was the NAACP or, Howard University of Delta Sigma Beta. She was here in Washington. She was in D.C. and she made a real impact on a let of us.
Because this is somebody who started back in the 1930s and these were usually folks that you just read about in the history books, but she was very kind. She was very warm. As you mentioned, she always had those beautiful suits and the hats that she was known for and it was more than fashion. It was about dignity and pride for herself as well as her community and she used to be here at the White House quite often.
She was here on at least four different occasions while President Obama has been the president here and on one occasion, Kyra, she told this really amazing story, this funny story about how the first time she met Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr., he was just 15 years old at Morehouse College, just to give you some perspective here. This is somebody who really laid the foundation for Martin Luther King and others.
There was Congressman John Lewis had a great story as well. He, obviously, a civil rights icon in and of himself was talking about the fact that, you know, she came along, long before they actually moved forward in the civil rights movement and she fought for everything back in the 1930s, establishing the YWCA. She did things and trying to get - fight lynching in the south and she even managed and this was back in the 30s and the 40s to get white and black women together to teach and to teach underprivileged children.
Fast forward to today, always on the scene, Kyra. Always someone who would lend a smile, an encouraging word to you and was here, was very active until the very end. She was supposed to be here. This was back when we had that big snowstorm in December. You had African- American leaders who were here. That was the one occasion that she was not able to make it, obviously, two and a half feet of snow and we had that big blizzard and she wasn't able to make it in her wheelchair but this is somebody to the very end who was always there and very encouraging.
And once again, she brought these two movements together, the women's movement and the civil rights movement. She was more than just about equality of the races but equality of the sexes and really trying to get people jobs, trying to empower folks, and she was an inspiration to a lot of us.
PHILLIPS: You're talking about how she was with so many women, and we're looking at a shot of Hillary Clinton. I don't know if you can see the live pictures of the funeral service, but that was perfect timing when you're talking about gender rights, you know, and seeing what Hillary Clinton has been able to do.
But I was reading -- and I don't know if you've read about this book that's about to be published, Suzanne. It's called "Living With Purpose," as Height, as you know, journaled left a lot of notes behind and a lot of advice to us for when she passed. She writes people should look at the world as it is becoming rather than it has been.
MALVEAUX: Right.
PHILLIPS: There was one quote that stuck with me and tell me what you think about this. "In the long run, it's how we relate to each other and how well we work together that will make the deciding difference."
You know, even in 2010 we see so much division, not only among women, but just on the issues of diversity and you look at someone's life like this and what she's done, and you just hope so much that we don't forget all that she worked to achieve as we, you know, hit these roadblocks many a times in 2010.
MALVEAUX: Sure, and the fact, Kyra, if you take a look at the people who were there in that room. We've had this whole week of commemoration for her here in Washington, but the people in that very room. You have people as diverse as Senator Orrin Hatch and Gloria Steinem and Nancy Pelosi all in the same room together, essentially praising this woman for the kinds of things, the challenges that she took on.
If you can have those people work together, can you imagine? Those people working together in this environment, creating that kind of environment, what could be accomplished and what can be done? And that's what Dorothy Height was all about, bringing all those different kinds of people together. She was not afraid to do that. She was not afraid to reach out, and she participated in so many things with white brothers and sisters, black brothers and sisters, many people who she brought into the fold. And I think that's what made her so incredibly attractive across - across the spectrum of what you see today.
PHILLIPS: Maya Angelou is also going to speak, and she was so inspired by Dorothy Height. I'm just thinking of Maya's book "Phenomenal Woman. I think she should stand up there and say, "This represents Dorothy Height" and the life that she lived.
We're looking at live pictures right now, Suzanne, of our president and the first lady, Michelle Obama -- somebody else, too, inspired by the life of Dorothy height.
MALVEAUX: She came here to the White House. She was involved in a number of different activities just over the last six to eight months or so and they were as diverse, Kyra, as AIDS education, a $45 million fund to try to bring awareness to AIDS. This is not somebody who was caught in the past. This is someone who was very, very active in the kind of present challenges that many communities are facing, but that was really very important to her. Obviously the civil rights movement, and then also it was a recognition and an international day of women and girls, recognizing women and girls. That was center and that was key to her and she was really part of that before even the women's movement became a strong force in and of itself.
