American Morning
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July 15th, 2009
06:00 AM ET
What’s on Tap – Wednesday July 15, 2009
Here are the big stories on the agenda today:
- Race, abortion, gun control – all on the table as Republicans fired question after question at Judge Sonia Sotomayor. Her answers were very careful ones. The Supreme Court nominee will likely get more of the same later today. We're looking at day two's heated exchanges – and what Sotomayor can expect in a few hours.
- Is the secretary of state being sidelined? She's supposed to be America’s top ambassador, but Hillary Clinton’s been out of the limelight since she broke her elbow last month. Now some inside the beltway say the president's inner circle is keeping Clinton out.
- Democrats on the hill have a few questions for former Vice President Dick Cheney. The former VP’s now connected to a secret CIA program and Democrats are clamoring for President Obama to launch new investigations into the Bush administration. But the White House is still saying it wants to look forward, not back.
- An update to a story we’ve been following here on AM. A day camp is now suing a Pennsylvania swim club over allegations of racism. Parents say kids were kicked out of the pool, after they overheard things like “what are all these black kids doing here?” The camp director joins us live. Why she says “the children are permanently scarred.”
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I listened to your interview with Alethea Wright the manager at Creative Steps, this morning regarding the Valley Club swimming issue. I want to let you know that Ms. Wright was very disengenuious with her answers and comments regarding the club manager not contacting her in any way and only hearing third party news reports. Yesterday, I personally listened to him being interviewed on NPR’s show “Tell Me More”. He said he had made several calls to Ms. Wright which were not returned, tried to contact other members of Creative Steps, sent her text messages and finally made a personal on air plea for Ms. Wright to contact him. The "Club" seems to be trying to make things right with the daycare but now it seems greed has gotten into the way of things. "One of the children is now having migraines", said Ms. Wright. Who does she think she's fooling. The kids just want to go swimming. Regardless, for her to sit next to an attorney and claim the club manager had not tried in any way to get in touch with her is just not true and your producers should have prepped Kiran Chetry much better.
The legal action being undertaken by the summer camp against the private swimming club in Philadelphia is an unfortunate development in this story. While racism certainly continues to exist in society, so too does the misapplication of the term. The termination of the swimming contract between the swimming club and the children's group was due to safety issues, and the cause for contract termination was the third such time this summer that a children's group was subject to this action. The leadership of the children's group that is initiating legal action was not subject to any form of racism and is using this situation for nothing more than monetary gain. The true harm being done to the children in this summer camp is not from the actions of the swimming club, but by the very leadership of the camp itself – by using these children as pawns to seek financial reward. Modern society should punish equally those who discriminate based upon race, and those who make baseless claims of racism to facilitate ulterior motives.
I sat in horror listening to Sanjay Gupka regarding HRT and the relationship to ovarian cancer. He stated that there are 21,000 new cases of ovarian cancer. People trust their doctors, and yet, in this case, they were prescribed something that was so unnecessary. Menopause is a natural occurence in every woman's life; it is NATURE. Who are doctors to say that NATURE is wrong. When I reached menopause at the age of 47, I complained to my doctor about the symptoms of menopause. This wise doctor said to me, "If you can withstand the symptoms for the 5-7 years (which are at their worst), do so." He must have known the dangers of HRT, and that was 16 years ago. He was right. Are doctors helping us, or hurting us????? Not to mention the cost to the Health Care System!!!!!
Interesting that there is such an uproar over some children of color being denied access to a pool yet the fact that white firefighters can be denied job promotions because not enough black firefighters scored high enough on the testing to be considered for promotion is barely a blip on the news media radar screen – despite the Surpreme Court ruling.
I would love to hear the other side of the Valley Club story right now, because I'm a bit confused. Alethea Wright is suing the club for turning away minority children, yet she clearly stated that her son had used the pool the week before (and I'm assuming that her son is black). Wright also states that the children overheard things like "what are all these black kids doing here" – must we bring a lawsuit everytime we hear something we don't like or our feelings are hurt? I was not allowed to take wood shop in junior high school because I was a girl, and I've been the victim of homophobic acts and attitudes, yet I'm not "permanently scarred". Unfortunately, life is about the bad as well as the good – children are going to be in difficult situations. We need to hear both sides of this story – there may be a very simple explanation for all of this, not racism. There's definitely no need to sue over every little issue.
It's a shame that any discussion about Sotomayor starts with her gender and ethnic label.. Just as it did with Obama being the first black in the office of President, we can't get past the labels of "first Hispanic female" on the Supreme Court without mentioning it ad nauseum. Whether or not she is qualified or strongly biased based on her "Wise Latina" mantra matters not, she will get confirmed because Obama is pushing it and she has a "label".
PLEASE PLEASE DO NOT HASH OVER EVERY WORD SPOKEN AT THE HEARING WHY MUST THERE BE TALKING OVER THE JUDGE AS SHE SPEAK.I KNOW THERE MUST BE BREAK FOR PRODUCT SELLING.JUST PUT A DELAY SO WE WILL NOT MISS WHAT THE JUDGE IS SAYING.
I NOW WATCH BASEBALL WITH THE SOUND DOWN AND LISTEN TO MUSIC BECAUSE SO PEOPLE LIKE TO HEAR THE SOUND OF THEIR OWN VOICE..
SO PLEASE JUST FOR THIS HEARING BE QUITE.
AKA: THE UNKNOWN ANGRY AMERICAN
I watched the interview regarding the swimming pool incident and I must say I could feel the sorrow, horror and disbelief expressed by the children's camp representative. It brought tears to my eyes. I also watched when the young children gave their account of what happened. When I saw that young beautiful brown face so sad and weeping because of horrible insidious remarks made by "adults", it too caused me to tear up. I hope the country club is sued to the highest heights of the courts. And right back at them...'let the chips fall where they may'. How dare them!
I find it very interesting that CNN wont touch the story about a group of black kids beating up a white family while shouting "This is a black world" in Akron Ohio. Why is that?
You guys were just talking about the pool story, but you didn't mention that there were white kids in the group. So, you'll present a story that paints whites as racist without giving all the information, but you wont report on a clearly racist violent attack.
WHY?
It is ashame that in 2009 with a black president blatant racism and discrimination exist (especially in some place like phildelphia). The Creative Steps program should proceed full steem with a lawsuit and making an example of these bigots. Let them know that this behavior will NEVER be tolerated in 2009 like it was in 1959
Scars come after wounds that do not heal well. If the day camp helps the children to heal well, they will not have scars. The children are learning from the adults now, and if the adults portray the situation as all bad, that is all the children will get from it.
I never understood President Obama's choice of Clinton for Secretary of State. I thought it was a consolation prize for her losing the Democratic nomination.
Hillary has no business being a diplomat. Like her husband she is arrogant and delusional. Her comment in China that "human rights take a back seat to economic development" have already told the Chinese how phony she is.
I hope her ego makes her quit, or Obama finds someone to replace her.