North Carolina Now; North Carolina Now Episode from 11/20/1997

The It's Thursday November 20th. Tonight the secrets of the famous horse whisperer revealed in North Carolina. Nell. Good evening everyone and welcome to this Thursday edition of North Carolina now. He's featured in a bestselling book that's now be made into a movie produced by Robert Redford. Tonight we'll show you how the famous horse whisperer has created a name for himself without saying a word. Plus we'll talk to the dean of North Carolina

State University's College of textiles about a rebound occurring in North Carolina's textile industry. But first an innovative program teaching troubled kids trust and responsibility. Raising a child in today's world can be very hard. Sometimes the challenges become so overwhelming that the family structure breaks down and often those who pay the highest price are the most vulnerable the children. But as Maria Lumbergh reports a safe haven for kids like welcome mom is making a big difference in their lives. Drugs affect the brain what we learn. Tiffany Hartley's and the other kids for school. Could you but you know OK this looks like a typical classroom and in many ways it is what sets it apart is that this school is located on the campus of the boys and girls homes of North Carolina. Located at Lake walk Amman the setting looks like a peaceful resort or small college

but this 40 acre campus is a residential child care facility which houses 72 boys and girls. Generally the children are placed here because it's unsafe for them to be living in their homes. Typically a child is 13 to 15 although we take them from age 9 to 18. They come 66 or 67 percent from single parent homes. Generally a female is the single parent. There has been substance abuse of some form or multiple. And there have been other forms of abuse whether physical mental sexual or otherwise because of the serious nature of the problems that must be addressed. And individual treatment plan is developed for each child. We work out a plan of care for that child in which we take two or three of the most difficult issues facing that child and that becomes our focus. And then as we move through those issues then we had more and more as we

go along and we've got 192 living our social skills that we teach. Residents live in one of the nine cottages on campus which provide a family atmosphere each cottage is supervised by permanent livin adult staff members. These teaching parents as they are called are available 24 hours a day to provide guidance support and a loving discipline. We try to make them feel like they belong here. We try to bring that family atmosphere so that they have relationships that they can develop and you know so they are not just terror as another number. While this may not be a family in the usual sense of the word it is a family teaching model where everyone is expected to contribute and get along. Kids have assigned chores and help with daily maintenance in the cottages. Residents in the high school cottages even plan meals and do much of the cooking themselves. Children are rewarded for effort and achievement through motivation system which

reinforces positive changes in behavior and attitude. One of the most important goals is to build self-esteem. Something most of the children do not have when they come here. What they have is a total lack of trust and an anger which they don't understand which results in exactly what you're talking about. No self-esteem. But as they come to understand and care and trust. Then they begin to understand what they're capable of and through that process their esteem grows. One extra curricular activity that helps build self-esteem is the traveling Muppet Show. Kids selected for the troop produce plays which they perform for civic clubs all around the state. Free of charge. What don't they have in Charlotte. B For one thing I'm stuck here in this burg. Well the world passes me by. I want to be a wife. What time did you go to cooking talent.

How much talent do you have to have to go along with being a wonderful creative outlet. These kids gain satisfaction and pride from the results of their hard work. Here at the boys and girls homes young people receive housing food clothing counseling emotional support and academic instruction. But. I also learned what it really means to take responsibility for themselves and for their actions. In addition to the main campus the homes also own a 110 acre farm which is used as a therapeutic tool. The kids are paid for their jobs in the greenhouse and in caring for the animals. But more importantly they learn to be responsible. It teaches them a lot about themselves. It teaches them a lot about life because that steer is not going to do whatever you want to do unless you treat it as you might expect to be treated you're not going to kick it and get a result out of it you've got

to feed it you've got to brush it you've got to wash it you've got to talk to it. And pretty soon for a trial whether that's with a plant or a steer or a pig they understand that it takes giving before you get something in return that you want that knowledge is also directly transferable to the way that children deal with people and that's what we teach kids right here. You have choices you make good choices you make bad choices just be willing to live with your consequences for those choices. The lessons they learn and the changes they make can be rough. But the young people here say this home has made a big difference in their lives. Well I have changed my other two of my first had a bad habit to buy dishes for them. This is fed to my house for us. So my attitude changes so it has hit me because there's a lot of things I forget

here I'm like they were just you know the boys and girls homes are a non-threatening environment where children can heal from the past while learning skills that will make them successful in the future. We try to give them that warm family environment. But most of all we try to get them to understand they're human beings. They have a great deal of personal worth. Here are your talents. Here's how to exploit them how to make them grow how to use them to help others as well as help yourself. These children are our future and these are our tomorrows. And I really think by teaching them the skills that we do teach them enables them to become better members in society and productive members in society unless in fact he has counted these children out. What we do is enable to enable them to do is to count them back into society and that can be productive members like we know they can be.

