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Katrina Landfall Five Years Ago Tomorrow; Pakistan Flooding Details; Glenn Beck Rally; Martin Luther King Rally

Aired August 28, 2010 - 15:00   ET

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

FREDRICK WHITFIELD, CNN CENTER: A look at our headlines right now, Washington, D.C. is playing host to a pair of major events today. Conservative talk show host Glenn Beck is leading what he calls a restoring honor rally on the National Mall.

Meanwhile, Civil Rights activists are gathering nearby for a march of their own to remember, the 47th anniversary of Martin Luther King Jr.'s "I have a dream" speech.

We are also watching severe storms in the Atlantic, Hurricane Danielle has been downgraded to a category two storm. Right behind Danielle is Tropical Storm Earl, which could soon be upgraded to a hurricane.

We begin now with Katrina then and now, five years ago tomorrow the powerful hurricane unleashed its fury on the U.S. Gulf Coast. It is the single most catastrophic national disaster in U.S. history. More than a million people in the Gulf region were displaced by the storm. Entire neighborhoods inundated by flooding waters when levees failed.

Now five years on, those levees have been rebuilt and billions of dollars have been spent on the reconstruction effort. As we continue our coverage, we're going to be checking in with journalist Kathleen Koch. She grew up in Bay St. Louis, Mississippi and she covered the Katrina disaster for CNN. I want you to see this clip of her reporting from Mississippi just five years ago.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KATHLEEN KOCH, FORMER CNN CORRESPONDENT: This the house on South Beach Boulevard where I lived. It's not a house anymore. This was the living room over here. My brother's room -- my brother's room was back here. The place we grew up in, where we had so many wonderful years is gone.

I'm going to bring a brick back for each member of the family. One for each, bricks have memories. Good memories.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WHITFIELD: Gosh, don't you remember that? It's almost as if it was yesterday. She wrote about that experience and the experience of so many others along the Gulf Coast rising from Katrina. Former CNN correspondent Kathleen Koch now free lance correspondent working out of Washington, D.C. But you're back in New Orleans in a very rainy New Orleans on this weekend commemorating that five-year mark. What does it feel like to not just be there? Here it is raining, how symbolic is that. To be able to reflect on what took place five years ago.

KOCH: It's a good place to be, actually, Fredricka. Tomorrow I will be in my hometown of Bay St. Louis, Mississippi, where they are having a five years forward celebration, because that's what this region is really doing is looking ahead, looking to the future. Obviously honoring the loss and the many, many who died both in Louisiana and Mississippi. But they are looking forward to a better future. They are very optimistic and so-so very resilient and I write about that in the book.

WHITFIELD: You also write about so many other people's experiences, including your own of what it was like. We saw in that tape how really what an emotional journey it was to see the home that you grew up in as a kid and how it was simply decimated. Was writing this book kind of a healing moment for you, too, or was it that much more difficult making that wound even deeper?

KOCH: No. It was very cathartic, Fredricka. It really helped me connect the dots and see the meaning in what happened. Because I was very angry. I was stunned to see how optimistic and upbeat and resilient the people were on the Mississippi Gulf Coast. In some ways I think I almost internalized the anger that they weren't showing.

Along the way I got pretty angry at god and lost my faith. Through writing this book and following the journey, because the book only starts with the hurricane, it's over in 40 pages. It really traces how do you get through when you've lost everything. What keeps people putting one foot in front of the next and it tells Mississippi's story, which is very different since most Americans don't even realize Mississippi was hit.

WHITFIELD: And so what's the answer for you? How do you get through, especially as a journalist? Because so obvious you have to reflect, reflect, reflect. There are other reminders that perhaps may not hit other people, but because you're a working journalist, how do you get through and do you ever get through?

KOCH: Well, as I said, the book helped me get through. The experience covering the storm was incredibly difficult. At that point we got through, myself in particular, by just clinging to your professionalism, realizing you had a job to do, helping people when you could off camera that's the way we did it. I write about it in the book, Fredricka. I didn't feel like it was right to videotaping ourselves taking supplies to shelters, out looking for missing people.

