Front Street Weekly; 503

- Transcript
[Musical Intro] Carole Pope runs a unique organization for women ex-offenders. But why is her program so affective? I have been to prison. I know what it's like to be in a cage. This horse got sick and died in six months from eating too much of a common weed. weed.Tanzy ragwort. Millions of dollars worth of Oregon's livestock is damaged every year by this yellow plant. A statewide effort to control it is underway. And baseball, the great American pastime. These Little Leaguers could slide into the
majors, if only their parents called the games. Where's the fun? The fun is in the parents being able to boast on the kids if they want. The only time kids have fun in the sporting world, is if they get to learn effective techniques. If you ... make the play. Good evening I'm Jim Swenson. I'm Gwyneth Gamble Booth. Welcome back. You'll see those stories tonight on Front Street Weekly weekly, Oregon Public Television's news magazine. Carol pope possessed. She's driven by her zeal to make an organization called Our New Beginnings grow and succeed. But exactly what is Our New Our New Beginnings. It is says Carol, a transition house - not a halfway house - for women convicts. This residency program attempts to meet the problems unique to women offenders. During the average stay of two to four months women are to gain the skills they need on the outside. Housed in this northwest Portland neighborhood, nothing would mark it as a residence program for women convicts. So why the need for a special program just for women?
Founder Carole Pope explains: There's no transition time. And it's just like anything when you get involved in a criminal justice system. There's a part of you that's lost. There's a part of you that changes. You're not given time to grieve that loss. You're not taught how to deal with the changes because you become different. You're an ex-offender. So you have another stigma that you need to deal with. When you come out you find out that the community is not forgiving. Not understanding. And by and large not willing to give you a chance to change your life. And you come out, wanting to make changes by and large, I think the majority of women that come out want to make changes and they either are not equipped, don't have the skills or the resources on available for that change to take place. They get frustrated, they get
frightened. And they end up going back into old patterns and get back in trouble again. And Carole Pope herself is uniquely qualified to understand the problems a woman convict faces upon her release. But I am affected with a lot of them because I have been to prison. I know what it's like to be in a cage. It's not a cage like the men but it's still, you know. To know what it's like, go lock yourself in your bathroom for an hour-that's what it's like. One ex-offender told us jail was totally dehumanizing. Has it been a particularly bad day for you today? Yes, as usual, our job hunting. day I'm not even asked to fill out an application, the minute I walk in, they say that the job's been filled. I will continue searching and perhaps somewhere out there there might be someone intelligent enough to take me on my merits as to what I can perform, and not what I have done, or what they presume I have done. Women convicts face the added emotional ordeal of complete lack of self esteem.
Our New Beginnings addresses the problem with group therapy sessions led by a mental health professional, or by ex con, Carol. Carole minces no words. Because when you violate people's trust, when you do things that are inappropriate and against the law or whatever, those are the consequences. And sometimes those consequences never quit. You've made mistakes. You've made inappropriate decisions. You're drug addicts, you're alcoholics, you're criminals. But that's only a part of who you are. There's a whole person there. I didn't like my self a whole lot, either when I was in the penitentiary. I wasn't too awful thrilled about looking in the mirror and see that person looking back and it took me a long time to forgive myself. I spent a lot of time waiting for other people to forgive me. And people weren't beating down the door to forgive me. The one person that had to forgive me was me. I had to do it. I had to let myself off the hook.
