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"One Nation" Rallies; U.S. Travel Warnings in Europe; A Single Mom Gets A Nutritional Makeover In Order To Save Money, Feed Her Teens Healthier Meals
Aired October 02, 2010 - 16:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
FREDRICKA WHITFIELD, CNN ANCHOR: All right. New security concerns to tell you about for Americans traveling to Europe. Intelligence chatter has caught the attention of U.S. officials. They're considering an important new warning we want to alert you about. Our senior state department producer Elise Labott joins us now by phone to explain about warnings that there may be warnings coming out. Elise?
ELISE LABOTT, CNN SR. STATE DEPT. PRODUCER (ON THE PHONE): That's right, Fredricka. In the light of this information that you just mentioned, there's been a lot of chatter this week about possible attacks against westerners in Europe that could cause a lot of casualties and chaos in a short period of time, perhaps in countries like Britain, France and Germany.
So obviously when something like this happens, the State Department weighs what kind of information to release to Americans and we understand that there have been some discussions going on in the State Department and what they're leaning towards is some kind of alert. That lets American citizens know what's going on, knowing that this chatter is out there, that there's been some information about possible attacks, precaution that there's been no specific or credible information about any specific attacks that Americans could stay away from a particular area.
But I think what we're going to see over the next 24 hours or so is some kind of alert from the State Department that says this comes (INAUDIBLE) Americans should be careful, should be vigilant when they're traveling in western Europe, more specifically to Britain, France and Germany. And should, you know, be very careful when they're going to public places like airports, tourist sites, transportation hubs but they're not going to discourage Americans from traveling to Europe or to any specific country, Fredricka.
WHITFIELD: OK. Elise Labott, thanks so much. Of course, you're seeing images of the cities of London and Paris. But, again, nothing has actually transpired there, nothing has happened there. But Elise was just reporting that Britain, France and Germany may be areas of greatest concern as a result of some of this chatter. But again, no threats specifically have taken place in any of those cities even though we showed you those images.
All right. Now to Washington. Where liberal and progressive activists have gathered at the Lincoln Memorial. Organizers are calling the One Nation march and rally an antidote to the Tea Party, which gathered at the same spot just five weeks ago. Well, today's rally is meant to focus attention on the needs of working class Americans including jobs and education.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
REV. AL SHARPTON, NATIONAL ACTION NETWORK: We need america to deal with the issue of jobs. Our young people need education, but we need jobs. We bailed out the banks. We bailed out the insurance companies. Now it's time to bail out the American people. We need to rebuild the infrastructure and provide jobs and training for American people.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
WHITFIELD: All right. Kate Bolduan is there at the Lincoln Memorial where it . looks like a pretty healthy crowd there as we get to the end of this rally, right?
KATE BOLDUAN, CNN CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, the rally is still going on as you know, these tings don't always run on time. So it is going on right now, Fredricka. A large crowd gathered today, starting to thin out under the afternoon heat. You can imagine, a lot of issues and you talked about a lot of them. Jobs, education, immigration reform, support for unions and we actually wanted to get away from the podium and speak to some of the people who turned out here today.
And that's why I have Sergio Sanchez joining me, part of the farm labor organizing committee, part of the AFL-CIO out of North Carolina. Sergio, first of all, how big is the group you traveled with here?
SERGIO SANCHEZ, FARM LABOR ORGANIZING COMMITTEE: About 300, 400 people. We came in several buses from all parts of North Carolina to the rally today.
BOLDUAN: Why did you guys come out here today? What's the motivation? Why did you guys show up?
SANCHEZ: We're in solidarity with everybody out here I guess and the agenda to make America a more progressive place. We want America to be something that represents every kind of diversity in this country. We're here because we want to show that we have a presence and that we want America to head in the right direction.
BOLDUAN: So interesting that you talk about, to show that you have a presence, because a lot of the message that we're hearing today is the message of get out the vote, turn out the vote in November, kind of a show of force against some of the enthusiasm that people from the podium that hasn't been heard from the liberal democratic base. Is that part of the motivation turning out here today is because you see enthusiasm amongst conservative voters and (INAUDIBLE) turn out with your large group to show enthusiasm among democratic voters?
SANCHEZ: Yes, I think it's important for us to participate in what makes America great and by us coming out here to Washington, D.C. and showing our presence and being here, it shows that we have a voice and so I think that's the most important thing to show here.
BOLDUAN: What's the big issue for you as a member of the AFL-CIO that you really want to send a message of today, what's the big issue for you guys?
