The MacNeil/Lehrer NewsHour

MR. MacNeil: Good evening. I'm Robert MacNeil in New York.

MR. LEHRER: And I'm Jim Lehrer in Washington. After our summary of the news this Wednesday, we look at the latest killing of a foreign tourist in Miami, Betty Ann Bowser reports on fighting crime in Houston, we have a Newsmaker interview with the new surgeon general of the United States, Dr. Joycelyn Elders, and essayist Richard Rodriguez observes the valley and the heart of California. NEWS SUMMARY

MR. MacNeil: A German tourist was shot and killed in Miami early today, becoming the eighth foreign tourist killed in Florida in less than a year. The man and his wife were driving to their hotel shortly after arriving at Miami Airport. Police said a van rammed their rental car from behind several times. When the couple refused to stop, the van pulled alongside and a gunman fired a single shot, killing 33-year-old Uwe-Wilhelm Rakebrand. His wife, who is pregnant, was unharmed. New safety measures were instituted by the tourist industry after a similar attack in April. Today, Gov. Lawton Chiles vowed to bring the killer to justice and to do more to prevent such attacks.

GOV. LAWTON CHILES, Florida: We have acted to improve the streets of Miami and of Florida. We will not rest until they are even safer, but a random, senseless violence like this is something that we have to continue to address as a society as well as in each community.

MR. MacNeil: A $25,000 reward has been offered for information leading to the capture of the killer. In Germany, the foreign ministry repeated its travel advisory to tourists not to pick up rental cars at Miami International Airport. It said travelers should have the cars delivered to their hotels. We'll have more on this story after the News Summary. Jim.

MR. LEHRER: Bosnian President Izetbegovic met with President Clinton at the White House this afternoon. The Muslim leader said he would ask the President to set a deadline for beginning air strikes against the Serbs if they do not lift their siege of Sarajevo. Mr. Clinton had this to say.

PRESIDENT CLINTON: I believe that all that has to be part of the negotiating process. I don't think that the United States can simply impose an element on it. I think they know what the conditions are that NATO has imposed and that we have certainly taken the lead in for avoiding air strikes. They know how to avoid the air strikes, and so far they have done that, and I presume they will continue to do that.

MR. LEHRER: Peace talks between the warring factions broke off last week over disagreements on how Bosnia would be divided. Izetbegovic said the Muslims needed more land for their state to survive.

MR. MacNeil: In South Africa, 25 blacks were shot to death in three separate attacks around Johannesburg. The worst was at a taxi stand in an industrial area. Gunmen with automatic rifles opened fire on hundreds of people waiting for taxis after work. Nineteen commuters were killed. The violence came a day after a breakthrough agreement that would give blacks a role in government before next year's multi-racial elections. We have a report narrated by Vera Frankl of Worldwide Television News.

MS. FRANKL: As before the massacre, negotiators moved significantly closer to ending apartheid. Overwhelmingly, they approved the transitional executive council, a multi-racial panel that will help rule the country until a new government is elected next year. ANC leaders championed the deal as the beginning of the end for white supremacy and the end of South Africa's economic isolation. In Cape Town, Nelson Mandela hailed the new council and endorsed the end of a decade's long sanctions campaign.

NELSON MANDELA, African National Congress: We in turn are lifting sanctions in a matter of weeks, and that will enable us to get the investment power in order to stimulate the growth of our economy.

MS. FRANKL: But major political forces, including right wing whites, opposed the deal, and, again, the government appealed to them to reconsider.

ROELOF BOTHA, Foreign Minister, South Africa: And I can only hope now that some of the other major players, the major parties with significant support, would also support this decision.

MR. MacNeil: White right wing parties and the Inkatha Freedom Party, the nation's second largest black group, have boycotted the power sharing talks. Leaflets warning of imminent military action were dropped by United Nations helicopters today over the Somali capital, Mogadishu. Four hundred U.S. Army Rangers were dispatched to the city two weeks ago for a possible attempt to capture warlord Mohamed Farrah Aidid. U.N. officials have blamed the fugitive warlord for attacks that have killed 47 peacekeepers since May. The U.S. and Russia announced plans today for joint military exercises. The announcement came as part of a military cooperation agreement signed by Russia's defense minister and Defense Sec. Les Aspin at the Pentagon. Defense officials said exercises involving the two former Cold War adversaries would probably take place in Russia next year.

MR. LEHRER: There were more protests in Israel today against the Israeli-PLO peace agreement. Israelis opposed to the deal threw rocks at police and set up roadblocks near the officeof the Prime Minister. The agreement would give Palestinians limited self-rule in the Gaza Strip and West Bank town of Jerricho. It is expected to be signed in the next few days.