I didn't want to use the people I grew up with as props. But there's a healing that I'm still going through. There's a healing the people on the Mississippi Gulf Coast is still going through. Acknowledgement is such a large part of it. That's why they are deeply hurt that President Obama is not going there tomorrow. He's only going to New Orleans. Again, part of the healing is the nation recognizing that Mississippi caught the brunt of this storm, the physical fury when that hurricane cut up the Louisiana, Mississippi border. There are no levees there.

What happened in New Orleans was sadly a terrible man made disaster. But Mississippi sustained 125-mile-an-hour winds, gusts of 145 miles an hour, hop scotching tornadoes. That 30 foot storm surge like an American tsunami and that flattened everything. It's hard to come back from that, hard to pick up the pieces. Most people don't know what happened and the president of the United States won't even come and celebrate the progress that has been made.

WHITFIELD: So even though you said it's been very difficult and the healing is still ongoing for many people even five years after the fact, for you, personally, do you still feel like there's healing that has to happen?

KOCH: Oh, there is. There is. As I've been on my book tour for my book, "Rising from Katrina" going all around the south. Every time I go to book signings people line up to talk to me to tell me their stories. They still have so much pain inside. I think in many ways because of this very optimistic can-do spirit they have in Mississippi, they have been in a bit of a state of denial, I think some of them, as to how much the hurricane really impacted them emotionally and how far they still have to come. I think my book is helping them as well, not just me. Giving them permission to recognize, yes, this has really touched me deeply, changed me, in some ways for the better. But I still have a lot of healing to do.

WHITFIELD: Former CNN correspondent Kathleen Koch so good to see you. Now author of "Rising from Katrina, How my Mississippi Hometown Lost it all and found what Mattered." Thanks so much for your time and thanks for opening up and sharing so many other people's stories particularly out of Mississippi about what they are going through and continue to go through. Kathleen good to see you.

Fleeing the disaster zone, millions of people in Pakistan are now huddling into makeshift camps to escape massive flooding there. We'll give you an inside look at one of those camps coming up next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WHITFIELD: Flooding in Pakistan has destroyed more than a million homes and about 17 million people have been affected by this disaster. Our Dr. Sanjay Gupta is in Pakistan where refugee camps have been springing up all over the country.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice over): Here is how it works. You see police vehicles like this actually coming through the streets telling people to leave. They say this particular area; this town will be under water in the next several hours certainly by tomorrow. People are listening. This town will be bustling, thousands moving around, shops opening. That is happening now.

But most people actually are leaving like this, by foot in the hot sun walking for kilometers with no real idea of where exactly they are going or what they are going to find there. It is easy to see why they are leaving we are literally surrounded by water. They are worried that water is just going to get higher and higher. They are fleeing the floods with the thing, the priority that they value the most, their livestock and just starting to walk.

This is where so many of them ended up. They were just walking for kilometers and kilometers down that hot road looking for high land, anything that can protect them from the floodwaters. Look what their lives are like now. Thousands of people have this barrier here, so hot outside. Anything to try to keep themselves cool but this is the new normal life for lots of folks over here. This family for example [Speaking foreign language]

About 15 miles, 15 kilometers. Small children. They walked here, again, in this very hot weather, very, very difficult. He's telling me they really haven't received any kind of help at all.

[Speaking foreign language]

They are saying they really have no food at all. All they have is this bag of sugar here, which they use need to make tea. This is how it is. This is what's happening here in the middle of this evacuation. There also has been no water here they tell me for three days. In fact, a woman died in this area from dehydration just last night.

There's no question that relief is slow coming here. Even as we're filming at the camp, Pakistani army helicopter comes over and drops portions of food. But this is just one camp. There are thousands of camps like this. There are more than 20 million people displaced, a fifth of this country is under water.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WHITFIELD: All right. We saw some relief supplies arriving at that camp. But today the U.S. announced it is deploying 18 more helicopters to help deliver aid. The United Nations has more than $1million was given or pledged for flooding relief.

