American Morning
Protecting yourself at work
All this week we've been investigating the threat of violence at work. So far we've looked at how to recognize the warning signs and what to do if it happens.
Today, we have some practical steps to keep yourself safe. CNN's Alina Cho reports for part three of our special series "When Co-Workers Kill."
Grier: Not everyone against Obama is a racist
During last year's election, comedian David Alan Grier had a lot to say about the possibility of America electing its first African-American president. Grier has written about the historic election in a new book called, “Barack Like Me.”
[cnn-photo-caption image= http://i2.cdn.turner.com/cnn/2009/images/10/07/david.alan.grier.art.jpg caption="Comedian David Alan Grier is the author of "Barack Like Me.""]
He joined John Roberts and Kiran Chetry on CNN’s “American Morning” Wednesday to talk about President Obama’s first nine months in office. Below is an edited transcript of the interview.
Kiran Chetry: There were a lot of questions whether Barack Obama would actually win and whether or not there would be voting irregularities. Here we are nine months out. What do you think?
David Alan Grier: Well first of all, it seems like it was five years ago. I mean, you know, nine months ago mostly what I talk about in the book is that period leading up to his election and I was addicted to the election coverage. I watched it day and night. Everybody did. It was so exciting.
"Is this country ready? What happens if we do elect a black president? What happens if we don't? What happens if we don't know?" All this possibility was there. And that's really what I talk about in the book. In a humorous way leading up to his election and the inauguration, going to the inauguration and my experience there, which was my political Woodstock, as I call it.
John Roberts: He came in with such high approval ratings and they started dropping down throughout the summer. They just recently, in this latest Associated Press poll, started coming back up to 56%. What do you make of the drop and now what appears to be a rebound?
Grier: You know what? I don't pay a lot of attention to that, like a long term stock investment. Because we all know the challenges that he inherited are monumental. And to expect him to solve, cure all those things in nine months is impossible. So I continue to support him, but I kind of am waiting to look in the long run.
Dr. Gupta offers advice to parents on H1N1
(CNN) - Over this past week, I had some interesting conversations with colleagues who are also health care professionals. These conversations usually start with, "You know what I hate about the media ... ?"
[cnn-photo-caption image= http://i2.cdn.turner.com/cnn/2009/HEALTH/09/01/parents.h1n1.flu.guide.gupta/art.sanjay.h1n1.cnn.jpg caption="Dr. Sanjay Gupta talks to Dr. Jim Fortenberry, pediatrician in chief at Children's Healthcare of Atlanta. "]
Now, over the past eight years, I have grown accustomed to being engaged in these sort of discussions where I am asked about everything the "media" have reported over the past few months, and asked to defend things point by point. It can be a challenging task.
This time, however, the topic was H1N1, or swine flu.
I spent the weekend thinking about what I was being told, and realized there was a larger point here.
People were scared, more than I had seen in a long time. And, health care professionals were blaming the media - accusing them of being alarmist.
So, I decided to get away from the studio, away from the talking heads discussing mortality rates, and away from the hypothetical discussions about what might or might not happen. I wanted to see for myself what was happening in emergency rooms right now.
I was most curious about pediatric ERs, because young people seem to be most affected by this, and selfishly, I was curious about my own three girls and how I should react if they become ill this fall.
When co-workers kill: Workplace violence on the rise
For Johna Lovely, who lives in Presque Isle, Maine, news coverage last month of Annie Le’s murder, allegedly by a co-worker at Yale University, brought back painful memories of the day she lost her daughter. “It brought everything back,” Lovely said. “I just cried and cried.”
[cnn-photo-caption image= http://i2.cdn.turner.com/cnn/2009/images/10/07/sperrey.erin.art.jpg caption="Erin Sperrey was killed by a co-worker on January 2, 2005 in Caribou, Maine."]
Lovely’s youngest daughter, Erin Sperrey, was killed by a co-worker on January 2, 2005. Sperrey was a supervisor for a fast food restaurant in Caribou, Maine. She was working the overnight shift with one other employee – Christopher Shumway.
Shumway is now serving 45 years for beating Sperrey to death.
Nationwide, 517 people were murdered at work last year according to government statistics. And while that number is down 52 percent since 1994, an American College survey found things like bullying, harassment, and physical altercations are up.
Laurence Barton, who studies workplace violence at the American College, a nonprofit educational institution that trains financial services professionals, says that kind of violence is becoming epidemic.
“The call volume to human resource officers, to their EAP programs, to counselors is sky rocketing,” Barton says. “We are absolutely in a period right now of among the highest periods of threats at work in certainly recent memory.”
That doesn’t surprise Lovely and her daughter, Amanda. They’ve worked tirelessly since Erin Sperrey’s death to stop workplace violence. They’ve set up a fund in Erin’s name (erinsfund.org) and have traveled around Maine to convince companies to install panic buttons, connected to police departments, so employees in danger can get immediate help. They thought armed with Erin’s story it would be a cinch. They were wrong. They told us just eighteen companies out of hundreds agreed to install new security systems or educate their employees about workplace violence.
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