The boys and girls home of North Carolina tries to reunite children with their families whenever possible. And although the homes receive some state and federal money primary funding comes from private donors and civic organizations throughout the state. Well coming up the horse whisperer shares his talent with Tar Hill horse owners. But first let's check in with Mitchell who is at the North Carolina now news desk for a summary of today's statewide headlines. I'm in it. Hello Shannon. Good evening everyone. Topping our news attorney general Mike easily thinks better written guidelines and more accessible training will help avoid future problems for state boards and commissions. To that end Easley is mounting a special task force to advise members on their ethics policies and possible conflicts of interest. The attorney general is making available a team of attorneys and State Bureau of Investigation agents to review ethics policies and hold ethics seminars with board members and commissioners. Easily says what he's trying to do is prevent problems before they happen. The governor has won a seat on a national task force which encourages businesses to hire welfare recipients. The National Advisory

Council of the Welfare to Work Partnership is a bipartisan panel of 20 governors the council works with businesses to develop effective approaches to moving families off public assistance. The governor's office says more than 20 200 companies nationwide have already joined the partnership by pledging to hire and retain former welfare recipients without displacing existing workers. U.S. Representative David Price says the federal government has done a lot to improve the affordability and accessibility of higher education but more needs to be done. Price says new family tax credits and deductions for student loans are making college more affordable for students in their first two years. But Price says grants could help alleviate student loan debt. And the North Carolina congressman sends a greater number of historically black institutions need substantially more funding support. Charlotte has been selected as one of 21 cities in the nation to participate in a new school safety program. AT&T is putting free cellular phones in the hands of school bus drivers guards playground monitors and other school employees and chaperones. The phones would

enable people responsible for student safety to call police. The school office or each other. Schools have been given the cellular equipment nationwide and in business news sales for pharmaceutical giant Glaxo Wellcome grew 7 percent this year after making adjustments for currency fluctuations. The figure provides Glaxo with its first glimpse of sales performance after losing patent protection for the drug Zantac without currency adjustments However sales for the first ten months dipped 3 percent due to the strength of the British pound Glaxo Wellcome the world's second largest drug company has a base located in Research Triangle Park Glaxo welcomes world headquarters in London. And now for a look at what happened on Wall Street today. After

years of downsizing the textile industry in North Carolina is enjoying a rebound. Sonya Williams recently spoke with Robert Barnhart the dean of North Carolina State University's College of textiles about the industry and the college. Dr. Robert Barnes thank you so much for joining us. Let's start with North Carolina State University's College of textiles just kind of give us an overview of what's going on there are exciting things going on at the College of text. First we have to talk about our students and we have a thousand and thirty five undergraduate college. They provide the energy for what's happening on the campus and then we have about six and a half million dollars worth of contract research going on for

industry and government agencies and so forth so there are a lot of exciting things going on in that in that category as well. And then we're working so closely with the the industry in general that there's always new dynamic things happening there as well. Right now when we say textiles What exactly are we talking about these days and there that term kind of changes a little from time to time what exactly are we talking about when we say tech stuff that's the greatest question you possibly ask because to most people when you talk about texters they think of sock shirts and underwear. And that's really only a third or 40 percent of our business in the apparel business. The other side of it is the the home furnishings the towels in the sheets the carpets on the floor and things of that nature. And then we have the industrial products like tires and all of the the components of automobiles that you can think of Geotech stores astroturf medical applications of artificial heart valves and everything like that nature as well so that it's a very broad industry. Now the textile industry in North Carolina and in the south particularly has been struggling to

survive I guess over the past few years. What I guess is going on as far as. The industry has it changing in North Carolina. That's another great question we have to differentiate between the textile industry in its broad terms and the textile industry in the specific terms. Another way of looking at what's called the textile industry is the broad term meaning it's the fiber industry that extrude nylons and polyester and things like this like the Dupont corporation. It's the primary textile industry that we use in knits and spins these things into fabrics and yarns. And then it's the apparel industry like Levi Strauss for instance that takes the fabric in and cuts them into a garment. The textile industry in its in its narrow sense in the middle is really prospering in North Carolina. The apparel industry is the side that is having difficulties because of the amount of labor content necessary in the actual sewing operations. OK. Now I know a lot of companies have taken have move from North Carolina to Mexico and other places like that. What is the key to North Carolina remaining as a

viable force in the textile world. How can they compete with these companies moving to other countries. Well let's look at what the effect of naphtha has had on the United States in general as far as the textile industry is concerned. The idea of naphtha in the in the in the textile industry the primary textile industry that spins and weaves in its and so forth. We are the most productive. Industry in the world and the second thing related to that is that the cost of labor in those industries is relatively small so that we can we have automated so highly that we the labor component might be 5 10 less than 15 percent. We do very well in all of those operations until we come to the actual sewing operation who we come to sewing. We've tried to automate that and you can do that to a certain extent but it cost millions and millions of dollars. And really the sewing operation is where we've had trouble. So the idea was that if we could could work a partnership with Mexico in the entire Caribbean Basin for that

matter and be able then to have the sewing done in countries where the wages are a little bit less than that then we can compete. And let me give you the full answer for all of that when it comes down to the bottom line is up until two years ago. China and the Far East with a major exporters of a power to the United States. Last year Mexico becomes a major apparel export to the United States. And the difference is that all of those those shirts and dresses and pants that were coming in from China none of those had U.S. yarns or U.S. fabrics. Eighty percent of all of the fabrics of all of the apparel coming from Mexico has U.S. made textile products. So the idea is that we concentrate on the textile manufacturing here. We then assure ourselves of a strong textile industry in North Carolina. Now how big of an industry is textiles in North Carolina how much how big of