And if you think --

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WHITFIELD: If you think yoga is just for the granola crowd, think again. In today's fit nation segment, our Dr. Sanjay Gupta introduces us to the woman who has taken the ommm out of yoga.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice over): This isn't your mother's yoga. This is the new face of yoga, irreverent yoga.

KIMBERLY FOWLER, FOUNDER, YAS YOGA: My tag line, no chanting, no granola, no sound script.

GUPTA: Kimberly Fowler the founder of YAS Yoga, of California says the omm is out and new yoga for the type A busy professional is in.

FOWLER: Beginner you walk into a class and the teacher is teaching sans script and wrapping themselves up in pretzels, they go, not me.

GUPTA: Combining traditional yoga poses with fast paced modern music and stretches, Fowler's style yoga developing quite a following.

LUIGU LOPRESTI, YAS YOGA PARTICIPANT: I don't want to say weird but intimidating. This place has always been super welcoming and allows people to come in here and do their own thing and work at their own pace.

STEPHANIE ARCULLI, YAS YOGA PARTICIPANT: It's open enough that I think everyone can take what they need out of it.

GUPTA: If this popular youtube videos isn't proof that the traditions of yoga are falling by the wayside, Fowler says her seven brand-new franchise locations might be.

FOWLER: When I first opened YAS, I got like hate e-mail. Now everybody is trying to do yoga for athletes.

GUPTA: For the type A in all of us.

FOWLER: Calms you down and gives you energy at the same time, which is a huge benefit.

GUPTA: Dr. Sanjay Gupta, CNN, reporting.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WHITFIELD: Coming up next, something to really get excited about, this week's hottest videos. Josh Levs rolls them out for us. What do you have today?

JOSH LEVS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Fred, I will tell you, we're going to have a camera that is floating above the clouds with no one controlling it. We have a whole new relaxation video for you. And we have this. What is this cat man doing and why has it become a hilarious online viral video. The answer is next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WHITFIELD: All right. A look at our top stories right now. We're watching the status of two storms in the Atlantic first. Hurricane Danielle has weakened to a category two hurricane. It could bring large waves and dangerous surf conditions to the east coast today. Then there is tropical storm Earl. It is still well out into the Atlantic but it could strengthen to hurricane status later on today.

All right. California's Folsom Prison was locked down after a riot broke out in the exercise yard. Guards opened fire in an attempt to break it up. At least seven inmates had to be taken to the hospital. It's unknown how many shots were fired by the guards. Prison officials are till trying to determine exactly what sparked that riot.

Now, a wind up to all the videos that are all the rage on the Internet right now a viral video CNN Josh Levs is here to show us the best of the best.

LEVS: We've called all the best for you. The first is going to be a spoof but I have to set it up with the one that actually angered a lot of people out there. You have to see this one, this is the original. This woman in Britain sees a cat. Goes over, starts to pet it. Look what happened. They caught her on security video. Look what she does. Now people know who she is. She's reviled. People around the world have been watching this.

WHITFIELD: Her life is not good.

LEVS: There's stories about her job being challenged. What's happened some people after several days have seen it are started to make light of it. Now there is a viral video. Take a look at the spoof out of England. Take a look at this. This cat man comes up, sees a woman lifts up the trash bin.

WHITFIELD: Suffering succotash.

LEVS: It's Sylvester. Doing exactly what the woman did. This is for a radio station. It's really funny. People are catching on right now.

WHITFIELD: The ladder.

LEVS: People are mad at her now they can start to laugh a little bit.

WHITFIELD: At first, it's like -- she's looking like she's all kind and cuddly.

LEVS: Viral video reality of the new world, viral videos can be watching you. Your can be anywhere in a public space, they can be watching you.

WHITFIELD: Someone is always watching.

LEVS: It's so big brother. The next one here is actually beautiful. Take a look at this. Let's go to this. A bunch of guys that made this balloon, a powerful balloon. A demonstration.

WHITFIELD: Big balloon.

LEVS: A camera attached Toyota. Not controlling. Not remote control. Skip to the next section of this video. I want you to see the kinds of video they get when they let it go.