MR. MacNeil: Dr. Joycelyn Elders was sworn in today as surgeon general. The Senate approved her nomination last night by a vote of 65 to 34. We'll have a Newsmaker interview with her later in the program. A federal report released today showed that nearly half the adults in this country have reading, writing, and math skills so limited they're unable to function effectively in the workplace. Those with the lowest levels of skills worked fewer weeks a year and were paid far less than workers with better literacy levels. The study was commissioned by the Department of Education. The Senate today gave final congressional approval to a $1.5 billion compromise version of the President's National Service Bill. The 57 to 40 vote was mainly along party lines. The program will provide education grants to students in return for community service work.

MR. LEHRER: The nation's economy is growing at a slow to moderate pace according to the latest report from the Federal Reserve. The survey of regional business conditions, known as the Beige Book, was released today. It said job growth around the country was slow, but retail sales showed modest gains, and inflation appeared to be in check. And that's it for the News Summary tonight. Now, it's on to another tourist murder in Miami, Houston police, Dr. Joycelyn Elders, and a Richard Rodriguez essay. FOCUS - TOURIST TRAP?

MR. MacNeil: The murder of a German tourist in Miami is our lead. We'll talk to two journalists there after this background. Miami has been a growing mecca for foreign tourists. Last year, 1.3 million Europeans visited Miami, an industry that pumps $7 billion a year into the city and 28 billion into the state of Florida. But after last night's killing of a German tourist, the tourist industry is receiving the type of publicity it would rather not have. Aware of this, many top city and state politicians and law enforcement officials gathered for a news conference today.

GOV. LAWTON CHILES, Florida: I want to join every law abiding Floridian in shock and disgust over a senseless and a terrible act of violence. No words can properly ease the pain of this family, but it's a pain that's shared by all of us who -- and all of the good people across Florida.

MR. MacNeil: In fact, last night's killing of 33-year-old German tourist Uwe-Wilhelm Rakebrand is one of a series of tourist murders. Eight foreign visitors have been killed in southern Florida in the last year, four German, two Canadian, one British, one Venezuelan. In a similar incident last April, a 39-year-old German woman was killed after she left Miami Airport with her two children and her mother in a rental car. Her car was bumped from the rear, and when she stopped, she was beaten and robbed and run over in front of her children and mother. Last night's killing occurred on the Dolphin Expressway as Rakebrand and his wife were heading to their hotel. His wife was actually reading a safety tip pamphlet about carjacking when their car was bumped from the rear by a van. When Rakebrand refused to stop, the van drove by his car, and a shot was fired, killing him. No suspects were apprehended. But at today's press conference, Miami Police Chief Calvin Ross asked for witnesses to come forward.

CHIEF CALVIN ROSS, Miami Police Department: We have put out the description of the vehicle that we have been able to come up with thus far, a van, light color or yellow van, with black marking or lettering on the side, a -- there's possibly some damage, slight damage to the right side of that vehicle. Anyone who gives us any information on anything they observed on last night about 12:30 AM in the vicinity of this incident or anywhere on one of the exit ramps or on I-95 that could give us some assistance, we'd appreciate that.

MR. MacNeil: After the April murder, a special street crime task force has worked to end carjackings and crimes against tourists. Highway signs have been upgraded to better direct tourists from the airport, and Gov. Chiles ordered car rental companies to remove Y or Z license plates that identify rental cars. Last night's murder occurred in spite of all these precautions. To try and calm the fears of German tourists, Miami's German Consul spoke at the press conference, stressing that Miami is safer for tourists than the media make it out to be.

KLAUS SOMMER, German Consul General: If I am asked from back home from whomever it may be, I will tell them this is a beautiful area for a vacation, with warm-hearted, helpful people in the great majority, but it is an area which also contains risks, as the recent events have shown. So come and take the normal precautions which you must take anywhere in comparable places elsewhere in the world. Don't be naive. Develop a feeling for the right time and the right place to be or not to be, and don't run around with your valuables and things like that.

MR. MacNeil: We hear more on the story now from Peter Katel, who's covering it for Newsweek Magazine, and Douglas Clifton, who's the executive editor of the Miami Herald. Thank you both for joining us. Douglas Clifton, Lawton Chiles, the governor, said this was random, senseless violence. Is it fair to call it that when it's part of a pattern that's been followed all over Florida for some time, and particularly on tourists in the Miami area, of bumping their rental cars from behind, trying to get them to stop? I mean, is that random and senseless, or is it part of a pattern?

MR. CLIFTON: Well, I would agree that it's senseless, but it's clearly not random. It appears that this van followed the car from the car rental agency, and the, the assailants were looking for tourists, so in that sense it's not random.

MR. MacNeil: Peter Katel, describe, describe the scene a bit more. I said in that bit of backgrounder, reading it off the wires, that this couple was doing exactly as they've been asked to do by everybody in order to be sensible, as the Consul just said. And yet, yet, this happened to them. Describe the scene a bit. Was the highway empty when it happened? Were there other cars around? Were there other people around?

MR. KATEL: I -- at that hour, on that day, off season, the highway could not have been crowded. In fact, tragically, the couple did do precisely as advised, which is not to stop when somebody starts bumping your car. How were they to know that it would put the assailants in a bad mood, bad enough to shoot them?

