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The Growing Battle Over Illegal Immigration; Interview with Dr. Deepak Chopra; Will Electronic Voting Machines Make Voting Easier?
Aired October 14, 2004 - 14:29 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
MILES O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: Welcome back. From the CNN Center in Atlanta, this is LIVE FROM. I'm Miles O'Brien.
KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: And I'm Kyra Phillips. Here's what's all now this half hour.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: For English, press one. Para Espanol, oprima numero dos.
DONALD ARTHUR KING, AMERICAN RESISTANCE: I have to decide which language I want to speak here in Georgia. I'm less than pleased about that that.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
PHILLIPS: Immigrants -- legal and illegal -- changing American culture. Is it a positive or a negative for you?
O'BRIEN: But first, here's what's happening now in the news.
Ominous clouds above the nerve center at Baghdad. Bombs exploded today in the heavily guarded Green Zone, the seat of Iraq's interim government and, of course, the U.S.-led reconstruction effort. At least five were killed, including three Americans. Officials say it appears to have been the work of suicide bombers.
In another part of Iraq, Falluja, more deadly U.S. air strikes. A hospital official reports five dead, 15 wounded in the militant stronghold west of Baghdad. Iraqi officials are calling on the locals to turn in suspected militants or face full-scale assault that would be aimed at crushing them.
Well, they're in the homestretch, and the president says his spirits are high. He held a rally with Republican governors in Las Vegas last hour. Mr. Bush told the crowd he's proud of his record. He says Kerry wants to avoid talking about his.
John Kerry also in Las Vegas this hour. The senator getting ready to speak before the AARP, American Association of Retired People, a leading group for seniors's rights. We'll bring you some of his remarks live in just a little bit. That's later today, as well. We'll hear from him as he campaigns in Iowa.
PHILLIPS: This election year, immigration is an issue that sparks a strong reaction from most Americans. "CNN PRESENTS" takes a look at the growing battle over illegal immigration in "Immigrant Nation, Divided Country." It explores the lives of four families who are trying to make a better life in America.
CNN's Maria Hinojosa follows immigrants from Mexico to right here in Atlanta.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
MARIA HINOJOSA, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Donald Arthur King is furious.
KING: Go help us. Come on.
What do you think about illegal immigration? Tell me the truth.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It ain't right.
KING: It ain't right. It's going to get worse!
HINOJOSA: Illegal aliens, as he calls them, have flooded his state of Georgia, and no one is doing anything about it.
KING: How will we know when we have enough illegal aliens in our country, and how will we stop them then?
Do you have a passport?
I think, in fact, illegal aliens are ruining Georgia, and I think they're ruining the United States of America.
A green card?
HINOJOSA (on camera): DA is a man on a mission, trying to stop what he calls a veritable modern day invasion. But look around, and anyone can tell him it's a losing battle.
Georgia has one of the fastest growing Latino populations in the country. And despite some resistance, these people have found a place for themselves. An average of 90 immigrants arrive here every day.
(voice-over): Undocumented immigrants like Rosa. Twenty-eight- years-old and a single mother, she spends every waking moment working to bring her children across.
ROSA (through translator): My kids -- the goal for me to bring my kids from Mexico.
HINOJOSA: Rosa first came to Georgia two years ago, all alone. Last year, unable to bear the separation any longer, Rosa paid a smuggler $5,000 to wade her children across the river at night. But they were caught at a checkpoint and immediately deported. Rosa faced a difficult decision.
ROSA (through translator): I told my daughter, you have two options: I either stay in Mexico with you; or I will live for the states for another year in preparation to bring the two of you. Then, my daughter told me to return to the states so I could bring them eventually.
HINOJOSA: Back in Mexico, in Villa Juanita, Veracruz, her children wait for her. More than half of the town has left for "el norte" -- the north. Rosa's sister takes stock of her abandoned town.
(on camera): How many people just from this little part of the town have gone to the United States?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE (through translator): Her husband, the son of the lady that lives over there, three sons of one of the ladies that lives in the house over there, her husband, the son of the lady that lives over there with his wife and child, and a block down, the husband of the woman who lives there also left.
HINOJOSA: And what about people who are thinking about going?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE (through translator): Oh, the ones who are thinking of leaving? There are many. Well, me.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
PHILLIPS: Maria Hinojosa joins us now to talk more about her special.
Now, Maria, what I found interesting, learning about this character DA -- and you have a personal story, too. I want to get to that in a minute. You were born in Mexico City. I thought for sure you and DA would not get along very well. But actually, you have quite a different opinion.
HINOJOSA: You know what? There might be some people who would think how could a Mexican immigrant who's an American citizen get along with someone like DA. But you know, I have a tremendous amount respect for him, because he is doing what all American citizens should do: He's getting involved in the Democratic process, and he's asking his government and his leaders and the government officials for answers.
The situation with DA is that he's not getting many of those answers, so he continually gets more and more frustrated. And that's what we do with this documentary. We follow him for a period of time and see how his frustration level is rising to the point where he is personally going and stopping people on the streets.
And that, I think, is a problem that we have to look at. There is a real sense of frustration on the street. And this is what this documentary is all about. It's in people's lives on the front lines. How are they living this? How are they experiencing it? What are they doing changing their lives as a result of it?