SANCHEZ: We represent farm workers in North Carolina right now. We have a strong problem with lack of enforcement of the laws, but we also have a system of exploitation for our farm workers. So our farm workers are fighting for basic human rights. That is our message to the rest of American solidarity that we want an America that gives just jobs to everybody.
BOLDUAN: There are so many issues, among them labor laws that are being talked about today. What do you hope when you see this large crowd here today, what do you hope comes from this moving into the next month right ahead of the November elections?
SANCHEZ: I hope everybody sees the diversity in this crowd and see that all the issues here are common sense issues, not radical issues that people want to do with teachers, with workers, the labor rights. It's important, it's common sense, it's the right decision and we hope that everybody out there is inspired, inspired to go out there and vote, to voice their opinion and participate and make changes.
BOLDUAN: Sergio, thank you so much.
As you can see, Fredricka, inspired to show up to vote. That's one of the big messages that you're hearing today as organizers are really hoping to stir that enthusiasm and stir that need to get out to vote amongst their Democratic base.
WHITFIELD: All right. Just 31 days away from the midterm elections. Appreciate that. Kate Bolduan there in Washington.
All right. Let's talk weather coming up. A flooded mess from North Carolina to New England. And while flood waters are beginning to recede in some areas, the region is not completely out of danger. In Windsor, North Carolina, the Cashier River reached 16 feet above flood stage.
Officials report 175 people actually had to be rescued overnight. And in Pennsylvania and New Jersey, there was so much water on the roads, cars literally floated into one another. Eight deaths are being blamed on the flooding along the East Coast.
Bonnie Schneider in the weather center right now. So Bonnie, any end in sight?
BONNIE SCHNEIDER, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Well, it looks like we're going to see some better weather. That's for sure. But I just want to mention a little bit about flood safety because we're not out of the woods yet, Fredricka.
In fact, what we're looking at still is the risk for more flooding when you have so much water on the ground. This is a look at some of the rainfall totals since Tuesday. And it's important to note that if you're driving and you see water covering a road that you don't try to pass it. Even if the car in front of you made it OK, it doesn't mean that you will. It only takes six inches of water to lift your car and I'm talking about even an SUV and then it's suspended and it can float away. So it doesn't take a lot of water to cause a lot of damage and problems.
This is what we're looking at in terms of heavy rain since Tuesday. And our i-reporters have been on the scene tracking the extreme weather. You can see what it looked like across much of the East Coast. This is in Whitney Point, New York, that's about 20 minutes to the north of Binghamton, New York, which is upstate. And this road completely has a bridge washed out. You're trapped when that happens.
Bridges and overpasses flood very quickly and underneath them as well. So flood danger, a real wakeup call that we are all at risk for facing the flood dangers of this season now that we're going into fall. We're in fall and we're going to see more of that, I'm sure.
Here's a look at where we have flood warnings right now, from Vermont southward all the way to North Carolina. Eastern North Carolina is really where we saw some of the heaviest rain. It's not raining now there, but there is a new threat. Look at this rain sweeping across parts of Ohio into Kentucky. This is all on the move, and this brand new weather system will work its way to the east and it will bring about the threat for more rain to areas that have flooded out.
So this is not what we want to see. I don't think it's going to be as heavy. But any time you get more rain on top of areas that are flooded, it's definitely not something good out there that we're going to be contending with as we go through.
Elsewhere across the country, here's the low across the Great Lakes. Some good news out there. The rest of the country is dry from Texas to California. We are seeing some more fair conditions and we're also seeing more comfortable temperatures. Los Angeles shattered it's all- time high temperature record on Monday, getting well above 110, 113. Today, we're much calmer, much more back to normal, right around the upper 70s.
So, feeling better.
WHITFIELD: OK. That's good. You know, some of that - seeing that destruction of the flood waters particularly in the North Carolina area, kind of reminded me of Hurricane Floyd, which, you know, a few years ago. I only remember it because I covered it, and you know, just how that system just kind of sat, sat, sat and it caused a lot of flooding and that just seems that same exact region is hit one more time.
SCHNEIDER: You're right. Any time there's something tropical, you really get a lot of flooding.
WHITFIELD: Nasty stuff. All right. Thanks so much, Bonnie. Appreciate that. Check back with you later on.
All right. More missionaries are needed in the U.S. and abroad, but it seems minorities are missing in action when it comes to stepping up to help.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
WHITFIELD: And now back to our top story.
U.S. officials say discussions are taking place about issuing some kind of advisory to Americans in Europe in light of new terror threat information. I want to bring in our senior international correspondent Nic Robertson into this discussion, who is in Hamburg, Germany. And no warnings have been put out as yet, just discussions because as we heard from our producer with the State Department, there has been chatter about some sort of activity. What kind of chatter?