Let myself know that I'd made a mistake. I was paying the consequences. I was still a decent human being. I still had a right to a life. I still had a right to be and do anything I wanted to do. Once I began to forgive myself, then my life started coming in place. As with so many social service agencies today, Our New Beginnings has a crying need for additional funds. Here in this small kitchen all of the meals are prepared for the clients at Our New Beginnings. As Carole Pope pointed out, it is woefully inadequate. adequate. Her dream, to enlarge it, to modernize it. I shall have to wait until funds are available. Carole Pope says Our New Beginnings also needs: clothes, women's clothes, kids clothes, both clothes, household items - dishes, pots and pans, silverware. What do you do with those things, household items? We use some of them here, also put stuff together for the women who are selling their
apartments, because they don't have any of that stuff. Bedding, curtains, blankets, towels, furniture. Are you saying that there are some women who come out of prison without clothing? There are or some women or come out without anything. They have no support network, they've got no family. You know, so when we put this together, we put it together to meet their needs. I have a clothing room for clothes, we have emergency food, we have bus tickets. I got some access for emergency housing. We ended up... When we put the residency together, it ended up being a better sentencing alternative. So that... It's sort of like a little bit of preventative maintenance. In some respects, we can keep some women from even having the prison experience, if we stop them before they. get to where they need to go to ?Salem?. An added component to the New Beginnings program is the counsel for prostitution alternatives. Women in this program do not live in the Northwest home, but do show up there for weekly group therapy,
as well as support. At one session, Kathy, Carole, Lori and others share their experiences. I've been having like 20 years on the street. I didn't believe that anybody would give me a chance. When I came to Carole I was just- I had had it. If Carole hadn't sent me away, I'm pretty sure I probably would have been dead today. You know I feel real strong. You know lately I have been feeling super strong. It just seems like, the past life, it's getting to be where it's in the past. And that's where it just belongs. [Group claps] I just feel a lot better about myself and [inaudible] more people can see that. I've been clean for six months now so...[laughter]. I have no drug problem, or nothin' like that. I got my own apartment, so. What some of the other girls didn't hit on is the security that you-- Nobody else in the world has ever given me a [inaudible].
Susan Howard is the executive director of the council. We asked if there was a common thread in these women's lives. The themes are definitely there. Eighty percent of them have a history of incest before the age of eleven. I would say that virtually all of them are substance abusers. Over half of them are heroin abusers. And this program, it's heroin abuse for over eight years, as an average. Howard believes this program works because it is so different. I like this program because you don't have to give up anything except a very bad life. It's all a voluntary program. You come in and you say: I'm sick, I want out, I can't take this anymore. To me, that's why I'm here. I don't want to work with a population of people who are forced to change because it will not work. But Carole Pope and her program do prevail. They are succeeding in changing lives. The program is cost effective and it has a lower recidivism rate than the penitentiary. For these women, there really
is a new beginning. There's a lot of work that has to be done. They don't trust. They've never cried. They've never had anybody hold them without wanting something from them. They don't know how to cook. They don't know how to clean.They can't make a bed. I mean, the list is endless. And in order for them to function in society they've got to have those skills. They've got to be provided the tools somewhere. And what I want is that this is the place. Here. So that they can be what they need to be because they're valuable people. They're not apples, they're not oranges, they're not numbers- they're human beings. Carole Pope says Our New Beginnings is her obsession. Some might add a magnificent obsession. For more information you can call Carole Pope at Our New Beginnings.
Jim. Well every year tansy ragwort kills thousands of cattle and horses in the Northwest, partly because the weed is extremely hard to wipe out. Each flowering plant produces thousands of seeds that can grow after lying for 30 years in the soil. Last summer Debbie McMillan lost the pony that she'd grown up with for 16 years. I couldn't even feed her a carrot without her spitting it back out or just not taking it at all. She was just more sluggish; she wasn't like herself. She was not as active. I didn't have a feeling it had to do with age because even a Shetland pony can live to be 10 years older than she was. So that led me to believe there was something desperately wrong there. One morning Debbie McMillan woke up to find her pony, Beauty, had died. What killed Beauty? A yellow flowering plant called tansy ragwort.
Tansy poisons the livers of horses and cattle that eat it. Beauty accumulated the poison over years of eating a little tansy at a time while grazing. Oregon's Department of Agriculture estimates that livestock worth 4.2 million dollars died in the state from tansy poisoning in 1984. Normally horses and cattle don't like the bitter taste of tansy. But when the tansy plants are small, grazing animals can't always avoid them. [Nature sounds] Tansy doesn't kill every animal that eats it. In fact some insects thrive on it. In the early 1970's, Oregon faced an ever-worsening tansy problem. The state decided that in the long run, tansy-eating insects could control tansy more economically than chemical herbicides. About 12 years ago the Agriculture Department began distributing the larvae of the Cinnabar Moth. Now the insect populates most of the counties in Western Oregon. And they just about devour everything, just clear down to the stalk.