PHILLIPS: Well, Maria, you could respect DA and what he's doing, but you respect what a lot of these immigrants are doing. I mean, your mom went through the same thing when she fought for your rights as a little girl coming from Mexico City. HINOJOSA: Yeah, they wanted to. When my mom brought us over legally many, many, many, years ago, the immigration officials didn't want to let me come into the country. I had a rash, and they thought I had tuberculosis. And I was about a year-and-a-half, and they wanted to keep me in quarantine.
And my mother, who didn't speak a lot of English, was traveling with four children all alone, five feet tall, and she demanded -- she said there is no way that I am going to Chicago without my daughter. And somehow, that immigration official gave me over to my mom and let me come.
But it shows the determination that people have, families have to stay together. And that's part of the drama that we look at with the documentary also is the separation. There are thousands of children who are crossing over this border, being crossed by strangers, by smugglers every day.
What does that mean when the most advanced country in the world like the United States is experiencing this reality of children being cross-trafficked because of this separation? It raises so many questions, and we have to try and answer.
PHILLIPS: Now, you spent a lot of time in the south working on this. A lot of breaking down of stereotypes in your mind, yes?
HINOJOSA: Well, you know, Kyra, I grew up in Chicago. I've been in New York for 25 years. And no, I did not spend a lot of time in the south.
In fact, the first time I was in Atlanta was 10 years ago, and I was training some young journalists. We sent them out to do a story looking for the barrio, the neighborhood -- the Latino neighborhood in Atlanta. And they said came back saying no one knows where the barrio is.
And this summer, I spent the entire summer living in Atlanta. And yeah, I think we all have to look at our own preconceived notions. I wasn't sure what to expect, but I have to say I love the south. I loved Atlanta. And I think that it's a part of the country that really is a microcosm of what we're seeing on a national level.
How do people deal with the fact there is the presence of illegal immigrants? They have questions that they want answered. They continue to press government officials. They don't get the answers. The immigrants continue to come because they continue to find work.
So, it's a dilemma, but it's one that is not stopping. And so, that's why I think we as a country need to talk about this.
PHILLIPS: Well, this is great stuff. Maria Hinojosa, thanks so much. We'll see you back here tomorrow, OK?
HINOJOSA: Sounds good.
PHILLIPS: All right. LIVE FROM will bring you more from this eye-opening documentary tomorrow at the same hour. CNN's Maria Hinojosa will join us once again. And you can catch the entire "CNN PRESENTS" documentary "Immigrant Nation, Divided Country" this Sunday. It premieres at 8:00 p.m. Eastern, 5:00 Pacific.
O'BRIEN: Up next, Deepak in the house. He's brought his book of secrets. There he is, live picture of him. He doesn't need a (INAUDIBLE).
PHILLIPS: He doesn't have secrets.
O'BRIEN: He doesn't have secrets. He shares his secrets. But the key is sharing them with you, which is our whole intent after a brief break. So, stay with us.
Then, another thing on our agenda -- secrets behind electronic voting. Deepak may be able to decipher that for us, too. Putting him on the spot for that. We'll work out the kinks a little later on LIVE FROM.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
PHILLIPS: That's actually live pictures of Maya Angelou, I believe. She's there speaking to the AARP, is that correct? That's right. And John Kerry -- she's actually getting ready to introduce John Kerry. He will be speak, so we'll dip into that when he takes to the podium.
Meanwhile, this is sort of a good segue from Maya to Deepak -- finding your soul mate, what job is best for me, how should I raise my kids, what's the meaning of life -- wouldn't we all like to answer those questions?
Well, Deepak Chopra says we can. I'm still a little skeptical. Matter of fact, the entire LIVE FROM team is counting on me today, especially Miles, to reveal how we can all achieve a personal breakthrough of some sort.
Dr. Chopra joins me here in Atlanta to talk about his new book, "The Book of Secrets: Unlocking the Hidden Dimensions of Your Life." It's a pleasure to have you back.
DR. DEEPAK CHOPRA, AUTHOR, "THE BOOK OF SECRETS": Thank you.
PHILLIPS: So, how do you define secrets? When we think of secrets, we think of all those the skeletons in the closet. But actually, you're talking about a different kind of secret.
CHOPRA: These are the -- you know, if you look up the origin of the word secret, it means mystery, OK? So, these are the secrets about the mysteriousness of our existence. Where did I come from? Do I have a soul? What happens to me after I die? Does God exist? If she does, does she care about us? What's the source of insight, inspiration, meaning, purpose, creativity, intuition, inspiration? Those are the real secrets of our existence.
PHILLIPS: So, within your book, it's discovering those secrets that make life easier?
CHOPRA: They make life much more interesting. They give you a lot of joy to know that your sheer fact of existence is enough to give you exaltation of your spirit.
I think this book addresses the biggest questions of our existence, including: Why do we suffer? How do we go beyond suffering? What's the nature of evil? Do we have a shadow? Does that collective shadow manifest as the evil we're seeing in the world right now? What do we do about it?
PHILLIPS: Perfect segue -- what do we do about it? Spiritual materialism, you talk about the pitfalls of the seeker. We actually put the list together. You say you should avoid these things, knowing where you're going, struggling to get there, using someone else's map, working to improve, waiting for a miracle. That seems like all the things that we should be doing.