NIC ROBERTSON, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, right now Fredricka, I'm standing outside of the mosque in Hamburg that was attended by a man called Ahmed Zadiki (ph). He was captured in Kabul this summer and is in U.S. custody. He's a German. But while he's been in U.S. custody, he's the one that's been talking about the possibility of a Mumbai style plot to attack various cities and countries in Europe, Britain, France, and Germany.
He's the one that's been therefore getting this sort of threat, a possibility of an imminent threat in Europe, bringing that sort of up the stakes, if you will. Now, while I've been here I've been talking to sources here and they tell us, Hamburg terrorism sources, they tell us that there is no imminent threat that they see.
But despite the fact that Zadiki (ph) is a German, they say that he is in U.S. custody and that they understand he is providing new information to U.S. officials every day. That's what they tell us, new information every day. They also talked earlier on today with Ahmed Zadiki's (ph) sister and she told me that the family had been in touch with him in Afghanistan shortly before he was captured and she said at that stage he was planning to come back in the very near future.
What has intelligence officials here concerned and on alert is what happened to the other members of this mosque that traveled with him to Pakistan, where are they? What are their plans? Do they plan to come back sooner? This is feeding in to an atmosphere of a possibility of a threat. But they say no imminent threat here right now.
WHITFIELD: All right. Fascinating stuff. Thanks so much. Nic Robertson from Hamburg, Germany.
WHITFIELD: All right. Back to this country now. When you think of missionaries, you probably think of people working in poor, far-off countries. With hard times here at home, the need for domestic missionaries is growing. CNN's Soledad O'Brien introduces us to a man whose mission is to rally black Americans to serve in their own communities.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I'm the Jackie Robinson of missions, you know.
SOLEDAD O'BRIEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Leroy Barber is a man with a calling and he's the president of Mission Year.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We do not see through our eyes or hear through our ears.
O'BRIEN: It's a year-long ministry and volunteer program for Christian young adults in the United States.
LEROY BARBER, MISSION YEAR PRESIDENT: There is a goal for people to know Jesus. There is probably another strong goal of things are not right in the world, and I want to be a part of making them right.
O'BRIEN (on camera): How many African-Americans are involved in Mission Year's missionary work?
BARBER: About five percent a year or less sometimes.
O'BRIEN: What does it matter?
BARBER: I don't think it's good for a kid growing up in an urban neighborhood to only see white faces coming to serve.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is where I'm staying right now.
O'BRIEN (voice-over): 22-year-old Harold Boyd left his Chicago home to spend the year in Atlanta. He lives on $12,000 but he has to raise that himself.
HAROLD BOYD, MISSION YEAR PARTICIPANT: I do believe that with every relationship that I build, that I'll be showing people that I'm in the same struggle as you are.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I don't have all the answers.
O'BRIEN: He's the only minority on his team. It's not surprising when you consider the vast majority of missionaries are white.
JIM SUTHERLAND, RECONCILIATION MINISTRIES NETWORK, INC.: In terms of the missionary percentage of African-Americans, it's far less than one percent.
O'BRIEN: Jim Sutherland studies missionary work and the black church.
SUTHERLAND: Many black churches do a fairly good job of taking care of their own local communities, but the vocation of the missionary in the African-American church is essentially off the radar, it's basically not there.
O'BRIEN (on camera): So why are there so few African-Americans who are involved in missionary work?
BARBER: I think the way missions is traditionally done is you raise support to do it -
O'BRIEN: Money.
BARBER: Money, how you work out, taking a year off, which means not working, not earning an income. It's a hard deal.
O'BRIEN: For many African-Americans, it's difficult to make this enormous financial sacrifice, especially during a recession. For Harold Boyd, it's worth the sacrifice.
BOYD: What really inspired me was the work of missions of being able to see what's out there and se what people need. I don't think I can stab anybody with the gospel. Here, have it. But I'm called to serve here and I'm going to serve.
O'BRIEN (voice-over): Reporting for "In America," Soledad O'Brien, Atlanta.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
WHITFIELD: And be sure to join Soledad O'Brien for her upcoming special about fighting financial crisis from the pulpit. "Almighty Debt" a "Black in America" special coming Thursday, October 21st at 9:00 p.m. Eastern, only on CNN.
From simple student to media mogul, meet the face behind Facebook. Movie reviews are next in the CNN NEWSROOM. WHITFIELD: A look at our top stories right now.