MR. MacNeil: It's an incredible, it's an incredible irony that she was actually reading the pamphlet telling them what to do when this happened.

MR. KATEL: One, one of many ironies. The other, as you pointed out, or as your piece pointed out, that Florida authorities finally woke up and started assigning undercover police to prevent precisely this kind of crime. The problem, I think, is that as the consul hinted, they were not -- they may have been in the right place -- i.e., on the way to Miami Beach, minding their own business -- but itwas not at the right time. After midnight, downtown Miami, although on a highway, they were, they were easy to stop, I suspect, for people looking for tourists.

MR. MacNeil: In Germany, they're being advised, Mr. Clifton, by the foreign ministry not to pick up rental cars at the airport anymore but to do it at a hotel. I mean, is that a piece of advice that's being given in Miami now?

MR. CLIFTON: That's correct, and that has been a piece of advice that's been given for quite some time since at least April. The German flights tend to come in late in the evening, and the tourists have been advised to take a cab to, to their hotels, and rent the car at a downtown location, rather than go to the perhaps more distant rental agencies off the, the airport grounds. So it makes good sense to do that. And it is advice that has been given. That was the one piece of advice that these otherwise very careful, it seems, tourists didn't take.

MR. MacNeil: It seems an extraordinary sort of loss of civic control, of peace and order, to have to suggest to tourists that they can't pick up rental cars at the airport because it isn't safe.

MR. CLIFTON: Well, I think that, that if you look at this in the whole, and with some perspective, I think you'd have to admit that the crime rate in Miami, though a presence, is not an overwhelming crime rate. I venture to say you could list ten or eleven or twelve cities that had a bigger problem with violent crime. Miami's murder rate is significantly down, and most of the, the vital signs of crime are down. And don't misunderstand -- I'm not saying that Miami's a peaceful, tranquil, pastoral place. But neither is it a hellish place, where people walk around in fear of their lives. This is a tragedy. It is clearly the act of a predatory assailant in this case who was looking for a tourist. But it isn't indicative of an overall climate of violence that reigns in Miami.

MR. MacNeil: One thing, one thing that is unique about Miami, Mr. Katel, is that it has become this extraordinarily attractive place for European tourists who come in very large numbers. How much did all the publicity after that woman's particularly gruesome murder in the spring, how much did that affect the tourist flow?

MR. KATEL: Well, that's, that's being watched very carefully right now not only in Miami, but in Orlando, because Europeans typically don't distinguish between Miami and anywhere else in Florida, so Disney, Universal Studios, and the other, the other tourist enterprises throughout the state are taking a very active interest in all of this. There apparently, I'm told by people in the business, that there continues to be an increase in foreign tourism to south Florida, but the, the percentage of increase isn't quite as great as it had been. That could be a result just as easily of economic downturn, the dollar getting stronger, what have you. But this, as the governor's presence at a special press conference today indicated, this is being taken extremely seriously by people who make their living from tourism, which is a good part of the state.

MR. MacNeil: Can you add to anything, add anything to that, Douglas Clifton, about how much the tourism has been affected by bad publicity before this?

MR. CLIFTON: Well, as we've said, it doesn't seem to have been strongly negatively impacted, but there isn't any question that this event is going to have serious negative consequences and will be played everywhere. Witness the play it's getting on your program. It's bound to have some negative effect.

MR. MacNeil: What would a serious drop in tourism do to the south Florida economy right now? I mean, you're still recovering from a hurricane a year ago.

MR. CLIFTON: Sure. Sure. Well, tourism is a major, major element of the economy of south Florida. And so a significant drop would have significant impact. Wouldn't destroy it clearly, because Miami, south Florida, has, has become more complicated as an economic structure over the recent years, but it is -- tourism still remains a major piece of the economy.

MR. MacNeil: Let's go back to putting this in some perspective, as you suggested a moment ago. We talked to the Miami police today, and they gave us the monthly figures for robberies. First of all, up to the April incident, and then since the April incident, and it's true that robberies of residents have gone down, but robberies of tourists have gone down very significantly. I just wonder how, Mr. Katel, residents of Miami feel about that. I mean, the averages are really quite, quite remarkable. The average has gone down from 200 attacks on tourists a month to 50 a month, for residents from 800 month to about 575 a month on the averages.

MR. KATEL: You mean, is anybody suggesting that the tourists are getting more attention?

MR. MacNeil: Well, the measures that have been taken to protect the tourists seem to be having some effect.

MR. KATEL: You know, the police forces here -- there are several of them -- are actually pretty effective, and they tend to know who the people are who like to do these things. They do have undercover police out there. They do know the areas to go to. But as I think the police chief today said, they're not omni present. I think the problem here was a problem of traveling at night, which is something that as, as Doug pointed out, these otherwise well- informed and fast reacting tourists ran afoul of.

MR. MacNeil: What can you add, Mr. Clifton, to the, to this sharp drop in tourist robberies but not so sharp on residential robberies in Miami?