CHOPRA: No. You know, Oscar Wilde one said, "Hard work, exacting plans, driving ambition -- they're the hallmarks of the failure." If you really want to succeed in life, you have to learn how to be flexible. You have to learn how to be creative. You have to learn to let go, and you have to be defenseless. You have to be a bit of a flip-flop in order to get to that...
PHILLIPS: You had to get the political side of it.
CHOPRA: You know, only mature people can change their mind. If you're rigid and you're always sure of what you're doing, there's no room for creativity.
PHILLIPS: Well, and that -- that's a very good point. And herein lies the next point: misuse of time. This is something we all are very good at here at CNN, especially in my crew. And we made the list here: anxious about future, reliving the past, regretting mistakes, reliving yesterday, anticipating tomorrow, et cetera, et cetera.
Miles and I thought, oh my gosh, we do this every day when we come into work. Are we that screwed up?
CHOPRA: As a civilization right now, we are screwed up. We have ancient habits and modern capacities which are devastating. And we risk our extinction on the planet at this moment with -- unless we learn to evolve.
You know, Mahatma Gandhi used to say, "Can you be the change that you wish to see in the world?" He also said, "There's no way to peace; peace is the way." So, in your inner transformation and in the collective transformation of a critical mass of humanity is the birth of a new world. Raul Seixas, a Brazilian poet, once said, "A dream that I dream alone is just a dream. But a dream that we dream together could be reality." a
PHILLIPS: I was kind of hoping I'd hear a little Rumi, too, but that's another book of yours. You know how much I respect your wisdom and what you have to say, but I got to challenge you on one thing. Golfer enlightenment, OK? My best friend and I had taken a look at this, and talking about being one with the ball. Now, listen, I've tried to talk to the ball. I've tried to be one with the ball. I've tried to talk to the club. I've tried to talk to God.
How do you find peace in this game, be honest with me?
CHOPRA: When you have that perfect swing even once in a while, you lose sense of time and you feel you are connected with all of creation.
Golf is a game where you have to use mind/body coordination, where you have to learn detachment -- because you're never going to be perfect at it. Where once in a while you're go into the timeless zone and things work for you, and the game plays itself through you.
PHILLIPS: All right, Miles. Did you hear that? We can never expect ourselves to be perfect.
O'BRIEN: Really?
PHILLIPS: Yeah. OK?
O'BRIEN: That's very disappointing to me.
PHILLIPS: That's the one thing we're going to take away from this today.
O'BRIEN: So, what do we do then?
CHOPRA: Addiction to perfection is the cause of a lot of illness in our society.
O'BRIEN: So, how far below perfection should you aim, just out of curiosity?
CHOPRA: You know, Freud once said, "The definition of neurosis is the inability to tolerate ambiguity." I think once you embrace uncertainty, then your intuition and your creativity and your insight and your connection to the creative parts of the universe really blossoms. So, let go of your idea of being perfect.
O'BRIEN: Let go. Let the good times roll.
PHILLIPS: We have just gone to a whole new level here on LIVE FROM, a much deeper level. I hope you'll come back again.
CHOPRA: Thank you, Kyra.
PHILLIPS: You always get us thinking about our lives.
CHOPRA: Thank you.
PHILLIPS: Deepak Chopra -- once again, the new book, "The Book of Secrets: Unlocking the Hidden Dimensions of Your Life." What a pleasure.
O'BRIEN: You can't really tell, but I'm in the lotus position right now. I'm feeling better already.
PHILLIPS: He's learning the yogas.
O'BRIEN: Hanging chads -- you remember that bad bit of karma from the 2000 election? Well, could the hang up this year be e-chads, so to speak? Well, egads! Our tech guru Daniel Sieberg is a virtual expert on such matters. He's here to talk about things relating to e- voting straight ahead on LIVE FROM.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
O'BRIEN: All right, thanks to those chads and butterflies in the last presidential election, both political parties have teams of lawyers standing by in case of recount kerfuffles this time around. God, I love that word. Thank you, Lisa Clark (ph).
Meanwhile, CNN's tech guru Daniel Sieberg -- and vice president in charge of kerfuffles -- has been looking into this on the kerfuffle desk.
DANIEL SIEBERG, CNN TECHNOLOGY CORRESPONDENT: It's sort of the guru fest today. You're the space guru. We had the self-help guru on earlier, and I'll be your tech guru.
O'BRIEN: And if the technology permitted, we'd let you use the Telestrator, too, which would take it over to 11.
SIEBERG: Right.
O'BRIEN: But let's just press on and talk about chads -- e- chads.
SIEBERG: Yes, e-chads. As you pointed out, about a third of the voters in the country will be using some type of electronic voting machine. And we can show you a map now that illustrates just how many places will have them.
It's that purplish color -- you can see Nevada there on the west, Georgia -- both those states have entirely bought into the idea of electronic voting. You can see other pockets of it, too, in states like Kentucky, Maryland, and of course Florida.
O'BRIEN: I'm sorry. Help me out. Which color is electronic?
SIEBERG: It's the purple one.
O'BRIEN: Purple.