For the second time in two days, Osama Bin Laden has apparently released an audiotape message. In a 13-minute tape today, the Al Qaeda leader urges Muslims to help flood victims in Pakistan. CNN cannot verify the voice of the tape, and that it is indeed of the terror leader.
In the Middle East, Palestinian leaders meeting in the West Bank today reaffirm their stance on Israeli settlements. They support a halt to peace talks with Israel if it does not stop settlement construction.
And a deadly train crash in central Indonesia. 36 people were killed when one train rammed another from behind. At least 26 people are hurt. Both trains were headed to Jakarta. The cause of the crash is still under investigation.
All right. It's already getting quite the Oscar buzz out there. We're talking movies now and we're talking the movie called "The Social Network," it's hitting theaters this weekend. And we're going to talk about another movie with some big suspense. Jen Yamato is in Los Angeles to break it all down for us. Good to see you again.
JEN YAMATO, FILM CRITIC, MOVIES.COM: Good to be back. Thank you.
WHITFIELD: All right. Let's begin with "The Social Network." We're talking about, you know, the discovery of this social network or the discussion among friends, one runs away with the idea, and now there is a little bit of fallout as a result. Let's take a quick peek at the clip.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: What are you doing? UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Checking into see how it's going in Bosnia.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Bosnia? They don't have roads but they have Facebook. You must really hate the Winklevosses.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I don't hate anybody. The Winklevi aren't suing me for intellectual property theft, they're suing me because for the first time in their lives things didn't work out the way they were supposed to for them.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
WHITFIELD: OK. Jen, what do you think? Did you like this movie? Because there has been a lot of buzz, but we only care about what you think.
YAMATO: As it should be. Well, "The Social Network" is certainly a compelling portrait of ambition in the digital age. It's about Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg, who the film would like you to believe back stabbed his way to the top. I would say it's a good movie. I didn't love it as much as a lot of people seem to have loved it so far.
Part of my problem with "The Social Network" is that the vilification of Zuckerberg feels a little too constructed. It could very well be a serial killer movie, only instead of murdering people, Zuckerberg is a computer programming sociopath. That vilification didn't quite work for me. It feels a little too constructed and a little too conveniently contrived for the sake of drama. And on top of that, the female characters overall are really shortchanged. The performances for me -
WHITFIELD: What do you mean? Meaning they don't have real characters that have been developed or shortchanged in what way?
YAMATO: Right. Well, I would say the only interesting female character here disappears after two scenes. The other female characters are really boring throwaway characters or are reduced to stereotypical promiscuous characters to serve the main character and didn't get to do much on their own. This is a very male-driven movie. I felt that the female presence wasn't as strong as it should have been.
WHITFIELD: So overall, what is your grade? Sorry about that.
YAMATO: I give it a B plus. It's solid, but I didn't love it though. But it is still one to keep an eye out come award season.
WHITFIELD: OK. Now let's talk about "Let Me In." An alienated and bullied 12-year-old builds a friendship with a mysterious new neighbor who would only socialize apparently at night. Let's take a look at this little peek.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Are you a vampire? (END VIDEO CLIP)
WHITFIELD: Hence the night part.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I need blood to live.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: How old are you? Really?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: 12. But I've been 12 for a very long time.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
WHITFIELD: Oh, no, I don't care if you give it an "A," I don't do freaky movies with evil children. That just scares me too much. And a vampire movie can't have a happy ending. So what's your (INAUDIBLE) on this?
YAMATO: It's a really lovely story.
WHITFIELD: Really?
YAMATO: Yes, this is based on a Swedish novel, called "The Right One In," which was previously adapted in 2008 into an excellent Swedish language film called "Let the Right One In." This is "Let Me In." The story has been transported to New Mexico in the 1980s. It's about a little boy who befriends, like you said, a girl vampire.
It's at times really, really hauntingly beautiful. Very handsomely made and well acted, especially by the kid actors, Chloe Moretz and Kodi Smit-McPhee. I will say that the score is a little bombastic, a little too bombastic and distracting. CG effects that director Matt Reeves includes are also distracting. And the overall, my biggest problem here is that if you've seen the original film, the 2008 Swedish film, this version, the Americanized version does not differentiate itself enough to justify its own existence.
I say go with the original film. It's excellent. I'm in the camp that subtitles do not deter me. But I know a lot of people need the English language story told.
WHITFIELD: OK.
YAMATO: I would recommend it. I give it a B. I would definitely recommend the original more, if you're daring enough to try subtitles.