John Nyberg still uses chemical herbicides to kill tansy on these Yamhill County fields. But because of the cinnabar moth he sprays less often. Lincoln County has produced even better results by bringing in a second insect- the Tansy Ragwort Flea Beetle. In September and October, the state Agriculture Department helps counties to collect the beetles and spread them into new areas. The State Department of Agriculture has told us that the results we're seeing here now, possibly in five years, Lincoln County will have their sprayers parked. Control it with Tansy Ragwort Flea Beetles and Cinnabar moths. But progress ends at the crest of the Cascades. The cinnabar moth and the flea beetle don't thrive at the high elevations on the east side of the mountains. Ranchers in Central and Eastern Oregon, with nearly three fourths of the state's cattle, used to think they were safe from tansy because of the altitude.
But since tansy was first spotted there in 1969, the count has grown to 131 tansy sites in 1984. State and county agriculture officials say travelers from Western Oregon bring tansy seeds in with them. During elk season, hunters often bring their horses along. They bring hay to feed the horses. The trucks, the horses, and the hay, can all carry tansy ragwort seeds. As long as there continues to be a seed source in Western Oregon and there continues to be people bringing it over here, we're going to continue to have tansy ragwort in Eastern Oregon. The tansy infestation on the Buckhorn side in Wheeler County cover sixteen hundred and sixty acres of private and federal land. The job of this crew of state workers is to destroy every tansy plant they find by cutting off the flowering heads and pulling plants. They apply 2,4-D or another herbicide on private land but not on federal land. Since 1984 the federal courts have banned spraying on BLM and Forest Service land until those federal agencies
assess the potential hazards of the herbicides. We're not in any danger at this point. You know three or four years down the road. It's a good chance we will be, especially if we run onto a large patch, you know. Some situation where you got 28 hundred acres on federal land you've got to cover. You can't use herbicides, we're going to be in a lot of trouble. How do you avoid that kind of trouble? Dan Sherrod says stop the tansy coming in from Western Oregon. Since tansy can travel in hay bales, ?Aloha? county officials have collected and burned hay brought in by Elk hunters from the west. Everybody stopped. Most of them did. We had, I think, out of 150 bales the last hunt, on the Elk hunt. They had 50 bales had tansy ragwort in it. Burning contaminated hay, pulling weeds. Crews in Central and Eastern Oregon worked to keep tansy from gaining more ground. A traditional battle against nature. But in the West, nature is an ally. As the flea beetle joins the cinnabar moth to reduce tansy there,
fewer seeds will spread. You know we're waiting for the biological controls to catch up with it over there so that the seed source is not there and you know that'll make our job a lot simpler. To help control tansy in Lane and Lincoln Counties, the Forest Service is grazing sheep on infested areas. Sheep apparently can eat a great deal of it without harm and this might also work east of the Cascades on federal lands where spraying is prohibited. Meanwhile, a researcher at Oregon State University, Dr. Morrie Craig, has developed a blood test to detect tansy poisoning in livestock. So if you're thinking about buying a horse, you might want to have it tested by a veterinarian. For advice on weed control, you can call the State Department of Agriculture in Salem. Gywneth. One sports obsession that seems to be around all year is baseball. And when your team doesn't make it to the World Series the cry is: Wait till next year. Well that might be sufficient for the rocking chair managers but it doesn't do a thing for the parents of summer. They are the parents of little leaguers and reporter Steve ?LaBelle?
found that their kids are under a lot of pressure to win. ["Take Me Out to the Ballgame" Musical Intro starts] [Abbot and Costello's "Who's On First" Clip Plays] Abbot: We have on the bags, we have Who’s on first, What’s on second, and I Don’t Know is on third. Costello: That’s what I want to find out. Abbott: I say, Who’s on first, What’s on second, and I Don’t Know’s on third. Abbott: I say, Who’s on first, What’s on second, and I Don’t Know’s on third. The outlook wasn't brilliant for the Little League 9 that day. The score stood 16 to 4 with one more inning to play. Then when Morgan swung and missed and Engels did the same, a noisy, hostile tone came from the parents of the game. Everybody down, ready? Listen up. The line up. It's a coaching nightmare. We're going to jump on these guys in the first inning. Right? Right! We wanna get off to a start. Get pumped. Right? Right. Alright, let's jump on him in the first inning. I won't wait for the second, or third or fourth, okay? Ok. Get them in the first.