SIEBERG: So, the purplish one, you can just see like Nevada -- I know, you have to sort of squint a little bit -- but if you know your geography, it will help a little bit.
Anyway, those are the places that'll be using electronic voting -- about a third of the country. Now, they're going to be using different types of machines. They're not one type of machine. So, they'll give you a smart card, like you see there, to insert into the machine. Some of them are touchscreens, some of them you actually have a scroll wheel.
The problem here is that there is a big concern that there was a rush to buy all these machines after 2000. So, money became available from the Help America Vote Act. A lot of states decided they were going to spend this money on some of these high-tech machines. But the researchers and the experts that we've talked to are very concerned that they jumped too soon, that the coating is not secure enough, that the machines aren't being handled in a proper manner, and that some poll workers aren't getting the training that they need.
Now, to illustrate that, we were just at a conference last week in Boston with MIT and Caltech and researchers among others. And they've been looking at electronic voting since 2000. And one of the researchers there, a Professor Ted Selker at MIT, he took some photos in Nevada where they have an entire statewide paper trail. They're the only state that has this paper trail which a lot of people are asking for.
What you can see here is a very well-intentioned poll worker who has a roll of ballots. She's basically handling these ballots. There's a paper jam, and she's got some scissors that you can actually see there on the counter, and she's trying to fix the paper jam. So, this is a human error.
O'BRIEN: If she's a cashier at Wal-Mart, that's what you'd do.
SIEBERG: Exactly.
O'BRIEN: ... with the ballot, right?
SIEBERG: Which is a tough enough to do when you're a cashier, let alone handling some ballots.
Now, this gentleman -- and God bless him for trying. Your heart goes out to this guy. They gave out number 2 pencils, for whatever reason, at this polling station in Nevada. And he's tapping very hard on the screen with his number two pencil. It's a touchscreen machine, so you don't need a pencil, but nobody told him that. So, he's trying to do what he thinks is right.
Now, this is another polling station where it looks sort of normal -- there's some computers there -- but you notice the problem there, Miles? The doors are open. This is where the votes are going to be tabulated. So, the potential that someone could go in there is big.
Now, you know, hacking these machines is certainly a problem, spoofing them, spoiling ballots -- but they're not connected on the Internet, so it's not a traditional hack in that sense. But there's a potential for someone to do something rather nefarious.
O'BRIEN: So, let's get to the bottom line here. The reaction to 2000 and the mess that occurred there could, in many ways, it's quite possible create an even larger mess this go-around?
SIEBERG: Yes. And that is the major concern of all of these researchers is that there's also going to be more of a spotlight, a focus on these electronic voting machines than there was prior to 2,000 because so many places went out and got them. They want to see how they're going to perform.
They have been failed in a lot of cases. There have been some erratic results. There have really been some troubling problems with these voting machines. On the flip side, we need to point out that the vendors have said that they are working on them, that they are trying to make them as secure and accurate as possible. They're meant to make people's lives easier. So, we can only hope that that will be the case. But we're going to be on standby after November 2nd, let's put it that way.
O'BRIEN: I should say so. It just goes to show you, the American response is to look for those silver bullet solutions. It makes me think that that ink stain they put on people's hands in Afghanistan may not be such a bad idea.
SIEBERG: Where they voted with paper ballots over the weekend, by the way.
O'BRIEN: Yeah, and it worked all right -- well, we think.
SIEBERG: Right.
O'BRIEN: Anyway, shopping -- well, thank you very much, Dan Sieberg. Appreciate it.
Dan Sieberg knows all about digital music players, by the way.
PHILLIPS: He's the techno guru.
O'BRIEN: Everything he has is legal on his computer, though. I want to just say that very clearly.
PHILLIPS: That's not what he told me!
O'BRIEN: But dude...
PHILLIPS: You're getting a Dell!
O'BRIEN: ... you could be getting a Dell, man!
PHILLIPS: Rhonda Schaffler with the latest on this Dell story. Hi, Rhonda.
(STOCK MARKET UPDATE)
O'BRIEN: All right. Thank you very much, Rhonda. Oh, what about -- we have a question for Rhonda, don't we?
PHILLIPS: I think we have to get straight to Judy.
O'BRIEN: Oh, no, no. That's right. We're not doing that question.
PHILLIPS: Right. We got to move on.
O'BRIEN: So confusing -- I see these things coming at me. I get so confused. Judy Woodruff is now ready for "INSIDE POLITICS" and shaking her head at us.
PHILLIPS: She always shakes her head at us.
Judy...
O'BRIEN: We've done something wrong.
PHILLIPS: ... I don't know why we always screw up the toss to you.
O'BRIEN: Ms. Woodruff, we're sorry.
PHILLIPS: We apologize.
JUDY WOODRUFF, HOST, "INSIDE POLITICS": I have never seen Miles confused. I've never seen Kyra confused, so...
PHILLIPS: She's such a good liar.
WOODRUFF: Thanks very much, guys.
You know, John Kerry is apparently batting a thousand in these debates, at least as far as our latest poll is concerned. Today, we'll look at how effective the candidates were in last night's match up.
Plus, with just 19 days to go until Election Day, we'll take a look at just how visible California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger is in President Bush's attempts to hold on to the White House.