And so she was ahead of her time in so many different ways, and really nurtured and brought people along. And once again, one of the people that she brought along was Martin Luther King, Jr. She was the only woman, the only woman who was on stage at the highest level of the civil rights movement with Dr. King during his "I have a dream" speech back in 1963.
She not only had a symbolic place, but she really did have very much of a meaningful and significant role in mentoring some of the civil rights leaders that we have come to know and who have also come to pass.
PHILLIPS: Well, I couldn't think of the more perfect part of the Bible, Psalm 23. It's a musical tribute right now to Dorothy Height. Jeff Majors there, the harpist. And also L. Johnson singing that beautiful psalm.
Let's take it to break. Suzanne Malveaux. Thanks so much.
(MUSIC PLAYING)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
PHILLIPS: What a concept. A doctor checking in with patients daily, even when they don't have an appointment. And when they do visit the office, never feeling rushed. Best of all, it's not expensive.
Yes, America, it can be done. CNN senior medical correspondent Elizabeth Cohen found out how.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE) DR. ERIC SEAVER: Good morning.
ELIZABETH COHEN, CNN SENIOR MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Dr. Seaver. Elizabeth.
SEAVER: Hi, Elizabeth. Nice to meet you.
COHEN: Nice to meet you. This is not how most doctors come to work, right? This is kind of unusual.
SEAVER: This is kind of nice. It is.
COHEN: It's kind of nice. Well, this is not your usual practice. So can you come on in and show me what you do?
SEAVER: Very good.
COHEN: All right. Let's go.
SEAVER: Let's go see our medical home.
COHEN: So the first thing you do every morning is sit down and answer patient e-mails.
SEAVER: I go through my inbox, answer e-mails. Patients love it. Patients love it. It's the best thing in the world.
COHEN: Now, do you go see your patients in your biking clothes?
SEAVER: No, I get dressed.
COHEN: OK. So, Doctor, the next part of your day?
SEAVER: See our first patient.
COHEN: OK. I'll see you when you get out.
SEAVER: OK. Sounds good.
Mr. Banks, good morning.
MR. BANKS, PATIENT: Good morning.
COHEN: He's still in there with his patient. It's been almost half an hour.
So, Mr. Banks, what do you think? A 30-minute appointment, is that nice?
BANKS: A 30-minute appointment is great.
COHEN: So how many patients do you see a day in a normal day?
SEAVER: A normal day, around 12 face-to-face.
COHEN: And -- so 12 patients face-to-face. In other places where you worked, how many patients have you had to cram in a day?
SEAVER: Usually, 20 to 24.
COHEN: Wow. And what kind of a difference does that make?
SEAVER: Oh, it's a night and day difference. I'm able to get to know my patients. I'm able to provide more personal care for patients and able to answer patient's questions and help them engage in their health care.
COHEN: Thanks, Mr. Banks. Bye-bye. Good luck.
So Mr. Banks is going to go get his x-rays, and while he's getting his x-rays, can you show me his medical record?
SEAVER: Of course. We can pull up his chart.
COHEN: So you have 13 years with the data on Mr. Banks in here. Can you pull up, like let's say, I want to see his cholesterol from about three years ago?
SEAVER: Three years ago. It's right here.
COHEN: There it is. You can just click and it's there. Do you think you can do that out of this?
SEAVER: In a couple of days.
COHEN: That is my file for my obstetrician. I had four children. How does my doctor find anything in there?
SEAVER: I have no idea.
COHEN: Now I have to say having spent the morning with you, electronic medical records, seeing fewer patients in a day, this all sounds expensive?
SEAVER: But I think your office found that it pays for itself. And patients and staff and physicians all think it's a win-win situation.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
PHILLIPS: So, did he go through your files?
(LAUGHTER)
COHEN: I said, find my iron level from my third pregnancy and he's, like, there's no way.