WHITFIELD: Yes. I think that kind of movie works if you don't have a kid but as soon as you have a kid, I'm sorry, you just can't see these little, you know, scary, freaky stuff going on with kids.
OK. Let's move on. "Case 39." I'm sure it's a lovely movie, I'm just not seeing it. "Case 39." Let's talk about this one, a social worker taking a 10-year-old girl out of her apparently abusive home, and while she shelters the little girl, and searches for a foster family, she realizes that her new case is protected by a dark, threatening force. This too is also a little eerie. All right. What do you think about this one? We're not going to look at it. You just have to tell me about it.
YAMATO: Well, I got to say if you don't like scary kid movies, you're not going to like "Case 39." Because it's the latest in the sub-genre of evil little kid movies and in horror.
Renee Zellweger -
WHITFIELD: Renee Zellweger, you know, we haven't seen her in a while.
YAMATO: Yes. Haven't seen her in a while. This movie was actually filmed in 2006 and it's been shelved and reshuffled and moved around for years. I would have to say with good reason. It's not particularly good. It's the kind of horror movie that relies a lot on loud jump scares, but here the jump scares aren't even scary.
And overall, the premise is so silly that it's not even frightening. I will say that Jodelle Ferland, who plays the little scary girl is excellent and gives a really incredibly eerie performance for having been 11 years old at the time. But again for certain folks like you and honestly myself, who are scared of evil children, avoid. Avoid this movie.
WHITFIELD: Yes, something tells me you don't want to see a movie with me, because I think your eardrums would be blasting. I will be screaming. You don't think that was scary but the trailer right there. It made me kind of shrill a little bit. So I'll pass on the scary stuff with the kids.
All right. Jen Yamato, good to see you. Thanks so much.
YAMATO: Thank you.
WHITFIELD: OK, so speaking of kids, anyone with teenage boys knows that they will eat you out of house and home if you let them. Even if you don't let them, they will keep consuming and eating. So how do you fill them up without straining your budget or their waistlines? Keep it right here for our family food makeover.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
WHITFIELD: OK, so all this week CNN has been on a mission to show you how your food choices actually affect your health, your state of mind, and of course, your budget. So you're about to meet a single mother of two growing teenage boys. Shavalerie Thurman, who works for cnn, graciously consented to a family food makeover.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
Hi, my name is Shavalerie Thurman. I am the mother of two teenage boys, William, he is a senior and he is 17, and Winston, who is a sophomore and he is 15.
I spend about $250 to $300 every two weeks on groceries. And to me that's a lot of money. I don't know if it's a boy thing, but I find that they really eat a lot. And I end up buying a lot more snacks. I think. and a lot more junk just to make sure they have extra stuff.
It is a little bit challenging. If I can get things for them, but they're healthier, and it cuts my bill in half, then that will be really good.
I'm going to go and meet with a nutritionist and try to find some better ways for us to cut down on our grocery bill, but also eat a little bit healthier. What do you guys think?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's good.
THURMAN: Do you think that's good?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yeah.
JULIE SCHWARTZ, NUTRIWELL COACHING, LLC: Hi, I'm Julie.
THURMAN: Hi, I'm Shavalerie. Nice to meet you.
SCHWARTZ: This will be exciting.
THURMAN: Yeah.
SCHWARTZ: Now, do you typically have a budget that you try to follow?
THURMAN: For the most part. We cook every day.
SCHWARTZ: OK. And that actually is a wonderful way to budget, because the more we cook from scratch, by far the less expensive it is.
Fruits can be actually a very economical way to boost your nutrition and boost your weight loss efforts. It would only cost you $2.50 day to meet all the recommended servings of fruits and vegetables.
THURMAN: $2.50 a day, per person, or?
SCHWARTZ: Per person.
THURMAN: OK.
SCHWARTZ: Protein actually is going to be our most expensive part of the meal, so trying to find some good choices for protein, but less expensive.
You're going to save about 30 cents a pound, just to spend five minutes to make a patty. You're looking at about $31 in the course of a year. A serving of baked beans is going to be a lot cheaper instead of burgers.
THURMAN: Than instead of the fries.
SCHWARTZ: Another way to save is to just decrease the amount of protein food that we have per person. We got to fill our plate with other foods and often those are more economical and much healthier. One way to save and it doesn't take that much more time, would be instead of using the frozen potatoes is use fresh potatoes. So you are looking at about 3 cents per serving versus about 17 cents per serving.