"INSIDE POLITICS" begins in just a moment.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
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Aired October 14, 2004 - 14:29 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
MILES O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: Welcome back. From the CNN Center in Atlanta, this is LIVE FROM. I'm Miles O'Brien.
KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: And I'm Kyra Phillips. Here's what's all now this half hour.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: For English, press one. Para Espanol, oprima numero dos.
DONALD ARTHUR KING, AMERICAN RESISTANCE: I have to decide which language I want to speak here in Georgia. I'm less than pleased about that that.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
PHILLIPS: Immigrants -- legal and illegal -- changing American culture. Is it a positive or a negative for you?
O'BRIEN: But first, here's what's happening now in the news.
Ominous clouds above the nerve center at Baghdad. Bombs exploded today in the heavily guarded Green Zone, the seat of Iraq's interim government and, of course, the U.S.-led reconstruction effort. At least five were killed, including three Americans. Officials say it appears to have been the work of suicide bombers.
In another part of Iraq, Falluja, more deadly U.S. air strikes. A hospital official reports five dead, 15 wounded in the militant stronghold west of Baghdad. Iraqi officials are calling on the locals to turn in suspected militants or face full-scale assault that would be aimed at crushing them.
Well, they're in the homestretch, and the president says his spirits are high. He held a rally with Republican governors in Las Vegas last hour. Mr. Bush told the crowd he's proud of his record. He says Kerry wants to avoid talking about his.
John Kerry also in Las Vegas this hour. The senator getting ready to speak before the AARP, American Association of Retired People, a leading group for seniors's rights. We'll bring you some of his remarks live in just a little bit. That's later today, as well. We'll hear from him as he campaigns in Iowa.
PHILLIPS: This election year, immigration is an issue that sparks a strong reaction from most Americans. "CNN PRESENTS" takes a look at the growing battle over illegal immigration in "Immigrant Nation, Divided Country." It explores the lives of four families who are trying to make a better life in America.
CNN's Maria Hinojosa follows immigrants from Mexico to right here in Atlanta.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
MARIA HINOJOSA, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Donald Arthur King is furious.
KING: Go help us. Come on.
What do you think about illegal immigration? Tell me the truth.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It ain't right.
KING: It ain't right. It's going to get worse!
HINOJOSA: Illegal aliens, as he calls them, have flooded his state of Georgia, and no one is doing anything about it.
KING: How will we know when we have enough illegal aliens in our country, and how will we stop them then?
Do you have a passport?
I think, in fact, illegal aliens are ruining Georgia, and I think they're ruining the United States of America.
A green card?
HINOJOSA (on camera): DA is a man on a mission, trying to stop what he calls a veritable modern day invasion. But look around, and anyone can tell him it's a losing battle.
Georgia has one of the fastest growing Latino populations in the country. And despite some resistance, these people have found a place for themselves. An average of 90 immigrants arrive here every day.
(voice-over): Undocumented immigrants like Rosa. Twenty-eight- years-old and a single mother, she spends every waking moment working to bring her children across.
ROSA (through translator): My kids -- the goal for me to bring my kids from Mexico.
HINOJOSA: Rosa first came to Georgia two years ago, all alone. Last year, unable to bear the separation any longer, Rosa paid a smuggler $5,000 to wade her children across the river at night. But they were caught at a checkpoint and immediately deported. Rosa faced a difficult decision.
ROSA (through translator): I told my daughter, you have two options: I either stay in Mexico with you; or I will live for the states for another year in preparation to bring the two of you. Then, my daughter told me to return to the states so I could bring them eventually.
HINOJOSA: Back in Mexico, in Villa Juanita, Veracruz, her children wait for her. More than half of the town has left for "el norte" -- the north. Rosa's sister takes stock of her abandoned town.
(on camera): How many people just from this little part of the town have gone to the United States?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE (through translator): Her husband, the son of the lady that lives over there, three sons of one of the ladies that lives in the house over there, her husband, the son of the lady that lives over there with his wife and child, and a block down, the husband of the woman who lives there also left.
HINOJOSA: And what about people who are thinking about going?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE (through translator): Oh, the ones who are thinking of leaving? There are many. Well, me.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
PHILLIPS: Maria Hinojosa joins us now to talk more about her special.
Now, Maria, what I found interesting, learning about this character DA -- and you have a personal story, too. I want to get to that in a minute. You were born in Mexico City. I thought for sure you and DA would not get along very well. But actually, you have quite a different opinion.
HINOJOSA: You know what? There might be some people who would think how could a Mexican immigrant who's an American citizen get along with someone like DA. But you know, I have a tremendous amount respect for him, because he is doing what all American citizens should do: He's getting involved in the Democratic process, and he's asking his government and his leaders and the government officials for answers.
The situation with DA is that he's not getting many of those answers, so he continually gets more and more frustrated. And that's what we do with this documentary. We follow him for a period of time and see how his frustration level is rising to the point where he is personally going and stopping people on the streets.
And that, I think, is a problem that we have to look at. There is a real sense of frustration on the street. And this is what this documentary is all about. It's in people's lives on the front lines. How are they living this? How are they experiencing it? What are they doing changing their lives as a result of it?