WHITFIELD: That balloon did not pop that high.

LEVS: No, because it's designed to go into the stratosphere. The guy I communicated with, the scientist, he's a plasma physicist, adjunct faculty member of the University of Houston, his name is Ben Longmeyer. He collects these. It goes on the ground, has name, address, information. They take this beautiful video above the clouds. Pretty awesome, huh?

WHITFIELD: Lovely. What you see when you look out the window when you are in a plane flying but there's something different about this view in a balloon. I don't know because of the rhythm of the bobbling there. What is it?

LEVS: It's that, and no one is controlling it, picking up. I don't want to make our viewers dizzy. Standing still. I wanted to do this last week. It's a relaxation video. It's going to work. We're going to play a little clip of a Justin Bieber song. Play a little clip here.

WHITFIELD: Yes, OK. I remember. Yea

LEVS: It's called "u smile." Because you know, young people today.

WHITFIELD: Those young people today.

LEVS: This clever musician took this song and put it into this program that slows it down and makes it really slow. Listen how this sounds, next video.

That same song extended over 30 minutes by stretching out the sound. The folks at Gawker.com. All of a sudden the not so bad piano pop sound was like the climactic score to a video.

WHITFIELD: You put that music with the balloon shot. Now we're talking. Combine the two, that's kind of the mood. The floating.

LEVS: You just picked up the recipe for next week. And weekly adorable which is an ireport. Two-year-old Chihuahua nursing two abandoned baby squirrels. This is real life. These amazing videos for us.

WHITFIELD: Look at the Chihuahuas. Do we have a name?

LEVS: I'll find out. I'll contact our ireporter. Isn't it sweet?

WHITFIELD: Kind of cute. I want to see a little closer. I can now see the squirrel.

LEVS: Baby squirrel face is kind of mushy but there is a face. There's the close-up.

WHITFIELD: That is cute.

LEVS: All the links are up, CNN.com/joshlevs. More of what you sent me.

WHITFIELD: Chihuahua this little squirrel.

LEVS: Because the squirrel babies are so tiny. It's really sweet.

WHITFIELD: That was sweet.

LEVS: Tiny creatures taking care of tinier creatures.

WHITFIELD: Oh lovely. I look forward to that tomorrow with more. "Viral Videos Rewind." Thanks so much Josh.

All right. The Atlantic hurricane season we know that it is heating up. You see the activity taking place out there. Two named storms churning through the Atlantic. And a third may be on the way. Our Jacqui Jeras will have a complete report. (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WHITFIELD: All right. Very busy out there. Bumper to bumper storms lined up in the Atlantic. Hurricane Danielle expected to pass well east of Bermuda. Then there's Earl. Let's get the latest from Jacqui Jeras. These storms are just boom, boom, and boom.

JACQUI JERAS, CNN METEOROLOGIST: They are and you know we might have Fiona before we know it actually. This is the time of year things start getting heated up, September 10th, by the way is the climate logical peak day of hurricanes. And so you take two weeks before that and two weeks after that and that is really the brunt of our hurricane season. It's not unusual to see two or three name storms each week now for the next couple of weeks. These waves continue to roll off the coast of Africa. They tend to develop near the Cape, right here and that's our next potential storm, it is just a tropical wave right now but trying to get organized. There's a pretty good probability that this could be Fiona in the next couple of days.

This is where we've got Earl right here and this is Hurricane Danielle.

Let's talk about the tracks of both of these storms and the intensity too. That's the wrong one. It said Danielle but should have been Earl, I'm not exactly sure why. We'll have to check in the back. But this is the projected path for Danielle. It ramped up to a major hurricane, yesterday. It's now weakened again, down to a Category 2 with 110 mile-per-hour wind. It started the northeasterly turn already, it's going to continue to do this type of a hook. So, it's going to kind of hold this intensity, we think, for maybe the next 24 hours and the start to weaken and it should brush east of Bermuda. So, no big worries at this time with Danielle.