MR. CLIFTON: Well, it's clearly a function of the --

MR. MacNeil: I don't mean residential. I mean on residents, attacks on residents.

MR. CLIFTON: Right. I understand. Clearly, a function of the heightened attention to, to the tourist, it's a group that is identifiable -- for the same reason that it's identifiable to the criminal element, it's identifiable to the police -- and one can take specific action to guard against their becoming victims, whereas, the residents are kind of an undifferentiated mass, and you can't come up with specific law enforcement actions to protect them to the extent that you can the tourists. And I think that's, that's a function.

MR. MacNeil: Most of the tourists who go to Florida are not foreigners. Most of them, I guess, are Americans, isn't that so? And are they -- should American visitors to Florida be taking the same precautions that these foreigners are advised to do?

MR. CLIFTON: Oh, sure. I think that any visitor to any strange city ought to take some precautions. Miami, because it is such a tourist mecca, and because it's such an easy target for the clashing image of violence and sun and palm trees and beaches, is the more appealing story. But New York is a fine place for tourists to get mugged as well. And so I think that a tourist, whether he or she be foreign or domestic, that's going to a big city needs to be aware of the surroundings and not venture into places that might get them into trouble.

MR. MacNeil: Mr. Katel, what else can, can the authorities do? They've put more -- they've put undercover police on. They've improved the road signs apparently. They've given all this advice to the tourists. They've given them brochures in their own language. What else are they talking about doing to, to try and protect them?

MR. KATEL: Well, the police chief at least informally is talking about -- at least he was thinking about this this afternoon -- is talking about advising tourists who arrive late at night, which is the case for many Europeans, to check into an airport hotel and not get, not get the car until the next morning when the streets are more heavily traveled. The other thing, of course, that a lot of them would like to do, a lot of the authorities would like to do, is ban guns. This is something that I think Europeans have a hard time dealing with, the fact that crime here usually means armed crime, which can mean fatal crime. That, of course, is not going to happen. There's also another underlying issue here, which is that Florida's prisons are terribly overcrowded, in part because of the war on drugs, and that there are violent criminals, despite some efforts to keep them behind bars, who don't stay there. And that's certainly part of what's seeding this, this predatory kind of crime.

MR. MacNeil: Well, Peter Katel and Douglas Clifton, thank you both for joining us. FOCUS - BEATING CRIME

MR. LEHRER: Now, a report on a big American city that may have found a way to bring its crime under control. The city is Houston, and its solution has been to put more police on the street. Betty Ann Bowser reports.

MS. BOWSER: Two years ago, Houstonians were practically hysterical about crime. They watched with alarm as overcrowded jails led to the mass release of heady criminals one Friday night.

RON STONE: [News Report on Channel 2, Houston] Police think they've got the man who kidnapped and murdered a twenty-five-year- old mother of two over the weekend.

MS. BOWSER: They watched as an almost daily diet of violence unfolded on the 6 o'clock news. Men, women, and even children learned how to use guns. It was a way they felt they could do something. But in November of 1991, the voters really did do something. They elected a 66-year-old millionaire named Bob Lanier as their new mayor. A businessman, not a career politician, he ran and won on a platform to put more cops on the street.

MAYOR BOB LANIER, Houston: And it's my hope that 10 years from now we can look back, all of us, and see a city that's safe again.

MS. BOWSER: It's been just two years, but already, the numbers say Houston is a safer city.

MAYOR BOB LANIER: If you work the numbers, the -- you take the 1991 FBI crime statistics of the number of crimes that happened in that year, we will have reduced major crime -- that's murder, rape, aggravated assault, robbery, burglary, and car left -- we will have reduced major crimes by over 30,000 a year in each of the two years that I will have served. That's a -- those to me -- numbers are exceeding what I would have hoped for truly.

MS. BOWSER: In the first 90 days after his election, Lanier kept a major campaign promise. By creating a massive overtime program, he quickly put the equivalent of 655 additional police on the street. Since then, another 600 new cops have been hired and 200 more are in training.

SPOKESMAN: We also are in dire need of a new headquarters.

MS. BOWSER: Sam Nuchia, a 20-year police veteran and former federal prosecutor, was Lanier's choice for police chief. Like the mayor, he says it's no accident the city has almost 100 fewer major crimes a day.

CHIEF SAM NUCHIA, Houston Police Department: And we saw a change, just like that, in crime levels, immediately. In May we were fully, fully implemented in the field, and the crime stats -- we kept them monthly then -- went down immediately. The response times went down immediately, and the citizens felt better almost immediately.

MS. BOWSER: Houston leads the nation's big cities in reduction of reported crime according to the FBI. Last year, there were 32,000 fewer crimes in the city, about an 18 percent drop over 1991. And this year, the downward trend continues.

DISPATCHER: Hello. This is Houston Police Department. Do you need the police?

CITIZEN ON PHONE: Yes.

DISPATCHER: What's the problem?

CITIZEN ON PHONE: I just had a fight. Somebody just jumped on me.