PHILLIPS: Well, Maria, you could respect DA and what he's doing, but you respect what a lot of these immigrants are doing. I mean, your mom went through the same thing when she fought for your rights as a little girl coming from Mexico City. HINOJOSA: Yeah, they wanted to. When my mom brought us over legally many, many, many, years ago, the immigration officials didn't want to let me come into the country. I had a rash, and they thought I had tuberculosis. And I was about a year-and-a-half, and they wanted to keep me in quarantine.
And my mother, who didn't speak a lot of English, was traveling with four children all alone, five feet tall, and she demanded -- she said there is no way that I am going to Chicago without my daughter. And somehow, that immigration official gave me over to my mom and let me come.
But it shows the determination that people have, families have to stay together. And that's part of the drama that we look at with the documentary also is the separation. There are thousands of children who are crossing over this border, being crossed by strangers, by smugglers every day.
What does that mean when the most advanced country in the world like the United States is experiencing this reality of children being cross-trafficked because of this separation? It raises so many questions, and we have to try and answer.
PHILLIPS: Now, you spent a lot of time in the south working on this. A lot of breaking down of stereotypes in your mind, yes?
HINOJOSA: Well, you know, Kyra, I grew up in Chicago. I've been in New York for 25 years. And no, I did not spend a lot of time in the south.
In fact, the first time I was in Atlanta was 10 years ago, and I was training some young journalists. We sent them out to do a story looking for the barrio, the neighborhood -- the Latino neighborhood in Atlanta. And they said came back saying no one knows where the barrio is.
And this summer, I spent the entire summer living in Atlanta. And yeah, I think we all have to look at our own preconceived notions. I wasn't sure what to expect, but I have to say I love the south. I loved Atlanta. And I think that it's a part of the country that really is a microcosm of what we're seeing on a national level.
How do people deal with the fact there is the presence of illegal immigrants? They have questions that they want answered. They continue to press government officials. They don't get the answers. The immigrants continue to come because they continue to find work.
So, it's a dilemma, but it's one that is not stopping. And so, that's why I think we as a country need to talk about this.
PHILLIPS: Well, this is great stuff. Maria Hinojosa, thanks so much. We'll see you back here tomorrow, OK?
HINOJOSA: Sounds good.
PHILLIPS: All right. LIVE FROM will bring you more from this eye-opening documentary tomorrow at the same hour. CNN's Maria Hinojosa will join us once again. And you can catch the entire "CNN PRESENTS" documentary "Immigrant Nation, Divided Country" this Sunday. It premieres at 8:00 p.m. Eastern, 5:00 Pacific.
O'BRIEN: Up next, Deepak in the house. He's brought his book of secrets. There he is, live picture of him. He doesn't need a (INAUDIBLE).
PHILLIPS: He doesn't have secrets.
O'BRIEN: He doesn't have secrets. He shares his secrets. But the key is sharing them with you, which is our whole intent after a brief break. So, stay with us.
Then, another thing on our agenda -- secrets behind electronic voting. Deepak may be able to decipher that for us, too. Putting him on the spot for that. We'll work out the kinks a little later on LIVE FROM.
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PHILLIPS: That's actually live pictures of Maya Angelou, I believe. She's there speaking to the AARP, is that correct? That's right. And John Kerry -- she's actually getting ready to introduce John Kerry. He will be speak, so we'll dip into that when he takes to the podium.
Meanwhile, this is sort of a good segue from Maya to Deepak -- finding your soul mate, what job is best for me, how should I raise my kids, what's the meaning of life -- wouldn't we all like to answer those questions?
Well, Deepak Chopra says we can. I'm still a little skeptical. Matter of fact, the entire LIVE FROM team is counting on me today, especially Miles, to reveal how we can all achieve a personal breakthrough of some sort.
Dr. Chopra joins me here in Atlanta to talk about his new book, "The Book of Secrets: Unlocking the Hidden Dimensions of Your Life." It's a pleasure to have you back.
DR. DEEPAK CHOPRA, AUTHOR, "THE BOOK OF SECRETS": Thank you.
PHILLIPS: So, how do you define secrets? When we think of secrets, we think of all those the skeletons in the closet. But actually, you're talking about a different kind of secret.
CHOPRA: These are the -- you know, if you look up the origin of the word secret, it means mystery, OK? So, these are the secrets about the mysteriousness of our existence. Where did I come from? Do I have a soul? What happens to me after I die? Does God exist? If she does, does she care about us? What's the source of insight, inspiration, meaning, purpose, creativity, intuition, inspiration? Those are the real secrets of our existence.
PHILLIPS: So, within your book, it's discovering those secrets that make life easier?
CHOPRA: They make life much more interesting. They give you a lot of joy to know that your sheer fact of existence is enough to give you exaltation of your spirit.
I think this book addresses the biggest questions of our existence, including: Why do we suffer? How do we go beyond suffering? What's the nature of evil? Do we have a shadow? Does that collective shadow manifest as the evil we're seeing in the world right now? What do we do about it?
PHILLIPS: Perfect segue -- what do we do about it? Spiritual materialism, you talk about the pitfalls of the seeker. We actually put the list together. You say you should avoid these things, knowing where you're going, struggling to get there, using someone else's map, working to improve, waiting for a miracle. That seems like all the things that we should be doing.
