NewsNight Minnesota; 6094; NewsNight Minnesota Episode from 02/10/1999; SD-Base

NEWSNIGHT Minnesota is a production of Katie Segal little station at the Minnesota Public Television. Hi I'm Dan Stone this is NEWSNIGHT. You know this little fellow been making a lot of news today even Tom Brokaw at NBC Nightly News did a story about the Teletubbies and Jerry Falwell. We got better stories. All right first of all Lou Hartman We'll take a look at a health issue that might affect someone close to you. Patty Heckman will profile an exhibit currently in town very powerful. We'll sit down with the Chicago Latino Affairs Council. And if you need a reason to watch the upcoming Grammy Awards we'll give you one tonight. World renowned violinist Maxime Denver office here in our studio to perform live. This is NEWSNIGHT. Minnesota is made possible in part with support from the Blanton Foundation creating a stronger Minnesota bridge in rural and urban communities. And by the McKnight foundation dedicated to improving the quality of life for Minnesota family's

attorney general Mike Hatch is proposing legislation that he says will help almost every Minnesotan. It's called the Homeowners Bill of Rights. And as NEWSNIGHT Mary Lou Hamer reports the bill could help lower your monthly mortgage payment. With the building boom in the Twin Cities record numbers of home buyers are on the market. The home is the biggest investment for most people. The state's new attorney general wants to protect that investment with his Homeowners Bill of Rights. If you have more calls from attorney general's office you know month and they've had in previous years House Commerce Committee Chair Greg Davids will grant the bill a hearing and introduce the legislation that brings things like private mortgage insurance under check private mortgage insurance when people have over 20 percent equity in their home they should have to be paying that at all because that can be very expensive I've seen cases where it's going to hundred dollars a month added on to their mortgages.

The bill also eliminates penalties for paying off your mortgage early. Makes lenders pay interest on escrow accounts and house overages on interest rates. We're simply saying why hasn't a mortgage banker broker at least have to disclose what the past rate that they have in the shop. Attorney General Hatch says the homeowners Bill of Rights is a part of his broader effort to create better informed citizens and provide greater disclosure in the marketplace. We're trying to adapt a system that allows disclosure it gives a level playing field for the consumer but hopefully is not oppressive in terms of regulation. So it doesn't interfere with competition in the marketplace. And the bill's backers anticipate the most opposition from the mortgage industry on the proposals that crack down on charging excess interest rates and simplify the cancellation of private mortgage insurance. And America tells us that the bill's sponsor says that legislation could save homeowners thousands of dollars a year. Quote You look like a terrorist

that was allegedly the comment made by a Rochester teacher to two Somali students who are wearing traditional dress at Mayo high school comment has touched off a firestorm of criticism from as far away as Washington D.C. where leaders of the Council on American-Islamic Relations have called for the teacher's dismissal. Muslim leaders say they're also offended by an unsent letter written by the same teacher that claimed American women were insulted by Muslim men's reluctance to shake hands with the opposite sex. The council says that Muslim men don't shake hands out of modesty concerning touching women they're not related to the school district has not fired the teacher but say they've dealt with the matter firmly in what can only be called a go for round up here are gopher themed headlines for the evening. Washington County residents will no longer be reimbursed 25 cents for a front pair of gopher paws county commissioners voted to eliminate the program that reimbursed folks who wrangled the rodents. The townships can still make the payment if they so choose. Also some sad news that George

grooms the man who drew the original Golden Gopher has passed away. He was 83. He came up with the design of the US beloved mascot back in the 1980s and the team that Goldie cheers for takes the court tonight in Iowa City. The go for men's basketball team is looking for its first conference. Road when boats climb Haskins is now just eight victories away from setting the record for the most coaching victories and those are the headlines. Our first big story tonight is one normally thinks of as a problem affecting young people but in America it's a growing problem hitting hard at people over 60 years of age. Talking about people addicted to alcohol and other drugs. This week an expert on the diseases in the twin cities trying to get the issue out in the open. Lou Aravind sat down with Carole Egan. She's the director of older adult services for the Hanley Hazelton Center at St. Mary's in Florida. Listen carefully because this conversation may be talking about someone you know