MS. BOWSER: Having more cops has cut the average response time to the most urgent emergency calls in half, to under five minutes. Under Lanier, the Houston Police Department has more Hispanics and blacks with senior command positions. And here at the police academy, more than half of the recent cadet classes have been made up of minorities. Lanier moves easily through the city's Hispanic, African-American, and Asian community which combined make up more than half the city's population. And when he goes to the Rotary Club, this middle-aged, rich, white man tells other middle- aged white men that this city's strength is it's people.

MAYOR BOB LANIER: No matter what anybody would like to be, we are a diverse city. The job in front of us is to capitalize on that diversity. The job in front of us is to look for that diversity as a potential asset and not to look at it as a, as a handicap or impediment.

MS. BOWSER: This is a new message of inclusion, in a city with huge minority populations. And it has fueled the perception, if not the reality, that Houston is a safer place to live in than it was before Bob Lanier.

GRACIE SYMES: I was interested in what way I could help.

MS. BOWSER: Gracie Symes once wanted to fight the police, but today she works inside the system as the first Hispanic to ever win citywide office. Her victory as a councilwoman came the same day Lanier was elected Mayor. Symes vividly remembers May, 1978, and the riots in Moody Park. They erupted on the anniversary of the murder of an Hispanic man by a group of Houston police officers.

GRACIE SYMES: I was almost there, I really was. I wanted to go out and show support for the community.

MS. BOWSER: But Symes didn't march, because it was her husband's first day on the job as a Houston cop.

OFFICER ELOY SAENZ, Houston Police Department: One of the factors that didn't exist back when I first became a police officer was the interaction between the community and the police. The police was one entity, and the community was one entity, and there was the "us" against "them" mentality.

MS. BOWSER: What difference has this mayor made in terms of feeling safe in the Hispanic community?

GRACIE SYMES: There is a sense of inclusion. There is a sense of him listening, of him appreciating the fact and the reality that the Hispanic community has in, in the city of Houston the reality that we are 1/3 of the population, and we are increasing at such a rate that they predict that by the year 2004 we will be a majority.

MS. BOWSER: Right now, Symes is working with several Moody Park neighborhood groups and the police department to set up a bike patrol.

GRACIE SYMES: [at meeting] The bikes are important because the officers need them to train on, so the situation was that the community had yet to raise the funds. I'm willing to proceed to buy the bikes up front so that the community can go ahead and move forward with the plan.

MS. BOWSER: Bike patrols are possible in Houston now, because there are more cops like Danny Barron to ride them. Two years ago, Barron spent most of his working hours racing from one call to another.

OFFICER DANNY BARRON, Houston Police Department: People either thought police were a little arrogant, or they didn't feel comfortable with the police. That's changed now. People are coming to us with information. They feel more comfortable, and there's just a lot better rapport between the police department and the community.

OFFICER ALFRED GONZALES, Houston Police Department: [in meeting] You can raise, you know, close to eight hundred to a thousand dollars, you know, if we all get together and just help out.

MS. BOWSER: When Moody Park gets its new bike patrol, Al Gonzales will be one of the officers to ride the beat. Thanks to the added numbers, he no longer worries what will happen if he gets into trouble.

OFFICER ALFRED GONZALES: It used to be hard to get somebody there quick. I mean, you know, if you're having some trouble and if it's a life and death situation, you want somebody there right away, and, and since you got more officers out on the street, you know, you get on the radio and you ask for help, you have officers everywhere, coming from everywhere. And it's a lot better, and you feel a lot more comfortable.

MS. BOWSER: But whether all this means less crime in Houston is here to stay depends upon who you talk to.

LAWRENCE SHERMAN, University of Maryland: I think an overall drop of 18 percent in crime in Houston is about as meaningful as saying that disease has dropped 18 percent in Houston.

MS. BOWSER: Criminologist Lawrence Sherman has not studied Houston. But like most of his peers, he says no research to date demonstrates a correlation between more cops and less crime.

LAWRENCE SHERMAN: We have to remember that many new drugs look good in the first patient who takes the drug, and then when you roll it out for four hundred people in a controlled test of the drug, the effectiveness disappears. These kinds of things happen by chance. If you increase cops and crime goes down, the two events could be totally unrelated.

MS. BOWSER: Sociologist Stephen Klineberg has studied Houstonians' attitudes about crime for 12 years. He agrees.

STEPHEN KLINEBERG, Rice University: Crime went down somewhat, and more police were put on the streets. Does that -- that's a correlation. Is the correlation a cause? Did putting more people on the street actually cause a reduction in crime? That's a much more complicated question. The chances are not a whole lot. And if, if that's correct, the chances are very good that there will be an increase in the crime rate, interestingly, next year when the new figures come back in.

MAYOR BOB LANIER: We never said we could stop crime. Never said we could make it all go away, but we did say we thought all working together, we could make it better. And I think we can keep making it better. I've never been one to try to sell the idea that perception is more important than reality. I don't believe that. I believe you fix reality and then you try to get people to perceive that reality. I think if you try manage by pursuing the goal of perception, I think it leads you way off track, and you do a whole lot of short-term things that look good but which aren't. Then after a while, people will see that they were fooled in that perception. I think you need to do blue collar, hard, meat and potatoes work, and change the reality.