From every parent will come dozens of ideas. All will work as long as his kid plays a key position. The conversation is typical. So who's on first anyway? "Why not my kid?" asked the parent. The coach has a lot of good reasons. "After all," says the parent, "my kid is a much better hitter then Kazowski, who messed up the last game. Coach if you're really sure you want to win, well then it's simple, just play my kid." It's been past history that if you want your kid to work or get into a program, you have to get involved. And that's the main thing, is that you have to get involved. And it's an organization that requires a lot of volunteer work. And once they get involved and they figure well they're spending all their time and they're going to do it their way. They all have a lot to say. Some have a lot to say. You got to kind of let some of the things bounce off. [cheering] Little League runs on volunteerism. It takes a lot of work to field a team. There are the practices, clinics, fund raising, and of course,
the behind the scenes maneuvering. There is always politics in the sense of one's ego. Whether it be a man or a woman. They have their insight as to ?why? they want things ran. Who they want. There are only hardcore Little League supporters. But some parents fear the hardline philosophy winds up as a chess game, using the kids in an effort to run a league for the liking of a few. If you're good enough, you play. If you're not, you're gonna learn to have patience and sit down and have desire to work harder and be good. All kids are are little people. Little human beings. They just happen to be a little bit younger and we were all kids once. So like, they can understand that, just like an adult can. The people that can't understand that are their parents. A lot of parents consider their time spent with little league as a way to give back to the system. Spectators at the games will tell you there are no losers. The only losers come from kids that don't belong to little league. But through it all parents agree. It is tough for a kid to play.
Great pressure. We're under a lot of pressure. Most of these kids are like 12 years old. And we get into a lot of pressure from the parents at home. Just an example like, ok, if a kid doesn't do good as his parents expect him to do good. He has to come home and face his parents, tell them that they lost. The parents can't brag on him anymore that much. Than he has to go to school if the other kids. Two hundred eyes were focused as the batter came to the plate. One hundred voices shouted: "Time to show the pitcher the gate!" And now the pitcher holds the ball ready to let it go. And now the crowd is ready to see the batters blow. Coaches are more than just teachers. They are psychologists, negotiators and cheerleaders. What's your strategy for this playoff game? To have the girls play to their best ability and keep them calm. As for the kids, they just come to play. They know their team, who can hit and who cannot.
We're famous for our comebacks and- of the innings. So we'll come back like in the last inning. And we just go stand out in the deck and yell something. Yell and scream. And the coach or something will get up and yell and scream and we have a lot of fun. Where's the fun? The fun is in the parents being able to boast on their kids if they win. The only time kids have fun in this sport anymore is if they get to learn the basic techniques. If he can make the play. If he can be consistent. Then he feels the parents are satisfied. The fun in this sport is the bragging rights to the parents. At these games the bleachers are filled with sidelined umpires. Every fan has a different interpretation of the rules, the close play at home and the size of the strike zone. shoulders rises as a major name that is not right. Yeah I'm about to ?hit? and they still call it a strike. From the bleacher packed with people but up a thunderous roar, like the pounding of the ocean against some distant, foreign shore.
What a call! ?Kill Liam!? Shouted someone from the stands. Because it's little league baseball, things didn't get out of hand. How in the hell are you going to have somebody deliver a pitch and no interception at all, in this type of a league? All you're doing is destroying the ability of a little girl to go ahead and follow through. The stands are filled with adults during these games making umpiring nothing short of a walk on the wild side. I love it. I don't like the aggravation, but I love the game and I love being part of it. And I guess it's partly my passion for justice and partly my thrill in danger. A veteran of numerous umpowering clinics, Rose Livingston is now umpire in chief. As a fan, this umpire has been known to strike back. But as an umpire, calling a good game for the kids is still number one. I feel like it's really important to remember the ballgame is for the kids. And I'm there to try to make it a fair game for them. Play ball!