However, as we take a look at Earl, this a much more southerly tracking storm. There are tropical storm watches already in effect for the Leeward Islands and it's expected to intensify in the next couple of days, may become a major hurricane and you can see that cone of uncertainty down the line getting close to the United States. Some of the computer models are bringing it pretty close to the Carolinas, so we're going to have to watch Earl very closely in the upcoming days. Lots of things in exhibiting it, right now. Typically you would see it develop a little bit faster, but we've got a lot of dust in the air and we also have a little bit of wind shear that's keeping it down, but we think probably about 24 hours plus from now it's going to start becoming a little bit more favorable.

WHITFIELD: Oh boy, all right, thanks so much, Jacqui. We'll let you keep tabs on it and then just share with us.

JERAS: You can go to CNN.com/hurricanes, by the way, if you want to help track at home.

WHITFIELD: Even better. All right, thanks so much.

All right, now to Katrina and the long road back. Five years ago Hurricane Katrina slammed into the Gulf Coast. Thousands of homes were destroyed, more than a million people displaced. The New Orleans Superdome witnessed some of the most horrible scenes of human suffering. But the New Orleans Saints, they helped lead the way demonstrating New Orleans, that comeback spirit. Our Don Lemon has more on that Who Dat Nation.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DON LEMON, CNN NEWS CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): This is Saints country. The Who Dat Nation, as in -- an unusual way of speaking, fitting an unorthodox group of fans who for years stood by their perpetually losing team the New Orleans Saints. In the 1980s the team was so bad, fans donned paper bags to cover their faces. But Saint's diehard Lionel Alphonso, Sr. turned to divine intervention for help.

LIONEL ALPHONSO, "DA POPE": I'm wearing this outfit now, but back then when brown paper bags was out, I can't lie, I'm the pope, I wore a bag.

LEMON: Alphonso is now known, worldwide, as "Da Pope" of the Saints. And in 1999 was one of the first fans ever to be inducted into the football hall of fame.

(on camera): The first fan in the hall of fame.

ALPHONSO: Right.

LEMON: What do you think of that.

ALPHONSO: I loved it.

LEMON (voice-over): Then in 2005, all hell broke loose on the city in the team's home, the Superdome. Even "Da Pope" was powerless against Hurricane Katina's destruction, but in the entire "Who Dat Nation" stuck by their team and prayed the boys in black and gold would stay in the "Big Easy." And they did in a big way.

ALPHONSO: You know, to actually see football players put hammers and saws in their hand and go rebuild houses, that's amazing.

LEMON: Then came the 2009 season. The team, once known as the "Ain'ts" won the Super Bowl, world champions.

And I'm still in shock to hear you say the world champion New Orleans Saints, it picks me up every time, was hoping the Saints can carry us through again this year and keep our spirits up.

LEMON: Faith, a recurring theme here in Louisiana. And every Sunday a miracle team, a statewide call to worship. "We will," is no doubt the chant of the rest of the NFL.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

WHITFIELD: OK. And the Louisiana native son, Don Lemon is in New Orleans, right now. He was at the game, last night. I know you were out there getting wild in that gold and black.

LEMON: I was.

WHITFIELD: I know you were.

LEMON: I was.

WHITFIELD: How did it go?

LEMON: We had a technical problem because it's so wet. I'm going to show you, look, my shirt will be soaked if I walk back here, so we had a little wire here, kind of get in the water, so I didn't hear you coming out. We had so much fun last night at the game and you know that. As you know, this is the Who Dat Nation. Really, the Saints have become America's team especially over the last five years but especially the last year or so. So, we went to the game last night, we had a good time and we got to see some of the players and talk to the players. But mostly Fred, it was just good to talk to the people here and to see how much of an inspiration the Saints are. and really, you heard the guy who's "Da Pope" say, to see guys with saws and hammers and get out there and help people restore their homes, I mean, it doesn't get any better than that.

WHITFIELD: Yeah, and you know what, how strange and symbolic too that's it's raining so much, there. I know, you know, folks weather it all the time because we're talking about an area that gets a lot of rain all the time, but here on this anniversary weekend, what's the overall, I guess, consensus of the mood on this kind of five-year marker, even with the president arriving there tomorrow?