If you got a 10 ounce bag of potato chips, costs about $2.59. So it seems like kind of a cheap snack. You could buy four pounds of fiber, vitamin C rich, red potatoes instead for the same price. So 10 ounces versus four pounds. It may even be going with carrots, which you could get about three pounds, which is 12 servings for the same price.
There is a big misconception that healthy eating is expensive and it really doesn't need to be.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
WHITFIELD: All right. So Shavalerie is with us right now to give us an ideal what happened after that kind makeover? First, was it difficult for your family, for the boys, to say, OK, we don't mind that our diet has to change?
THURMAN: No, not so much. Because they don't really do a lot of the cooking. So no, it didn't affect them much at all.
WHITFIELD: So a lot of it depended on where it begins, when you go grocery shopping, it meant changing some things. And you brought some receipts, because initially, you spent $353.44. And then after the makeover, you were still able to feed the family, get the essentials, it meant changing some of the ingredients, and you saved a lot. You ended up spending $267.81. So almost $100 savings there.
THURMAN: Right. And that's every two weeks.
WHITFIELD: OK, so what did you have to cut out to end up saving money and at the same time eat better, in a more wholesome way?
THURMAN: What I learned from Julie is that you end up buying a lot of things out of convenience, so you buy the frozen pizzas instead of making your own. You buy the bags of frozen French fries, instead of just buying a five pound bag of potatoes and making your own.
WHITFIELD: Cutting them yourself.
THURMAN: Yes, so it's going to take me a little bit more time in the kitchen, but overall, it's going to save me almost $100 every two weeks, so $200 a month.
WHITFIELD: Do you feel like that is a fair enough exchange? Yes, it means spending more time cooking, preparing foods. Yes, you save money. But then especially when you got teenage boys, and they're 15 and 17?
THURMAN: Right.
WHITFIELD: They are preoccupied with taste.
THURMAN: Yes.
WHITFIELD: Do they like what they're eating now, even though it's saving you more money, it is costing you more time in the kitchen to prepare?
THURMAN: Yeah, I think they'll still enjoy it. We'll still be able to see some things the way we like it. But I really just like the fact that not only am I saving, but I think we are eating a lot healthier. Because we're not buying all of the processed cakes and cookies, and, you know, my reason for doing this was I thought we're already buying the meats and the fish, and you just need to prepare it in a healthier way. If you're not buying the cakes and cookies, and all that other stuff, you have more money to buy the fruits and vegetables. So that ended up working out and being true.
WHITFIELD: Were you also thinking nutrition, was that part of the motivation here? You know, I'm willing to get this kind of food makeover here, because did you even get to a point, or your kids get to a point, where you realized maybe we are eating things we shouldn't be eating, that aren't the best for us? Even though they taste good.
THURMAN: Yeah, they definitely taste a lot better, but it was more of a makeover for me. My boys are 15 and 17, they are teenagers, they can put anything into their body and it burns off immediately. But that's not really the same for me. And I'm really thinking about trying to change the way I eat so I can change and lose some weight, and live a healthier lifestyle.
WHITFIELD: That's fantastic. Shavalerie Thurman, and thanks for volunteering to be-you and your boys-to be the guinea pig of this experiment, which it turns out to have brought great results for all of you.
THURMAN: Thank you.
WHITFIELD: All the best. Thanks so much.
All right, we are talking about taking control of your health and Elizabeth Cohen will be introducing us to parents who trusted their gut and saved their daughter's life in a very different way, next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
WHITFIELD: So much information out there, and our Elizabeth Cohen is going to break it down for you. As the nation focuses on how to improve health care, one of the recurring themes has been patients need to take more control. Our Senior Medical Correspondent Elizabeth Cohen has a special this weekend, it is called "The Empowered Patient" and Elizabeth joins us right now with some very powerful lessons on how you do take control.
Sometimes people are very intimidated and figure, you know, what, whatever the doctor says, he or she knows best. And I'm just going to do whatever they say.
ELIZABETH COHEN, CNN SR. MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: That's a huge mistake. As the McCracken family in Ohio learned. This is a story we're going to hear with the help of the folks at the Turner Animation studios we bring you the McCracken family.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
COHEN (voice over): One spring evening, Don McCracken was playing ball with his kids in the front yard. He meant to hit a fly ball to his son Matthew, but instead it socked his seven-year-old daughter Morgan on the head. She knelt to the ground in pain. Morgan had quite a bump on her head. Her parents iced it down and she seemed fine. Two nights later, something changed.
CONNIE MCCRACKEN, MORGAN'S MOTHER: She started crying.
COHEN (On camera): Tell me what you heard.