There are much easier ways to spend an afternoon than having to determine balls and strikes. Seeing the play. Keeping your eyes on the ball. Seeing what happens.Trying to be uninvolved with either team as far as caring which wins or loses. I'm not letting the fact that some of them are on your case, determine how the ball game is called. As fans, Little League boosters know no limits. They make tailgate partiers almost look tame. These are little league fans. Now you think Major League fans are bad? Fans is derived from the word fanatic. And these are fans to the heart and little league are your best American fans. Oh somewhere in baseball land, the sun is shining bright. The kids are still cheering. The parents hearts are light. But nowhere is there laughter, song or glee and shout when in the final inning their team
had all struck out. It. Little league doesn't heat up again until mid spring. But from now on, coaches will be vying to draft the best players from last season. New kids are recruited last since their playing abilities aren't proven. Jim. Well we've got some more stories that are proven and you'll see them on the next edition of Front Street Weekly. Here's what they'll look like. [Electronic Voice| Be honest, don't steal. Be honest, don't steal. Be honest, don't steal. Electronic enforcement. These are new devices available to the criminal justice system. They can keep a convicted drunk driver, a policeman on patrol, and a law abiding bargain hunter in line. And the New York Times calls her playing graceful, lyrical, detailed and intimate. Meet pianist Jill Timmons and judge for yourself. And we'll take you down under some of Portland's oldest buildings searching for
Shanghai tunnels and other tales of old. That's our program for this evening but we'll be here next week. We hope to see you then. Good night.
- Series
- Front Street Weekly
- Episode Number
- 503
- Producing Organization
- Oregon Public Broadcasting
- Contributing Organization
- Oregon Public Broadcasting (Portland, Oregon)
- AAPB ID
- cpb-aacip/153-55z6181t
If you have more information about this item than what is given here, or if you have concerns about this record, we want to know! Contact us, indicating the AAPB ID (cpb-aacip/153-55z6181t).
- Description
- Episode Description
- This episode features the following segments. The first segment, "New Beginnings," is a profile on Carol Pope, who runs a unique organization for former women prisoners. The second segment, "Killer Weed," investigates the statewide effort to contain tansy ragwort, a common weed killing off livestock that eat it. The third segment, "Everybody's A Coach," interviews parents of Little League athletes who may be putting a little too much pressure on their children to succeed.
- Series Description
- Front Street Weekly is a news magazine featuring segments on current events and topics of interest to the local community.
- Created Date
- 1985-10-23
- Copyright Date
- 1985-00-00
- Asset type
- Episode
- Genres
- Magazine
- News Report
- News
- Topics
- Women
- Local Communities
- Sports
- News
- News
- Agriculture
- Rights
- Oregon Public Broadcasting c. 1985
- Media type
- Moving Image
- Duration
- 00:26:35
- Credits
-
-
Associate Producer: Condeni, Vivian
Director: Graham, Lyle
Executive Producer: Graham, Lyle
Guest: Pope, Carol
Host: Swenson, Jim
Host: Booth, Gwyneth Gamble
Producing Organization: Oregon Public Broadcasting
- AAPB Contributor Holdings
-
Oregon Public Broadcasting (OPB)
Identifier: 113121.0 (Unique ID)
Format: U-matic
Generation: Original
Duration: 00:26:23:00
If you have a copy of this asset and would like us to add it to our catalog, please contact us.
- Citations
- Chicago: “Front Street Weekly; 503,” 1985-10-23, Oregon Public Broadcasting, American Archive of Public Broadcasting (GBH and the Library of Congress), Boston, MA and Washington, DC, accessed July 16, 2025, http://americanarchive.org/catalog/cpb-aacip-153-55z6181t.
- MLA: “Front Street Weekly; 503.” 1985-10-23. Oregon Public Broadcasting, American Archive of Public Broadcasting (GBH and the Library of Congress), Boston, MA and Washington, DC. Web. July 16, 2025. <http://americanarchive.org/catalog/cpb-aacip-153-55z6181t>.
- APA: Front Street Weekly; 503. Boston, MA: Oregon Public Broadcasting, American Archive of Public Broadcasting (GBH and the Library of Congress), Boston, MA and Washington, DC. Retrieved from http://americanarchive.org/catalog/cpb-aacip-153-55z6181t