LEMON: You know, it's very interesting that people are -- I mean, they are aware of it. as a matter of fact, there was -- one of our former colleagues, Kathleen Koch, I was standing here talking to her and watching people come up and talk about her book, how it touched them, and talking about her, how she lost faith or whatever. So, it's very much in walking down the street today with Mayor Ray Nagin. It's very much on people's minds and this is what people are paying attention to, obviously here it's Katrina and it's the Saints. And it's about recovery, it's about getting a better government, better leaders here and getting the city back together and making sure businesses evolve beyond tourism and fishing and food and what have you. They want green jobs here. They want more technology-based jobs. So that's what they are talking about.

But, even with the rain, people are out, Fred. I'd have to say for the first time, I come back a lot, first time in five years that I felt really that New Orleans is on the rise. It feels good. It feels good. There are problems, but it does feel good.

WHITFIELD: Yeah, a very resilient city and a resilient Don Lemon standing in the rain there, too, back at home, so to speak in Louisiana. But, we'll look forward to more of your reporting later on this evening. I'm glad you're able to wake up after a long night of Saints' game watching and fun.

LEMON: I have one thing to say to you, Fred, who dat?

WHITFIELD: Reporting. What? One more quickie, what? LEMON: I just said, "Who dat?" Who dat?

WHITFIELD: Who Dat Nation. All right. Very good. We'll check back with you. Don Lemon, thanks so much. See you again in about an hour and a half or so from now.

All right, meantime we're going to look ahead, not just tomorrow and the five-year marker and Katrina and all that the Gulf coast is going through, but we're going to look forward to tomorrow and the west coast. It involves diamonds, jewelry, designer handbags. All that good stuff that comes with the Emmy awards under way tomorrow. But already this weekend there's a lot of swag, a lot of cool gifts that are being handed out to some of the celebs. How do you get to be in those lines, right there? Find out what's in the sweets right after this.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WHITFIELD: OK. The Emmy awards, tomorrow night. But the festivities surrounding the event already in full swing, including the swag suites. These are the locations that a lot of celebrities get to go to get all those great little freebies. Kind of freebies, they do get taxed later on, but lots of expensive, cool gifts sometimes. Joining us right now, live from Kos Angeles, Kari Feinstein, her company has actually been running one of the swag suites -- that's a hard thing to say -- for nearly a decades now. She's joining us from the Los Angeles bureau with an example of the good, cool goods that some of the celebrities get a chance to get their hands on and then walk away with.

So Kari, what do you have there? And how does it work? I'm a big celebrity, I walk up and say, OK, suit me up, here.

KARI FEINSTEIN, FEINSTEIN MCGUINESS PR: Hi. Yeah, we have celebrities coming in our gift suite. Some are household names and they will get to the event and they'll get Tacori diamond jewelry and...

WHITFIELD: To like to borrow or to go home with forever?

FEINSTEIN: A lot of it to go home with.

WHITFIELD: Oh, OK.

FEINSTEIN: If they are willing to take a picture with the products, they can go home with the products. And then we also have the new Sprint Galaxy phone. That was a big hit at our event Thursday and Friday and these (INAUDIBLE) headphones. A lot of celebrities can go home with. They are great for plane rides, all the traveling they do.

WHITFIELD: So, among those folks who have come to pick out some of the jewelry and handbag handbags you have there, Christina Richi, I understand, Ann Hash, as well as a Felicity Huffman. So, when they walk in do they simply say just show me the goods and they have their pick or do you kind of show some preference towards certain items that you think would be more suitable for certain artists based on the celebrity events they may -- or they activities they would be involved in.

FEINSTEIN: There are some celebrities, big names that are willing to come and check out all the companies if they have an hour or two. There's about 30 companies showing at our events. Sometimes they don't have time to go see everybody so we show them the highlights, the jewelry, trips, high ticket items that we know they will be excited about when they leave.

WHITFIELD: Wow, so what are some of the items on your desk, there? I think you had a couple handbags, et cetera. Do you find that there are certain items most likely to sell out. Oh, and Kettle Korn, you've got to have some snacks.