C. MCCRACKEN: She goes, my head, it is hurting. She was holding it. My head is hurting, my head's hurting.
COHEN (voice over): The McCrackens rushed Morgan to the emergency room.
(On camera): When the doctor showed up, what did he say?
C. MCCRACKEN: I'm sure it is just late. She's tired. She probably has a touch of the flu.
COHEN (voice over): Connie and Don say the doctor told them to take Morgan home and to put her to bed. But they knew better. Their instincts told them this was no flu virus. They pushed the doctor for a ct scan of Morgan's brain.
(On camera): What did you think the results of that CAT scan were going to be?
C. MCCRACKEN: There was something definitely wrong, you could feel it in your gut.
DON MCCRACKEN, MORGAN'S FATHER: In my heart, I thought, I knew there was a problem.
C. MCCRACKEN: He came back and said, I was surprised. He goes, "I'm surprised. There is something there."
D. MCCRACKEN: There was a leakage of blood into her skull.
COHEN: Medics rushed Morgan by helicopter to nearby Rainbow Babies & Children's hospital in Cleveland, Ohio.
DR. ALAN COHEN, RAINBOW BABIES & CHILDREN'S HOSPITAL: This is a big blood clot inside the skull, out side the brain, called and epidural hematoma. That is what we had to remove to take out the blood clot and stop the bleeding.
COHEN: Today, Morgan is just fine.
(on camera): Do you feel like a lucky girl?
MORGAN MCCRACKEN: Yeah.
COHEN: Lucky because her parents followed their instincts.
(On camera): In the emergency room, the doctor said she had a virus and she just needed to get some rest. If you had listened to that advice and brought her home to go to bet and rest, what would have happened?
D. MCCRACKEN: She probably would not have woken up the next morning and we would have lost her.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
WHITFIELD: Wow, what an extraordinary story. I'm so glad there's a happy ending there, because I really was nervous that the outcome wasn't going to be good.
COHEN: And it was. And that's the incredible thing about our special tonight is that all of the endings are happy. Maybe I'm giving it away. But all of the endings are.
WHITFIELD: That's attractive. People want to see that.
COHEN: Well, it is because we want people to know that when you take matters into your own hands, you can save your own life, or the life of someone you love. You can do it and you know what you really kind of have to do it. That's the reality these days.
WHITFIELD: You really have to be your best and biggest advocate. And at least surround yourself with people who are advocating for your great health care as well.
COHEN: Right. Oh, you really do.
WHITFIELD: Of course, you really can get lost in the shuffle.
COHEN: That's right. That's right.
I mean, this emergency room doctor, I can imagine he was very busy and this just seemed like a kid with the flu. And you had to have the parents there saying take a second look.
WHITFIELD: What can we, as patients, do to maybe help your doctors be a little bit more, I guess concerned about your concerns? As opposed to talking to you like, I'm the doctor, I'm prescribing this, this is the way you do it. Sometimes that can be intimidating and difficult, too.
COHEN: It can be. And doctors can sometimes get anchored in their diagnosis. Like in this case, your child has the flu. And sometimes there is a magic question you can ask that can help them see something else. And that question is, doctor, what else could this be? It is such a simple question, but it can help them see, yeah, it could be the flu but it could be a result of the accident that she had two days ago. So asking that question will help your doctor come up with a list of other things that this can be besides his one idea. Because almost always there are, you know, there are other options, there's more than one thing that any given set of symptoms could be.
WHITFIELD: That's exactly why people are encouraged to try to get second and third opinion, if you are dealing with an ailment, or situation that deserves the attention of perhaps a few brilliant minds.
COHEN: That's right. Obviously, I always tell the story. I have one daughter who is very prone to strep throat. And when she is nauseous and has a fever and a headache, her throat hurts, and the throat culture says it is strep, we don't get a second opinion. You know, she has strep.
But when it's something more complicated, it's deserving of a second opinion. And in this case, the McCrackens couldn't get a second opinion.
WHITFIELD: They didn't have the time.
COHEN: They didn't have the time. But in that case, you kind of have to be your own second opinion. You have to say, I don't think you've gotten it right.
WHITFIELD: Fantastic for them. And, of course, fantastic for you and all of us who will be watching, "Empowered Patient". You don't want to miss this. It's something that everyone needs at least one dose of Saturday, Sunday night 7:00 p.m. Eastern, right here on CNN.
Thanks, so much, Elizabeth.
COHEN: Thanks.
WHITFIELD: Appreciate it.
Well, first, she was "waiting to exhale," you know what I'm talking about. Now she's back to happy, or at least getting to happy, is her motto. Author Terry McMillan is back with a new book and new outlook on life and she hopes you enjoy one, too.