MS.BOWSER: This is Mayor Lanier's reality; 130 miles of new sidewalks put in near Houston public schools, 20 million more city dollars spent on inner city neighborhoods, street lights, street signs, and more policing.

MR. MacNeil: Still ahead on the NewsHour, the new surgeon general, and essayist Richard Rodriguez. NEWSMAKER

MR. LEHRER: Now, a Newsmaker interview with the new Surgeon General of the United States, Dr. Joycelyn Elders. She was approved by the Senate last night in a 65 to 34 vote, following three months of public debate about some of her actions and views as Arkansas's health director. She was sworn in today in a private ceremony and is with us now. Dr. Elders, welcome and congratulations.

DR. ELDERS: Thank you.

MR. LEHRER: Was there ever a time when you thought you might not be confirmed, when you felt the opposition might get you?

DR. ELDERS: You always worry until the last vote's counted.

MR. LEHRER: But you, you -- in other words, there were times when you thought you were in jeopardy, is that right?

DR. ELDERS: Oh, yeah, the whole time I think.

MR. LEHRER: The whole time?

DR. ELDERS: The time from the beginning, and the opposition told me in December that they were going to fight my nomination.

MR. LEHRER: And so you ran scared from then on?

DR. ELDERS: I had to worry about it until last night at 7:05 I guess.

MR. LEHRER: Well, now you are the surgeon general, and based on what I read today and earlier, the assumption is that you are going to place as your No. 1 priority as surgeon general the teen pregnancy problem in the United States. Is that true?

DR. ELDERS: That's true. I really feel that we need to make in America every child born a planned, wanted child. We have the know- how. We have the resources. And I think we need to make the commitment to get it done.

MR. LEHRER: Now, a commitment to do what specifically?

DR. ELDERS: A commitment to begin the kinds of programs that we need. And it's not a quick fix. It's a long-term program. I feel that we must have early childhood education for all children from kindergarten through twelfth grade.

MR. LEHRER: What kind of -- are you talking about sex education?

DR. ELDERS: I'm talking about just general education. We know that the children that are in the bottom third of their class do far less well than the children in the top third of their class. We know that we must decrease poverty, that that, again, you know, the children that are poor are far more likely to be pregnant than children who are from more affluent families. And if you're poor and in the bottom third of your class, you're nine times more likely to be a teen parent.

MR. LEHRER: Why? What is the connection between poverty and teen pregnancy?

DR. ELDERS: The connection between poverty and teen pregnancy, as I understand it, is that poor parents usually do not, are not able to offer their children a good start, or early childhood education. They are not able to offer their children the same kinds of opportunities. Usually, the parents have often been teen parents, so they didn't know how to teach their children how to say no and how to respond appropriately. And we in our society have not taught, comprehensive health education in our schools from kindergarten through twelfth grade.

MR. LEHRER: Did you read Bill Raspberry's column this morning - -

DR. ELDERS: Yes, I did.

MR. LEHRER: -- in the Washington Post? He said in kind of a public plea to you, don't put all the emphasis on the mechanics of teen pregnancy, put it on the values as well, teach kids that this is wrong. In other words, having sex as a teenager is what's wrong, and that's what makes you pregnant.

DR. ELDERS: That's right.

MR. LEHRER: It's not giving out condoms and all of that.

DR. ELDERS: That's absolutely correct.

MR. LEHRER: Now, what can you -- let's say you agree with Bill. Now what are you going to do?

DR. ELDERS: Well, I feel that I agree with Bill, and what I'm going to do is I'm going to have early childhood education. I'm going to have a comprehensive health education from kindergarten through twelfth grade, so I can change children's behavior. That's when you start teaching, and that's when you teach abstinence. You've got to get parents involved so that we can begin to develop the moral basis. 52 percent of our children are unchurched. We've got to get our children involved in church. We've got to get our community involved in helping to make a difference for all of our children.

MR. LEHRER: What would be your message to the average American teenage female as to why she should not get pregnant as a teenager?

DR. ELDERS: You know, I feel the average American teenager -- none of them want to become pregnant. It somehow just happens, and they make decisions that are not correct decisions. So I would hope that this teenager would have the behaviors that would help her not to become pregnant. And our society has to deal with that.

MR. LEHRER: Raspberry seemed to be suggesting that in order to get at the core of this problem though you have to teach values. I mean, you have to figure out a way to discourage sexual intercourse among young people.

DR. ELDERS: But that's what everybody does. Every teacher I know, every preacher I know, every parent I know discourage sexual activity among teenagers. But we know that many of our children are still becoming pregnant, or developing AIDS, or other sexually transmitted diseases. I feel that we must get our heads out of the sand and begin to educate our children such that they can make responsible decisions. They may choose to be abstinent, but that's a responsible decision.