FEINSTEIN: I know, the snacks are a big hit. We have these trips that we're giving away to Cabo San Lucas at this new resort called Capela, which is a big thing at our event. They will give a comp stays at the new beautiful location. This purse is a genuine leather from Christine Price. It's a great travel bag.

WHITFIELD: That's cute.

FEINSTEIN: So, that was a hit. And then for some of the guys that come, we have Retro Sport, a lot of vintage NFL gear, with the NFL season starting. So everyone's trying to get their...

WHITFIELD: So since you've been doing this for about a decade, I wonder Keri, you know, especially when taxes became imposed on these great swag bags, are you finding that fewer celebrities want to walk off with these goods or has the number been about the same?

FEINSTEIN: You know what, I thought there would be an impact but there really hasn't been. I think the celebrities that are getting the really expensive items are claiming them on their taxes, if they are willing to. And I think it really hasn't stopped it at all. I think everyone is being a little more careful.

WHITFIELD: Yeah, everyone likes the new goods and plus it means that they don't have to spend the time going shopping for them. It's all right there.

FEINSTEIN: We're not giving away $50,000 cars. So, they are getting stuff that's pretty reasonable.

WHITFIELD: Yeah. All right, getting a really good deal, even if they have to pay taxes on it. Instead of paying $10,000 on that necklace there, you know, maybe pay $500 for taxes. It's still a score.

FEINSTEIN: Exactly. It's great for the companies, because they get the photos so that really helps them.

WHITFIELD: Oh good, well have a great time this weekend. I know tomorrow is the big day, but you've already had a lot of fun and quite the turnout all weekend long. Kari Feinstein, thanks so much, good to see you.

FEINSTEIN: Thank you, appreciate it. WHITFIELD: All right, protecting the turtles, that has been a major focus. Particularly for this CNN Hero that you're about to meet. Coming up, we'll share his inspiring story and show how you can help.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WHITFIELD: Despite a 20-year ban, sea turtle poaching is still a big problem in Mexico, especially along the northwest Pacific coast. Well, this week's CNN Hero, Oscar Aranda, is losing sleep literally in the fight to protect these endangered animals.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

OSCAR ARANDA, DEFENDING THE PLANET: In a way, the turtles are in danger because of us. Last year we can have 200,000 turtles coming to lay their eggs, but this year we are 50 percent less.

In Mexico, (INAUDIBLE) and the people are not supposed to poach them, but people believe the eggs are an aphrodisiac, so this is happening always and everywhere.

My name is Oscar Aranda, and I'm patrolling the Puerto Vallarta the beaches to protect the marine turtles.

Many animals depend on marine turtles to survive. When I saw how the poachers take them for selling in the black market, that was really the spark that showed me how important it is to help them.

You have to be there all night. A turtle comes and if you are not there, the poachers will say, well, let's take it.

After they lay their eggs, that's it and the babies are alone. She returns into the ocean.

We find the nest, we get the eggs and we bring them into a safe place, like a turtle hatchery.

As soon as the babies hatch, we want the people to see them and learn to give that opportunity to be part of releasing a baby turtle or something that they will never forget.

My motivation is how brave the turtles are to survive. Against all odds, they continue coming.

It's amazing.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

WHITFIELD: Since 2004, Oscar Aranda and his group have released more than a half million baby sea turtle back into the wild. Sees Oscar in action protecting sea turtle on our Web site, CNNheros.com.

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WHITFIELD: We've been covering two dramatically different events today in Washington. One organized by conservative talk show host, Glenn Beck that drew a huge crowd at the Lincoln Memorial. The other led by civil rights activist, Al Sharpton, both held on an important civil rights anniversary. Forty-seven years ago, Martin Luther King, Jr. delivered his "I have a dream" speech on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial. The seeds of that event were planted years earlier by student-led sit-ins in the South which in turn gave birth to the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, also known as SNCC. The organization played a major role in the civil rights movement with a direct, but nonviolent campaign against segregation. In their own words, three former members recall SNCC's mission and their role in the 1963 march on Washington.