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WHITFIELD: All right. They're back. Savannah, Bernadine, Gloria, and Robin, characters we first met almost two decades ago, as they were "Waiting to Exhale". The author Terry McMillan has brought them back together in a new book and soon to be sequel movie. Their mission -- getting to happy. I talked face to face with the best- selling novelist about whether this story parallels her own life.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
People have been waiting anxiously to know if there is going to be something, a sequel to "Waiting To Exhale." So here we are, "Getting To Happy." What happened in your life or in these women's lives that you felt like it was time to see what's happened 15 years after? TERRY MCMILLAN, AUTHOR, "GETTING TO HAPPY": Well, it wasn't what happened to them, it was due to what happened to me. I had no intention of writing a sequel.
After my divorce, I was really bitter and angry and I started meeting a lot of other women in my age group, mid 40s to late 50s who were just sad. And so in trying to explore what it might take for us to get back to happy, so to speak, I just came up with four different scenarios that I know a lot of women have to deal with. I realize I had already told the story with four female protagonists, and then I realized that those women were the perfect candidates for this story.
(BEGIN MOVIE CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I'll be 21 my next birthday, so that makes me 22. And you are?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: 40.
(END MOVIE CLIP)
WHITFIELD: When people read "Stella Got Her Groove Back" they thought that was your experience. But then you shared that deception. So it's interesting that you talk about you were in a place, you were upset, your husband wasn't what you thought he was. Why is it that you made a decision, I'm going to do a continuation of these women's lives as opposed to write specifically about what happened to me?
MCMILLAN: Even telling the story of Stella , only about 90-about 95 percent of that did not happen, but I was compelled to tell the story. And I knew to some extent that nothing is promised. When he decided to tell me what he thought he was, and I said, I know what thinking means. And then, of course, all the other ugly stuff started coming out.
When you've been deceived, when you have been lied to, and someone that you trusted, I don't care who they are, when it happens, you don't care. You're just angry.
WHITFIELD: At one point did you say, you know, what I'm tired of being mad?
MCMILLAN: I was swearing a lot. I was grinding my teeth. And it was not who I was. And it just started dawning on me how much energy it takes to be angry. I have since forgiven my ex-husband. And we are actually friends now. I don't think you allow your past to destroy your present. Even writing this book. You know what, hold up a minute here, I deserve to be happy. I deserve to have some joy in my life. And this story, I wanted to try to dramatize what happens when you do. And when you don't rely on someone else for all of your happiness.
WHITFIELD: It sounds as if you're sprinkled your life, your experiences into all of these women's lives in some capacity.
MCMILLAN: I take observations and personalize them through my characters and it doesn't mean it had to have happened to me. But when I write it through these characters, through their eyes, and through their hearts, it feels like it did.
WHITFIELD: Is this likely to be a movie?
MCMILLAN: Well, 20th Century Fox bought the movie rights about five months ago, before it was actually a book. And before you ask, three of the four women seem to be very, very interested reprising their in their roles. And we are praying and hoping that Whitney will, too.
WHITFIELD: So to kind of summarize these women, Savannah, she's the first character you tackled. What's the breaking point for Savannah? How does she get to this point on this journey of "Getting To Happy"?
MCMILLAN: She just discovered something about his behavior that I think sort of angered her. Not anything that was as deep as finding out that your husband is gay. She just decides to take a risk on herself. And take a risk on even going solo. But she's not, nor have I, given up on love, or men.
WHITFIELD: Gloria?
MCMILLAN: Gloria she has experienced a different kind of a loss, I don't want to say. She has to go through her own form of grief and just start to begin to heal her life.
WHITFIELD: And Bernadine?
MCMILLAN: She has forgiven her first ex-husband for the way he treated her. They're actually friends in this story. Bernadine has had an experience that has made her bitter, so she has to learn a lot of things in terms of forgiving herself and forgiving other people.
WHITFIELD: And Robin?
MCMILLAN: Robin tried to be a good single parent, and her attitude is that you should look for a man the same way you do a pair of black pumps. Keep trying them on until you find the one that fits.
WHITFIELD: So these women are now breathing?
MCMILLAN: I would like to think they are. Yes.
WHITFIELD: Not just exhaling, but they are breathing.
MCMILLAN: You can exhale more than once.
(LAUGHTER)
WHITFIELD: Terry McMillan, a true pleasure to sit down face to face with her. I'm Fredricka Whitfield. Brooke Baldwin is up next with more of the NEWSROOM after this.
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