PHILLIPS: All right. Look. We'll continue this discussion, but we definitely want to go to the president of the United States. He's getting ready to give the eulogy of the godmother of our civil rights movement. This is the funeral of Dorothy Heigh. And now, the president will stand up to the podium and celebrate her life.
BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Please be seated.
Let me begin by saying a word to Dr. Dorothy Height's sister, Miss Aldridge. To some, she was a mentor. To all, she was a friend. But to you, she was family. And my family offers yours our sympathy for your loss.
We are gathered here today to celebrate the lifeand mourn the passing of Dr. Dorothy Height. It is fitting that we do so here in our National Cathedral of St. Peter and St. Paul. Here in a place of great honor. Here, in the house of God, surrounded by the love of family and of friends.
The love in this sanctuary is a testament to a life lived righteously, a life that lifted otherwise, a life that changed this country for the better over the course of nearly one century here on earth. Michelle and I didn't know Dr. Height as well or as long as many of you. We were reminded during a previous moment in the service when you have a nephew who is 88, you've lived a full life.
(LAUGHTER AND APPLAUSE)
OBAMA: But we did come to know her in the early days of my campaign, and we came to love her as so many loved her. We came to love her stories and we loved her smile, and we loved those hats that she wore like a crown, regal.
In the White House, she was a regular. She came by not once, not twice, 21 times, she stopped by the White House.
(LAUGHTER AND APPLAUSE)
OBAMA: Took part in our discussion around health care reform in her final months. Last February, I was scheduled to see her and other civil rights leaders to discuss the pressing problems of unemployment. Reverend Sharpton, Ben Jealous of the NAACP, Mark Morial of the National Urban League. And we discovered that Washington was about to be blanketed by the worst blizzard in record -- two feet of snow. So, I suggested to one my aides and I said, "We should call Dr. Height and say we're happy to reschedule the meeting. Certainly if the others come, she should not feel obliged."
True to form, Dr. Height insisted on coming, despite the blizzard. Never mind that she was in a wheelchair. She was not about to let just a bunch of men in this meeting.
(LAUGHTER AND APPLAUSE)
OBAMA: It was only when the car literally could not get to her driveway that she reluctantly decided to stay home, but she still sent a message about what needed to be done. And I tell that story partly because it brings a smile to my face but also because it captures the quiet, dogged, dignified persistence that all of us who love Dr. Height came to know so well. An attribute that we understand she learned early on.
Born in the capital of the old Confederacy, brought North by her parents as part of this great migration. Dr. Height was raised in another age, in a different America and beyond the experience of many. It's hard to imagine, I think, life in the first decades of that last century when the elderly woman that we knew was only a girl.
Jim Crowe ruled the South. The Klan was on the rise, a powerful political force. Lynching was all too often the penalty for the offense for black skin. Slaves had been freed within living memory, but too often their children, their grandchildren remained captive because they were denied justice and denied equality and denied opportunity, denied a chance to pursue their dreams.
The progress that followed, progress that so many of you helped to achieve, progress that ultimately made it possible for Michelle and me to be here as president and first lady, that progress came slowly.
(APPLAUSE)
OBAMA: That progress came from the collective efforts of multiple generations of Americans and preachers and lawyers and thinkers and doers. Men and women like Dr. Height who took it upon themselves often at great risk to change this country for the better. For men like W.E.B. Dubois and A. Phillip Randolph. Women like Mary McCloud Bethune and (INAUDIBLE), they're Americans whose names we know. They are leaders whose legacies we teach, they're giants who fill our history books.
Well, Dr. Dorothy Height deserves a place in this pantheon. She, too, deserves a place in our history books.
(APPLAUSE)
OBAMA: She, too, deserves a place of honor in America's memory.
Look at her body of work. Desegregating the YWCA, laying the groundwork for integration on Wednesdays in Mississippi. Lending pigs to poor farmers as a sustainable source of income. Strategizing the civil rights leaders, holding her own, the only woman in the room, Queen Esther to this Moses (ph) generation. Even as she led the National Council of Negro Women with vision and energy -- with vision and energy, vision and class.