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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They stood for a more democratic society.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Nonviolent organizers.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We stood for the right of people to be human.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Aggressive justice.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Let the people decide.

JOHN LEWIS, FORMER SNCC MEMBER: The letters SNCC stands for the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Commonly called SNCC for its initials.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: SNCC was founded in April of 1960 to serve as an effort to bring together all of the young people who had been participating in sit-ins across the South.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: These students were Southern students. They were not going to live like their parents and grandparents lived.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We accepted nonviolence not as a technique, tactic, but as a way of life. As a way of living.

JULIAN BOND, FORMER SNCC MEMBER: If I'm in a picket line and someone strikes me, I'm not going to strike him back. If I'm marching down the street in a protest march and someone spits at me, I'm not going to spit back at him.

LEWIS: People there were prepared and willing to go into hell's fire.

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MARIA VARELA, FORMER SNCC MEMBER: SNCC's job was to facilitate whatever these students needed. If they went to jail, it was to find a way to get them out of jail. SNCC's job was not to dictate to these communities what the movement was about. The organization really just did the coordination to support all of these student activities that happened from Nashville all through the Carolinas, into Georgia.

I didn't want to go. I was too afraid. But it was like if I'm going around on campuses telling people they should help in the South and I don't do it, what kind of hypocrite am I? So I went up there. And developed a whole literacy project.

LEWIS: It was very hard. Almost impossible for people of color to register to vote. You had to passed a so-called literacy test. Some people had been beaten, shot and killed for attempting to religion register to vote. So we were determined to do all that we could to get people to registered to vote in the South.

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BOND: "The Student Voice" was a four-page little 8 x 10 sheet, four pages fastened together that we printed in our own offices in Atlanta and distributed in the cities and towns, mostly small rural towns where we were working. I joined the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee in 1960. And my role was to be the communication director or sort of the publicist.

LEWIS: From being a part of the national movement, I was already a member, because of the local group that came part of SNCC. Before we even went on a sit-in, we studied, we prepared ourselves, studied philosophy and the discipline of nonviolence.

BOND: A demonstration would be held at a restaurant or some public facility that was closed to black people. We would march in an orderly fashion, occupy those seats.

LEWIS: Waiting to be served, and someone would come up and spit on you or put a lighted cigarette out in your hair. Maybe someone would walk up and pull you off the stool and started beating you.

VARELA: Every state agency could be utilized to enforce segregation with grave consequences. It was like going into the belly of the beast.

LEWIS: In May of 1963, I became the third chair of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee. I was 23 years old. And so on August 28, 1963, 10 of us were scheduled to speak. I spoke No. 6. Dr. King spoke No. 10.

BOND: The Catholic archbishop of Washington threatened not to give the invocation unless John Lewis changed his speech. He objected to some of the language in John Lewis's speech.

VARELA: When I read it, it shocked me, in a way, because I thought, "Gosh, this is an angry John Lewis." And, of course, we were all angry.

The Kennedy administration was worried that it made the United States look terrible. And they didn't want that kind of criticism.

BOND: And finally, only with the request of A. Phillip Randolph, the man who really called this march into being --John said later, "I couldn't say no to Dr. Randolph." And so he changed it.

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LEWIS: To those who have said be patient and wait. We must say that we cannot be patient; we do not want our freedom gradually. We want to be free now.

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LEWIS: There was so much hope, so much optimism after the March on Washington. But that sense of hope, that sense of optimism was shattered eighteen days later there was a bombing in a church in Birmingham where four little girls were killed.

BOND: And while it didn't produce instant change, and I don't think anybody expected that to happen, the United States had never seen anything like this. The Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee got people to get together to march, to protest, to do all of the things that human beings need to do if they want to improve their condition.

LEWIS: This group of determined, brave and courageous young people gave everything that we had to make America better.

VARELA: The SNCC and its philosophy of not trying to build one charismatic leader to lead some movement, but actually to build leadership across the board in young women, young men of all different colors, classes and educational backgrounds. I think that's SNCC's legacy.

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