MR. LEHRER: Robert Samuelson, on the same page as Bill Raspberry, said that he just asked a question as to whether or not this was a time to also because of the attention that this issue, the attention that's come to this issue as a result of your becoming the Surgeon General of the United States, is this is not a time to also debate whether or not the welfare system as it is now constituted encourages young people to become pregnant? What's your view on that?

DR. ELDERS: Our society encourage the welfare system, the poverty system. It encourages teenage pregnancy, because we fail to do the thing we need to do to make a difference. We do not pay for family planning or contraceptives, and yet, we pay for prenatal care, and that's saying that I pay for you to be pregnant and have a baby, but I won't pay for your health to keep you from having a baby. So we've got to change what we're doing. We've got to offer our children hope, teach our young men to be responsible. So we can't continue as we are.

MR. LEHRER: If something's not done -- I mean it already, here again in these stories today, a figure that obviously you're familiar with and anybody who's followed this question is, that what is it, two out of all three of -- two out of three black children born in this country today are born of single mothers?

DR. ELDERS: Yes, that's correct. And we know that many of the children born to children and many single parents, those children again are far more likely to be involved in violence. You know, we look at all the violence that's going on. We know that they're far more likely to be, end up in prison, and this is because we've not taught parents how to be good parents. They're doing the best they can. They just don't know how to do better.

MR. LEHRER: And you, as Surgeon General of the United States, you think you can do something about that, is that right?

DR. ELDERS: You know, I don't know what I can do. But I certainly want to make the American people aware of the problem, aware of the solutions, and I feel that once we become aware of the problems, that we will insist on trying to do something about them.

MR. LEHRER: That's what I was going to ask you. When you go -- as of today -- when you went to work today and you thought about, okay, now I'm going to do something about this problem that I'm very concerned about, did you think in your mind, wait a minute, it's the young people that I must now talk to, or is it the rest of society that you're just talking about, you must tell them first and then get them to help you talk to young people, or where does it all start for you?

DR. ELDERS: For me, it all starts in really getting all of society involved in helping to solve the problem. I feel that we've got to reach out and get the churches on board in doing something, and that's one of the things that I've done in Arkansas. We've got to reach out to businesses, reach out to government. I feel it's my responsibility now as a surgeon general to make sure that all of the agencies across the federal government become aware of the problems with children, and we began to collectively pool all of the resources of those multiple agencies that do things for children, put them together, out of their disjointed, fragmented way they are now and try to make a whole. I've always reached out to educators, because I feel that the very best thing that we have to offer children is a good education.

MR. LEHRER: Every step along the way -- I don't have to tell you -- there are sensitive areas within the areas within the issues.

DR. ELDERS: Yes.

MR. LEHRER: Are you prepared to take the heat?

DR. ELDERS: Well, I have to be prepared to take the heat in this position. I know that it will be difficult, but by the same token, I also feel very strongly that every citizen in America, every one of our Senators want all children born in America to be healthy, educated, motivated, and to have hope for the future. And I feel that they're going to work toward that end.

MR. LEHRER: Well, what has been the problem up till now? I mean, why has -- why do you take over as Surgeon General of the United States confronted with such an enormous, enormous problem of teenage pregnancy?

DR. ELDERS: Well, you know, I think of several factors. And no one thing or one individual can take the blame for that. I feel that one of the things is we failed, first of all, to educate our children about their own body. We failed in health education. We've not taught them in regard to drug education, in regard to alcohol, or, you know, violence, crime, and other things that are going on. It's not just sex. It's they go out and drink, or get involved in drugs, and then they engage in sexual activity that they would have never thought of before, and we've not taught them. You know in - -

MR. LEHRER: Who's we?

DR. ELDERS: We America, we all of us. You know, I think we parents, we school, we church, we community, all -- we government - - collective we. You know, it's got to be a part of our community.

MR. LEHRER: Had you been, had an opportunity toset some kind of specific goals that you have in mind, that if the first year as surgeon general I could just get this done, and the second year this, and whatever? Have you been able to think in those terms yet?

DR. ELDERS: Well, let me tell you. The other day I was sitting around. We were chatting, and I said, you know, if I could get a comprehensive health education program in all of our schools in America from kindergarten through twelfth grade, and I could make primary, preventive health services available for all children in their school setting, I would be ready to die.

MR. LEHRER: All right. You think that's possible?

DR. ELDERS: I think that's possible. I think that's something that we can do, that we need to do, and if we are ever going to reform our sick care system into a health care system, we're going to have to do it. We don't have a choice.

MR. LEHRER: Every description, every time your name is mentioned, the, the term "outspoken" always goes before Dr. Joycelyn Elders. Is that accurate? Is that -- do you see yourself as outspoken, or do you consider that a compliment or a negative?

DR. ELDERS: I really consider that a compliment, to tell you the truth. Every time I'm out speaking, I'm speaking about the things we need to do to improve the lives of children, to make them healthier, and to improve their education. That's what I'm about. That's what I want to be about.