But we remember her not solely for all she did during the civil rights movement. We remember her for all she did over a lifetime, behind the scenes to broaden the movement's reach, to shine a light on stable families and tight-knit communities. To make us see the drive for civil rights and women's rights, not as a separate struggle, but as part of a larger movement to secure the rights of all humanity regardless of gender, regardless of race, regardless of ethnicity. It's an unambiguous record of righteous work worthy of remembrance, worthy of recognition.
And yet one of the ironies is that year after year, decade in, decade out, Dr. Height went about her work quietly without fanfare, without self-promotion. She never cared about who got the credit. She didn't need to see her picture in the papers. She understood that the movement gathered strength from the bottom up. Those unheralded men and women who don't always make it into the history books, but who steadily insisted on their dignity, on their manhood and womenhood. She --
(APPLAUSE)
OBAMA: She wasn't interested in credit.
What she cared about was the cause. The cause of justice and the cause of equality, the cause of opportunity. Freedom's cause. That willingness to subsume herself, that humility and that grace is why we honor Dr. Dorothy Height.
As it is written in the Gospel of Matthew, "For whoever exalts himself will be humbled. Whoever humbles himself will be exalted." I don't think the author of the gospel would mind me rephrasing, whoever humbles herself will be exalted.
(APPLAUSE)
OBAMA: One of my favorite moments with Dr. Height, this is just a few months ago. We had decided to put up the Emancipation Proclamation in the Oval Office, and we invited some elders to share a reflection of the movement. And she came, and it was an intergenerational event. We had young children there as well as elders. And the elders were asked to share stories, and she talked about attending a dinner (AUDIO GAP) at the home of Dr. Benjamin Mays, then-president of Morehouse College. And seated at that table was a 15-year-old student, a gifted child as she described him, filled with a sense of purpose who was trying to decide whether to enter medicine or law or the ministry.
And many years later, after that gifted child had become a gifted preacher, I'm sure he'd have been told to be on his best behavior after he led a busboy cot in Montgomery and inspired a nation with his dreams. He delivered a sermon on what he called (AUDIO GAP) -- a sermon that said bee all have the desire to be first. We all want to be at the front of the line.
That was the life Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., who said to harness that instinct, to redirect it toward advancing the greater good, toward changing a community and a country for the better, for doing the Lord's work.
I sometimes think Dr. King must have had Dorothy Height in mind. For Dorothy Height met the test. Dorothy Height embodied that instinct. Dorothy Height was a drum major for justice, a drum major for equality, a drum major for freedom, a drum major for service. And the lesson she would want us to leave with today, the lesson she lived out each and every day is that we can all be first in service. We can all be drum majors for a righteous cause.
So, let us live out that lesson. Let us honor her life by changing this it country for the better as long as we are blessed to live. May God bless Dr. Dorothy Height and the union that she made more powerful.
(APPLAUSE)
PHILLIPS: I'll tell you somebody who still honors her life in a big way, our Suzanne Malveaux as she stands right there on the front lawn of the White House. She was inspired by Dorothy Height. Many of our colleagues, Suzanne, inspired by Dorothy Height. One thing that stood out to me that what the president said was that she lived a life, a life that she lived righteously, and that she always had dignified persistence. He really defined her perfectly.
MALVEAUX: And Kyra, one of the things that I noted, too, was when he talked about the fact that she did not seek attention. She was not the person who was trying to seek a lot of the media attention, but you know, when she walked into a room, she really was a presence. She made an entrance, and it was all about the way in which she carried herself. Obviously, people talk about the hats and the beautiful suits that she used to wear, the colors, the bright colors. She stood out in a crowd, obviously to show that she had dignity and pride, not only in herself, but in her community as well.
And you always got the sense that if you were at an event and she showed up, you were in the right place, that this was the right place to be. She really did legitimize the purpose why you were there and what you were there for. And a lot of times, whether that was Howard University, NAACP or whatever function it was, it was about promoting people and doing better and making yourself and your community better, and that is something that she consistently was a part of.