a role does it play in North Carolina's economy. It's a major impact on North Carolina's economy. There are over 250000 people in North Carolina that work in the textile industry. And if we split those out according to the three divisions we talked about about 10000 work in the fiber industry one hundred eighty five thousand work in the textile industry and about 60000 work in the power industry. And if we take the weekly payroll for those 250 or 260000 people it exceeds one hundred million dollars every week. Big bucks and big bucks particularly when you think of the size of the number of jobs and employees that we have. That's what makes the difference. Now what kind of graduate do with a degree in textiles. Well there are over 6000 alumni from the college so there are many things that you can do in the industry. Perhaps the easiest way to explain this is to share with you some of the backgrounds of our alumni. One person that is well known in the state is is Duke Campbell and he is the president and CEO of the Parkdale

operation in Gastown you North Carolina is the largest of its kind in the world which is a yarn spinner a second one that is well known in the industry is is Alan Dixon and he is the CEO of the Rocky corporation and the rutted corporation owns American in the Ford mills which is a phenomenally excellent thread manufacturer and it also happens to own the Harris Teeter grocery stores a third that some people might not know is Bill Friday number Friday. We don't have to explain who he is but it's not well-known that he is a graduate of the College of textiles at NC State. And then perhaps the fourth might be General Hugh Shelton the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and he is also a graduate of the College of Texas State has lots to do with the degree was glossed over with the degree whether you stay in the industry you go out and you do other things and contribute in other ways. But out of our high Thank you so much for sharing your thoughts with us this evening. Sonia thank you. There will be an open house at the College of textiles on the last Saturday in

January. If you're not already familiar with the horse whisperer allow us to introduce you to Buck Brannaman. He's a soft spoken cowboy from Wyoming who has been a while when horse lovers with his revolutionary approach to training the animal he so loves. He recently made a stop here in North Carolina. And TONIGHT producer Maurice Talbot shows us just how the horse whisperer works his magic. Interested in horses.

So I suppose it's just from years of hard work and I really have a passion for what I do. Making things better for the horses is probably the most important thing but in the same ride if I make things better for the horse I can make things better for people to do so. But I really love horses and I want to see them get a fair shake. And yet I still want to be a good hand and be able to get the horse to operate accurately and and accomplish some things in terms of what I have the horse and respond to. But I want I want the approach to horses to be a little more civilized and maybe in my life I can help out along a little bit. I think he has an inherent gift. Naturally a lot of people do. But he you know he has the ability to be able to communicate it to us so that we can you know treat our horses right or streets us right now have a real good relationship.

For people who love horses he's really wonderful the dominant way of working with horses the last hundred years has been a lion tamer sort of attitude the hairy chested HORSE TRAINER The macho thing. So this I don't have much patience for the macho act and people that want to go out and beat up forces to try to force him to do something against their will. So I'm not too impressed with that more than everything. Thank you so much. Does she sing. He comes around here half here. If the horse is around a human being that doesn't understand their responsibilities long enough they'll start acting more like a human being than a horse. They'll take on negative

characteristics of the human being and they're not things that are natural to a horse. So accurate. You've got a lot of times and a lot of crowd get out of the way and do away with bad habits that the human teaches them. Most folks would never do that on purpose. It just happens because of what they don't know. So if you're just working with the real deal the horse in its natural state you're going to deal with some natural fear. There's no question about that but it doesn't take too long to get the horse come from the human is such a finite thinker that to suggest that you whisper means that it's a very discreet signal or means of communication that human if they're kind of us tend to be a superficial thinker. They take it literally. The horse doesn't need to learn English or Spanish or German to be able to get along and understand you. And for that matter the communication may run quite a little deeper than

that. All dependent on a good hand you are this is the same as the horsemanship just get a taker at around. All you gotta do is get all the work. I like his techniques. They're very natural. He's not aggressive with the horse unless you know why. You know what I think he bases his techniques live on. Maybe the natural instinct or sort of the carrier has figured out a way to use this to her advantage when you're dealing with a horse. So what I like is what you know. Just so you got your act together to get a

good position and I guess some would call me a horse trainer and I suppose to someone that think that. Thanks that's a noble title. Well then that's real nice but it's not necessarily. It does not mandate that there's any nobility to being a horse trainer. I don't so I don't know that I am. I just happen to be a person that likes to ride. Maybe I have. Maybe I just settle for being a cowboy and that's it. Yeah I'm trying to help people and I'm trying to help horses and sometimes one sometimes when everything's just right.

Lives change. Sometimes the horses just get to where they behave a little bit better. Not every day is going to be a turning point in someone's life but sometimes it is. Robert Redford has just produced a movie entitled The Horse Whisperer ran a man was hired as a technical advisor script consultant and standon double for Redford. He is also the inspiration for the main character in a bestselling book by the same name. Well that's it for tonight's show please join us tomorrow night. We'll see you then.