CHOPRA: No. You know, Oscar Wilde one said, "Hard work, exacting plans, driving ambition -- they're the hallmarks of the failure." If you really want to succeed in life, you have to learn how to be flexible. You have to learn how to be creative. You have to learn to let go, and you have to be defenseless. You have to be a bit of a flip-flop in order to get to that...
PHILLIPS: You had to get the political side of it.
CHOPRA: You know, only mature people can change their mind. If you're rigid and you're always sure of what you're doing, there's no room for creativity.
PHILLIPS: Well, and that -- that's a very good point. And herein lies the next point: misuse of time. This is something we all are very good at here at CNN, especially in my crew. And we made the list here: anxious about future, reliving the past, regretting mistakes, reliving yesterday, anticipating tomorrow, et cetera, et cetera.
Miles and I thought, oh my gosh, we do this every day when we come into work. Are we that screwed up?
CHOPRA: As a civilization right now, we are screwed up. We have ancient habits and modern capacities which are devastating. And we risk our extinction on the planet at this moment with -- unless we learn to evolve.
You know, Mahatma Gandhi used to say, "Can you be the change that you wish to see in the world?" He also said, "There's no way to peace; peace is the way." So, in your inner transformation and in the collective transformation of a critical mass of humanity is the birth of a new world. Raul Seixas, a Brazilian poet, once said, "A dream that I dream alone is just a dream. But a dream that we dream together could be reality." a
PHILLIPS: I was kind of hoping I'd hear a little Rumi, too, but that's another book of yours. You know how much I respect your wisdom and what you have to say, but I got to challenge you on one thing. Golfer enlightenment, OK? My best friend and I had taken a look at this, and talking about being one with the ball. Now, listen, I've tried to talk to the ball. I've tried to be one with the ball. I've tried to talk to the club. I've tried to talk to God.
How do you find peace in this game, be honest with me?
CHOPRA: When you have that perfect swing even once in a while, you lose sense of time and you feel you are connected with all of creation.
Golf is a game where you have to use mind/body coordination, where you have to learn detachment -- because you're never going to be perfect at it. Where once in a while you're go into the timeless zone and things work for you, and the game plays itself through you.
PHILLIPS: All right, Miles. Did you hear that? We can never expect ourselves to be perfect.
O'BRIEN: Really?
PHILLIPS: Yeah. OK?
O'BRIEN: That's very disappointing to me.
PHILLIPS: That's the one thing we're going to take away from this today.
O'BRIEN: So, what do we do then?
CHOPRA: Addiction to perfection is the cause of a lot of illness in our society.
O'BRIEN: So, how far below perfection should you aim, just out of curiosity?
CHOPRA: You know, Freud once said, "The definition of neurosis is the inability to tolerate ambiguity." I think once you embrace uncertainty, then your intuition and your creativity and your insight and your connection to the creative parts of the universe really blossoms. So, let go of your idea of being perfect.
O'BRIEN: Let go. Let the good times roll.
PHILLIPS: We have just gone to a whole new level here on LIVE FROM, a much deeper level. I hope you'll come back again.
CHOPRA: Thank you, Kyra.
PHILLIPS: You always get us thinking about our lives.
CHOPRA: Thank you.
PHILLIPS: Deepak Chopra -- once again, the new book, "The Book of Secrets: Unlocking the Hidden Dimensions of Your Life." What a pleasure.
O'BRIEN: You can't really tell, but I'm in the lotus position right now. I'm feeling better already.
PHILLIPS: He's learning the yogas.
O'BRIEN: Hanging chads -- you remember that bad bit of karma from the 2000 election? Well, could the hang up this year be e-chads, so to speak? Well, egads! Our tech guru Daniel Sieberg is a virtual expert on such matters. He's here to talk about things relating to e- voting straight ahead on LIVE FROM.
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O'BRIEN: All right, thanks to those chads and butterflies in the last presidential election, both political parties have teams of lawyers standing by in case of recount kerfuffles this time around. God, I love that word. Thank you, Lisa Clark (ph).
Meanwhile, CNN's tech guru Daniel Sieberg -- and vice president in charge of kerfuffles -- has been looking into this on the kerfuffle desk.
DANIEL SIEBERG, CNN TECHNOLOGY CORRESPONDENT: It's sort of the guru fest today. You're the space guru. We had the self-help guru on earlier, and I'll be your tech guru.
O'BRIEN: And if the technology permitted, we'd let you use the Telestrator, too, which would take it over to 11.
SIEBERG: Right.
O'BRIEN: But let's just press on and talk about chads -- e- chads.
SIEBERG: Yes, e-chads. As you pointed out, about a third of the voters in the country will be using some type of electronic voting machine. And we can show you a map now that illustrates just how many places will have them.
It's that purplish color -- you can see Nevada there on the west, Georgia -- both those states have entirely bought into the idea of electronic voting. You can see other pockets of it, too, in states like Kentucky, Maryland, and of course Florida.
O'BRIEN: I'm sorry. Help me out. Which color is electronic?
SIEBERG: It's the purple one.
O'BRIEN: Purple.