let's put this in perspective we have a number of elderly people in America and we have a problem with the amount of alcohol they consume. Yes we certainly do. And it's one that's not recognized it's pretty hidden. It's now estimated that there are about three million older adults in this country that suffer from alcohol problems or severe medication problems. And that number doesn't stop there not only at 3 million you have based on the statistics they come from various places but would who were over 75 years old seem to have the highest rate of alcoholism in this country. And they do up to 50 percent of nursing home residents have alcohol related problems. That's that's astonishing. That's astonishing. Sixty billion dollars was spent. At least we're talking 1080 treating alcohol related hospital care for the elderly. What you talked about 21 percent of the elderly hospitalized were diagnosed for alcoholism in the elderly are hospitalized as often for alcohol related problems as for heart

attacks. Absolutely as a matter of fact when they really did a study on that they found that there were more or more older adults hospitalized for alcohol related problems than for heart. And that was astonishing to me because when I think of older adults I often would think of heart problems as being number one problem. But what we have here is a problem that is not being recognized as not being identified. And I think that there's a great deal of focus on younger people and illegal drugs. And we seldom take a look at the older adults who are getting zonked on completely legal drugs either alcohol or prescription medication is a biggie. And for people who have problems with taking in too much they alcohol. What's going on. Are we talking depression. OK I think we're talking several different things with the early onset alcoholic. It's probably an adult or older adult that had problems off and on throughout their life. With alcohol it maybe reared its head at

different times but somehow they managed to lead a somewhat functional life. The late onset alcoholic is the other person the one who retires maybe retires and moves to Florida or Arizona or whatever and they feel like this is what I've worked for all my life. I deserve this now to go there and play golf. And they find out that playing golf isn't as rewarding as they thought it might be and some boredom synth sets in and I think even more important what happens to them is this. No sense of purpose kind of set set. And then maybe the spouse becomes ill or they lose a spouse. It seems like older adults have a series of one loss after another and the retirement communities and the social activities their high percentage of them revolve around drinking. And that would be your late onset alcoholic. You know the problem to you. In most homes if there was an elderly person around or

grandma or grandpa all of a sudden their drinking the tendency is to you know I have to respect them there. They pay their dues and know it's OK have a drink but that's not necessarily good. That's a major issue. I hear that all the time. One of the favorite things I hear is they were in the right. Leave them alone. They've earned the right. And my response to that is I have. I have seen many many older adults come through treatment I have seen their lives change and turn around and I have seen the quality of their life changed dramatically. And it's not fun when they're passing out in front of their television set at 4 o'clock in the afternoon and not enjoying life and that's what it's all about is improving the quality of life of a very special population of people. And my guess is. True or false. Older people are harder to get into treatment. True absolutely true. What we did in looking at this problem in the beginning was we thought what can we give to the general public.

What can Hazelton give to the general public and we wrote a little pamphlet called How to talk to an older adult with problems of alcohol or medication. And in there we put little scenarios on what might pop up how to begin a conversation with it what to what kind of language to use and not use. Older adults are extremely sensitive to words like alcoholic or words like drug addict. And you must be very careful of that. You have to do a lot of planning. I think that you generally have to involve the doctor involved. Maybe the pharmacist and possibly the clergy and do some real studying before you might not get a second chance with them. So you want to be sure of what you're doing when you decide to have an intervention on an older adult. It's

not going to continue our series of interviews with the heads of the councils of color. She's been spending a lot of time at the Capitol these days but the executive director of the Chicano Latino Affairs Council joins us in the studio now we'd like to welcome back Irene Gomez. Beth thanks a lot. Yes I would imagine the first thing you have to do with this new governor is to persuade him that the state should fund the councils of color. Oh absolutely. We are actually we came into being in one thousand seventy eight as a Spanish speaking Affairs Council and the same problems that brought us into effect still exist. This is the way that our community can access the system to affect change and