MR. LEHRER: And the bruises from the nomination are over?

DR. ELDERS: I was trained and by temperament, I'm a healer, and I want to reach out to try and use all of the resources that we have to try and make a difference in this country. That's what I want to be about. So as far as I'm concerned, the bruises are over. Now the work begins, and I need everybody in America to help me to achieve that goal.

MR. LEHRER: Well, Dr. Elders, thank you very much. Again, congratulations, and good luck to you.

DR. ELDERS: Thank you. ESSAY - PARADISE LOST?

MR. MacNeil: Finally tonight, essayist Richard Rodriguez of the Pacific News Service on the valley in the heart of California.

RICHARD RODRIGUEZ: Welcome to California's Central Valley, the great Central Valley, old-timers call it. Here is the heart of California, the California within California, the tragic heart behind the comic mask. World's famous California is coastal California, the coast people back East will say, California's great cities, Los Angeles, San Francisco, San Diego, edge the Pacific. Coastal California is the California of sunny cliche. Postcard greetings from Paradise, wish you were here. All the more surprising is that a book appears this season called The Great Central Valley. Within the covers of this beautiful book is an essay by Gerald Haslin, early California paintings of the valley and archival photographs, as well as modern photos of Robert Dawson and Steven Johnson, all intended to show us a California far from the coast. The great Central Valley lies between the coastal foothills and the Sierra Nevada, over 400 miles long, 50 miles wide, 50 million acres, a region the size of England. During the gold rush in the mid 19th century, people from all over the world dreamed of sudden, easy wealth, super lotto. When the gold was depleted by the 1860s, people in the Central Valley turned to agriculture and to the low church Protestant lessons of slow growth and deferred rewards. While most people live in cities in the valley, cities like Stockton and Modesto, the valley's business is agriculture. Living here, I never forgot that the city was created by the land. I could smell the fields burning at the end of summer, trucks on the highways were loaded with tomatoes or sugar beets. I remember, on Saturdays, the Mexican farm workers, or bresetos, used to come to town to shop or to send money home at the Western Union office, or to get drunk. And there, at the far end of the car radio, were the hell fire warnings, the circus tent evangelists. William Saroyan's Armenian stories from Fresno were bittersweet. Joan Didian wrote about her Sacramento grandmother who owned the land and was selling the land, and Didian wrote of teenage couples making suicide pacts at a Dairy Queen. The valley's troubadours were singers like Buck Owens and Merle Haggard, their music the music of plain lives. The Chinese were here and got chased off their land by fellow Californians. Portuguese arrived from the Azores. People came not to play golf or to become movie stars but to work in the fields, Oakies, Arkies, East Indians, Japanese, Mexicans, Filipinos, lately Cambodians and Central Americans. Laid back California with its winking swimming pools was miles away. Here, life was elemental. Sun, planting, water, death. Fruit box labels advertise California as the richest agricultural region in the world, a cornucopia, but the people in the valley found in nature no simple lover, not even a reliable friend. Farmers were at war with nature. Every season nature threatened to obliterate human labor. Floods, puncture vines, heat, insects. In Hollywood, movie stars protected themselves from nature with sunglasses. The Central Valley of California used pesticides. Ten percent of the world's pesticides are now used in California. The water table is polluted. The air is polluted. When I was a boy, California built an aqueduct to send water from the northern half of the state south to Los Angeles. I used to dream of faraway cities when I saw the plumes of jet airplanes in the sky. I saw no beauty in the fields. I shuddered when I saw Mexican farm workers, young men my age. Winters were cold, with fog or rain. Summers were white hot. I yearn for the cruel summers of San Francisco. I had no interest in Okie music or in the hell fire warnings from circus tent evangelicals. Did I ever stand on the street in Sacramento and notice its beauty in winter? The Central Valley today means cheap land. Fresno is the fastest growing city in the nation. the Central Valley is growing almost three times as fast as the rest of California. Where once there were apricot trees, there are moths. Open fields are being turned into golf courses with lakes. Here is an irony. At a time when the rest of the state is deep in recession, the Central Valley sees gaudy growth. Today's farm workers know what generations of California before them knew. Here is no paradise. Here California turns plain and simple as life and death. Here is a place for tragedians, not for the writers of postcards. But, look, despite the hardness of life in the valley, look at the beauty. I'm Richard Rodriguez. RECAP

MR. LEHRER: Again, the major stories of this Wednesday, police in Miami continued their search for the killers of a foreign tourist near the Miami Airport. It was the eighth such killing in eleven months. The Muslim president of Bosnia met with President Clinton at the White House. Mr. Clinton said the United States would help enforce a fair peace settlement in Bosnia, but he would seek congressional approval before committing U.S. troops, and Nelson Mandela said his African National Congress may soon ask for the lifting of economic sanctions against South Africa because of progress on opening the government to the black majority. Good night, Robin.

MR. MacNeil: Good night, Jim. That's the NewsHour for tonight. And we'll see you again tomorrow night. I'm Robert MacNeil. Good night.