SIEBERG: So, the purplish one, you can just see like Nevada -- I know, you have to sort of squint a little bit -- but if you know your geography, it will help a little bit.
Anyway, those are the places that'll be using electronic voting -- about a third of the country. Now, they're going to be using different types of machines. They're not one type of machine. So, they'll give you a smart card, like you see there, to insert into the machine. Some of them are touchscreens, some of them you actually have a scroll wheel.
The problem here is that there is a big concern that there was a rush to buy all these machines after 2000. So, money became available from the Help America Vote Act. A lot of states decided they were going to spend this money on some of these high-tech machines. But the researchers and the experts that we've talked to are very concerned that they jumped too soon, that the coating is not secure enough, that the machines aren't being handled in a proper manner, and that some poll workers aren't getting the training that they need.
Now, to illustrate that, we were just at a conference last week in Boston with MIT and Caltech and researchers among others. And they've been looking at electronic voting since 2000. And one of the researchers there, a Professor Ted Selker at MIT, he took some photos in Nevada where they have an entire statewide paper trail. They're the only state that has this paper trail which a lot of people are asking for.
What you can see here is a very well-intentioned poll worker who has a roll of ballots. She's basically handling these ballots. There's a paper jam, and she's got some scissors that you can actually see there on the counter, and she's trying to fix the paper jam. So, this is a human error.
O'BRIEN: If she's a cashier at Wal-Mart, that's what you'd do.
SIEBERG: Exactly.
O'BRIEN: ... with the ballot, right?
SIEBERG: Which is a tough enough to do when you're a cashier, let alone handling some ballots.
Now, this gentleman -- and God bless him for trying. Your heart goes out to this guy. They gave out number 2 pencils, for whatever reason, at this polling station in Nevada. And he's tapping very hard on the screen with his number two pencil. It's a touchscreen machine, so you don't need a pencil, but nobody told him that. So, he's trying to do what he thinks is right.
Now, this is another polling station where it looks sort of normal -- there's some computers there -- but you notice the problem there, Miles? The doors are open. This is where the votes are going to be tabulated. So, the potential that someone could go in there is big.
Now, you know, hacking these machines is certainly a problem, spoofing them, spoiling ballots -- but they're not connected on the Internet, so it's not a traditional hack in that sense. But there's a potential for someone to do something rather nefarious.
O'BRIEN: So, let's get to the bottom line here. The reaction to 2000 and the mess that occurred there could, in many ways, it's quite possible create an even larger mess this go-around?
SIEBERG: Yes. And that is the major concern of all of these researchers is that there's also going to be more of a spotlight, a focus on these electronic voting machines than there was prior to 2,000 because so many places went out and got them. They want to see how they're going to perform.
They have been failed in a lot of cases. There have been some erratic results. There have really been some troubling problems with these voting machines. On the flip side, we need to point out that the vendors have said that they are working on them, that they are trying to make them as secure and accurate as possible. They're meant to make people's lives easier. So, we can only hope that that will be the case. But we're going to be on standby after November 2nd, let's put it that way.
O'BRIEN: I should say so. It just goes to show you, the American response is to look for those silver bullet solutions. It makes me think that that ink stain they put on people's hands in Afghanistan may not be such a bad idea.
SIEBERG: Where they voted with paper ballots over the weekend, by the way.
O'BRIEN: Yeah, and it worked all right -- well, we think.
SIEBERG: Right.
O'BRIEN: Anyway, shopping -- well, thank you very much, Dan Sieberg. Appreciate it.
Dan Sieberg knows all about digital music players, by the way.
PHILLIPS: He's the techno guru.
O'BRIEN: Everything he has is legal on his computer, though. I want to just say that very clearly.
PHILLIPS: That's not what he told me!
O'BRIEN: But dude...
PHILLIPS: You're getting a Dell!
O'BRIEN: ... you could be getting a Dell, man!
PHILLIPS: Rhonda Schaffler with the latest on this Dell story. Hi, Rhonda.
(STOCK MARKET UPDATE)
O'BRIEN: All right. Thank you very much, Rhonda. Oh, what about -- we have a question for Rhonda, don't we?
PHILLIPS: I think we have to get straight to Judy.
O'BRIEN: Oh, no, no. That's right. We're not doing that question.
PHILLIPS: Right. We got to move on.
O'BRIEN: So confusing -- I see these things coming at me. I get so confused. Judy Woodruff is now ready for "INSIDE POLITICS" and shaking her head at us.
PHILLIPS: She always shakes her head at us.
Judy...
O'BRIEN: We've done something wrong.
PHILLIPS: ... I don't know why we always screw up the toss to you.
O'BRIEN: Ms. Woodruff, we're sorry.
PHILLIPS: We apologize.
JUDY WOODRUFF, HOST, "INSIDE POLITICS": I have never seen Miles confused. I've never seen Kyra confused, so...
PHILLIPS: She's such a good liar.
WOODRUFF: Thanks very much, guys.
You know, John Kerry is apparently batting a thousand in these debates, at least as far as our latest poll is concerned. Today, we'll look at how effective the candidates were in last night's match up.
Plus, with just 19 days to go until Election Day, we'll take a look at just how visible California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger is in President Bush's attempts to hold on to the White House.
"INSIDE POLITICS" begins in just a moment.
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