to also work with us that might impact our community. So we are definitely an advisory to the governor and the legislature. But we also work as a liaison with the city state and federal governments. So for instance when the legislature is tackling say welfare reform. I mean there are things that you want to tell lawmakers that this is how it may affect the Hispanic communities. Right and actually when programs get cut they really affect women and children. And I think that if we're going to put people out of welfare we really need to have some kind of job opportunity. And again that comes to education training these people with skills so that they can get a job. It seems to me that in and the economy where we need to so many people to come to work we should be able to train them so that they will have work.

So some of this is simple as making sure state agencies print pamphlets perhaps in Spanish or signs or posters or just telling them where they should go in the community. Well actually we are really like we give information and referral and one of the things that we are is a resource for the state for instance the Department of Human. Resources had a mandate from the legislature to called Limited inclusion profession see and this was to put the publications into the language of the clients that they deal with. And so we've been helping them look at the different issues that are there not only the fact that people need to have the printed information in Lingle format but to also be culturally competent. And going further than that also then that means working with them with the social service agencies

that can provide services for them. So those are some of the things that we do that was mandated by the Senate and this legislature last year. I know one thing that you're concerned about is education and this is something you're on the same page with the governor that I mean he's very concerned about education what's your pitch to him. Well what my concern is of course we really are a community that really needs to access the system to help us. We have many barriers. Language cultural and other economic barriers. The other thing is what I've run into is that when we talk about the needs we also need teachers that are culturally aware or culturally competent For instance I had a person that was telling me about a boy from Nicaragua who was a disciplinary problem. This person didn't realize that this boy came from a war torn country where he had

been really traumatized. It isn't that he had a discipline problem in that maybe they didn't understand what his problem was he was afraid he was afraid of authority. He was afraid of speaking up about himself because of where he had been. So you know my people. Taken away and taken away in the night. That's right. Exactly and they saw horrible things happen to their relatives and friends so they don't trust anyone in authority. So those are some of the things that I think we really need to look at. We were mandated actually by a legislature to do a project to look at what are the barriers and to work with the city. We're working with the state and we will be also working with the federal government. All right Kareen thank you very much. I think you. Pleasure. OK. Next there is an important article in town. It's not one that most people would want to hang on their walls not the artwork that is

but it's one that does cry out for artistic interpretation. The exhibit is called the artistic memory of the Holocaust and genocide. It's showing at the Catherine Nash gallery on the U of Minneapolis campus. NEWS NOTES Patti Heckman has our story. We called it the artistic memory of holocaust and genocide because we were trying to ask the question if the historical narratives of these cases are so relentless that people don't like to read about them. If the very subject sort of pushes people away historically Can art poetry literature become a means of helping people understand a little bit. Can we create an image that will remain in someone's mind such as an image of the perpetrators or an image of the victim or where it happened in the forest or something that raises questions about contemporary society and where or where did the where did the Holocaust come from so-called Daimler-Benz which is about the memory of how Mercedes-Benz and by implication other

companies used slave labor during the Third Reich. You could read a book about the US. I could probably read many back and never take it and in quite the same way. You seem not to be able to respond to a headline that says 45 cos of unskilled eyes gouged out women raped. That doesn't have an impact maybe if you see an image that's not photographic with color in it. Maybe that's something. It's called War gardens and this could be anywhere any of us you know concerned with our vanities. And you wind up in this bloodbath. So I think she's talking about the for the fragile nature of civilization and sort of how we deal with it. This is a testimony to the Santee Sioux uprising. Eight hundred sixty one thousand nine hundred two.