Kyra, I can't even overstate the fact of how accessible she was. This was somebody that you would see wherever you went and, you know, she was in a wheelchair for quite some time in the last years or so, and that never stopped her. I mean, she would just be there front and center, front row. Obviously, very much engaged and in promoting younger people.
This was someone who kept up with the times. She fought against lynchings, but she was also somebody who wanted to make sure that poor people could afford housing, that the -- that the school systems, that the people were being educated. She helped desegregate the armed forces.
I mean, decades and decades of work here, and she had her fingerprint on just about everything. And it was really quite unique to have a woman who would bring together and had the courage, really, to bring together so many different groups in all these different causes. And that's what she was to a lot of us.
PHILLIPS: You know what, Suzanne? Stay with me, because I see Tony Harris getting miked up over there. I know he wants to weigh in.
Tony, I know you've been watching this funeral service as well, this celebration of life. And as Suzanne was mentioning, we were looking right there, right in the front row and you see -- she did so much for gender rights, for voting rights. You see Hillary Clinton, you see Nancy Pelosi. You see Michelle Obama, all women inspired by Dorothy Height. It didn't matter what color you were. TONY HARRIS, CNN ANCHOR: And female, male, look, as an African- American growing up in this country, you need role models. You need the standard bearers who lay the path out for you that indicate to you that you can do, that you can succeed, that you can reach for these heights.
And that's who Dr. Dorothy Height was. She was a person that you could look to and you knew that you could accomplish big things in this life, and from that standpoint, what a motivational force. I know that's the same sentiment that Suzanne Malveaux takes away from a day like this, from a life like this. This was just an extraordinary life well lived.
PHILLIPS: You talk about big things. Suzanne, we could have some fun here. How about those big hats? She was known for those big, colorful hats, and if you look at the people there at the funeral, they're all wearing them. Many of them in her honor.
MALVEAUX: I don't own any such big hats, but I'll tell you my mother, my mother does. And my mother would try to obviously emulate Dorothy Height's big hats, and she'd have the whole outfit done, especially if she knew she would be an event where she was attending. She would take out the big hat and put it on.
It's just a part of the community. It's a part of expressing ourselves, but also a sense of pride and celebration. It really was about kind of bringing out the best in people, bringing the best out in yourself. And I think that too was expressed in the way she used to dress.
PHILLIPS; You know, you wonder, too, in times like this, it's such a loss for -- for what, you know she stood for. And you tend to wonder. Okay, who are those individuals that are going to try and step into those footsteps and sort of carry on her legacy, what she did, what she got going? I mean, Tony, Suzanne, what do you think?
HARRIS: Suzanne, you take it first and then I'll jump in.
MALVEAUX: Oh, that's a tough one, actually. There are so many people that know Dorothy Height. And obviously, you know, carry on her work, and it's really such a broad spectrum. It really isn't just the African-American community. You take a look at the people who obviously who are there. Gloria Steinem, many others -- Hillary Clinton, Susan Taylor of "Essence" magazine, all of them on the mantle.
You know, this is not just about one group or the other group. A lot of folks, it runs the gamut here of who's kind of picked up the mantle and carried it on.
And there were so many different causes that she was involved in. You can't name one particular cause. It's very personal. I think a lot of people take different things and say, you know what? This is the group that I really want to help, this is the community I want to be a part of. Let me take a little bit of Dorothy Height's courage and move that forward and be a part of that community and movement. There are so many different examples, I think.
Tony, would you --
PHILLIPS: You know, I got to tell you something. At some point, you sit in this chair and you've got to know when to shut up and say well said. Suzanne.
(LAUGHTEER)
PHILLIPS: That's right.
HARRIS: I second that. That was beautiful.
MALVEAUX: I triple it. Quadruple it.
HARRIS: Yes. Ladies, that was terrific.
Kyra, I think I'll take it over from here.
PHILLIPS: Sounds good.
HARRIS: You've done a terrific job. Thank you so much. Good to see you, Kyra. Have a great day.