There were 300 Santas and were captured. Most were pardoned except thirty six who were hung and then Kato on December 26 1982. Abraham Lincoln who is a hero for Afro Americans because of the slavery emancipation. All of a sudden we're sort of reinforced with the idea that he is not a hero for Native Americans. But what struck me the most was the one up here on the right under Shakopee little sex death by hanging. First I thought little sex we happen to be the name for the casino. I didn't realize that that's what Shakopee means in Sioux language and he was. There were four here who were executed hanged on order by Andrew Johnson because Lincoln was dead. Remember 1865 this is a Fort Snelling So this is right here in the Twin Cities. We're talking about so if you look around the twin

cities you see the names of these towns which have Indian names there's a real history behind it and this is what we mean by absence presence you see a thing called Shakopee What does it mean to you. I mean so the question is how do you teach this stuff. How do you get this in the people's memory. So part of what happened after introduction to some of the imagery on the thank you softer introduction and it's a springboard for other types of discourse because I believe sometimes through a single image you can get it in posts that will carry you into reading literature memoirs. You know he said what's this all about why did an artist take Telamon energy to do this when they could do something more beautiful. And it also raises the question is can you have beautiful art about horrible subjects hands represent the gypsy fortune telling legacy So while it's

beautiful that there is sort of a negativity there stereotyping the numbers deal with some of the known numbers of Gypsy victims across Europe we don't know the total somewhere between a half a million and a million and half were killed. Gypsies have a tradition that you're allowed to take revenge within one year and if you don't take revenge you have to keep quiet. And they also have a tradition of not talking about the dead which is a very important bridge that stops memory for a long time the idea was silence. You can't write poetry you can't do art after hours for this because you especially if you weren't there you can't you can't do it. But the reality is if you don't do something it leaves it to others to invent these artist. I don't know why this happened. So they do works on it whether it's Native American or whether it's about Bosnia whether it's about the

destruction of the gypsies or the Jews more than a century. It looks like another winner for the Shubert club tomorrow night at the Ordway in St. Paul. The club will present our next guest. He gave his first public we sidle at age 5. The list of musicians and conductors he's worked with is a who's who of classical music a People magazine called him classical Zz next big thing he wanted gramophone magazines record of the year he performed at the Grammys last year he's nominated for a Grammy this year. We would like to welcome violinist Maxime Venable Roth. He is also

here by the way with pianist. Alexander Markovitch He's a distinguished soloist in his own right and Alexander thank you for joining us. Thank you so much. Maxine I understand you were playing nine hours a day when you were four years old. How can a four year old love anything that much. You know I have a good mother and they're always the right key to open you know my heart and to talk to me. When you were a child did you ever think I want to play anymore Did you ever go through times when you put it away. Yeah I had always the choice to choose the profession except you know apart from being a violinist either to be president of the country because I you know I love to do something for people to do something nice or to be a janitor. Why didn't they. Because they had so much time to stroll outside and I was but in a room all the time practicing you know. Xander I'd like to ask you a question. You're a soloist in your own right. How is it

different when you perform with someone like Maxine. You know I have to tell you that first of all it's a great honor for me to play with him you know in time hip to this you know each other. At least 10 years at least in the years. You know together we've passed through some difficult things and you know for me it's just big fun times. You know it's fun to play with such a such person as I understand that you occasionally go to the pool hall when you're frustrated with your music. Yeah it's nice because it's so relaxing relaxing you know you concentrate and you know I don't have to say that the pool cue is like it looks like a book. So it's a good concentration. And you know you have to sustain the ball when you play. And the same for the cue. OK. There are a few tickets just a few tickets I'm sold to the Ordway you might want to call that number

and check it out. What are you going to play for us now. We're going to play Carmen fantasy of the extreme Alexander. Yeah. 2000. True.

It

was wonderful. Maxine Benadryl thank you so much Alexander thank you. Thank you. Tomorrow night at the Ordway if there are any tickets left you got a call right now. Thank you so much for Little Harben Mary and the rest of the NEWSNIGHT crew thank you very much. Will you please take us home. Thank you. Congrats. NEWSNIGHT

Minnesota is made possible in part with supporting the Landon Foundation creating a stronger Minnesota community and by the McKnight foundation dedicated to improving the quality of life for Minnesota families.