Skip to main content

tv   [untitled]    August 27, 2010 6:00am-6:30am PST

7:00 am
schools for crippled children. this is in the mission district and it's a beautiful school with all the features we take for granted because of the americans with disabilities act. it has wonderful tiles. this was not accidental. this is the sunshine school. we made the school as beautiful as possible to take the children's minds off their problems. it was also crippled children. this might sound familiar to you if you know the history of president roosevelt. he was paralyzed by polio on the threshold of a promising
7:01 am
career. he came back and few americans knew how disabled he was. he learned compassion. he learned he could help other people of different races that he never met before. this is what we used his inheritance for. this lead to the polio vaccine. this is one person who reveres him. suzie. she was born with clubbed feet. it's now for spinal diseases. these were men put to work. you could go to a library and
7:02 am
check out toys. these are three themes i identified. beauty, permanence. this is a minor's wife. she doesn't look like a dorothy lang photographer. i am sure she felt better. these are stair cases in new deal buildings. part of the idea, i think this is really an expression of the old arts and crafts movement, which elnor roosevelt was part it. this was a janitor, once he checked me out, he said, come
7:03 am
on in, i have to show you something. there was a beautiful wood laid mosaic. this is a marble mosai c. this is at the national zoo. and there's the beautiful rock work. they didn't build porto potties. this is a restroom in yosemite. we discovered these above
7:04 am
phoenix. then there's art work which celebrates people doing ordinary but indispensable stuff. this is up at timber line lodge. they were not used to seeing them or getting classes in journalism. they would get people in trouble. sometimes the art or the artist got in trouble. let's look at a few of the structures around california. this is built by the wpa. the noblist motive is the public good. imagine anybody saying that today. this kind of work is a noble
7:05 am
endeavor. county courthouses like this one in alameda. city halls all over california in a variety of styles. this one is at burbank. it hasn't been touched. fire stations all over the place. and police stations and armories. this is the police stables in golden gate park and public libraries. and then one at north berkeley. public hospitals. clinics and sanitary. as well as polio people did get tuberculosis. remember that counties were
7:06 am
strapped for funds. so the wpa gave it to them. children got health care. we were headed for a national health care system. we treat things differently now. essentially, what we have of med-cal is going to be slashed true. as an environmentist, i am opposed to this. they laid concrete in southern california. without which, a good deal would be washed into the ocean. the ccc and the wpa workers were trained for disaster relieve. we didn't have to rely on the national guard. these kinds of things wouldn't
7:07 am
be as disastrous. we need a new wpa. they are walking over the sidewalks, which is wpa. this was a demonstration outside of dianne feinstein's office. and demanding it not be torn down. the new deal moved in and gave rural areas water and electricity. this is one in modock county and we have cheaper electricity. and then, there were sustainable communities, people think they are discovering this at this time. this one was done in georgia.
7:08 am
this is one in maryland green belt outside of washington d.c. this is right outside of the co-op. and then urban roads like this in the los angeles river and this is being built. this is mira loma park. this is lark merced blvd. it's all made of clay. it's going to slump. these are the roads built in the oakland hills. nate, red woods. skyline. and enabled them to go up and develop the hills. the rural roads that go through
7:09 am
the coast range. this enabled them to get their stuff to market. this is at road built by the ccc. this is a bridge. this is highway one and you won't know, except you look at the bridge and you will see dates, 1938, 1939. the airstrips are ccc. and the one out at treasure island. long beach, burbank. this is oakland and the whole built line railroad was redone. 19 is a pwa project and our
7:10 am
great amphitheatres are from that time. this is santa barbara bowl. this is the forest theater in carmel and these are ccc workers putting huge bolder. here's 6 thousand people getting ready to enjoy oklahoma in that theater. big basin is a ccc project and this one, on the east river, new york. a project built where people from the lower east side could see performances and still do. our parks and recreation. almost all from them. that's the conservatory garden and i photographed that all the
7:11 am
time. this is up at jeweliard park. i thought i would show you san francisco. i read they improved every park. i didn't believe this at first. this is the fly casting pools. here was a fly casting champion ship. here it is today. it's still in use. the stables out there. they are meant so the public would have the opportunity previously only available to the elite, as it so often the case, as is with golf. like lincoln park built by the wpa. think of the experiences that people have had and the history which is embodied in them.
7:12 am
there is daves tennis stadium. here it is, this was a tournament for inner-city youth. archery at golden gate park. our play grounds. here it is in use today. this is bernal heights park. you can still see the gutters they put in there. this is buena vista parks. this is quezar park. this is mount davidson. look out for the rock. this is on telegraph park.
7:13 am
this is stern grove. this is a little known park above candle stick. here's my friend jake, standing by a wall. this was rosy play ground. they turned it into a park and it was also restored by wpa. i believe they torn down the house, which was unforgivable and the zoo is wpa. and here's the murals inside the mother's building. the marina sea walls and great aquatic park. the palace of fine arts. we wouldn't have and a little
7:14 am
further in, lake merit, this pier. alva rado park and then, some of you my recognize this. the berkeley rose garden. did it have to be this beautiful. finally, i'm going to wrap up. san francisco is rich in the various kinds of arts projects. we have a fabulous collection of stuff here. there were four components. there was visual arts, federal theater, federal musics and federal writers. they employed many people.
7:15 am
this is excellent to show the work. the visual arts project. it was especially important in san francisco because of dieggo rivera and radicalizing it. this is the coit towers. this was done under cw a. 1934. the wpa wasn't in existence. this is the very first of the relieve projects. harry hopkins said, they have to eat too. the artists should dig ditches like everybody else. this is antonio brinko. millions of americans got to hear live music for the first time. this is the federal theater
7:16 am
project. this is maxine albroro. it's been destroyed and one of my favorites done by helen bruten. it's to remind us, while i was looking at these projects, they employed 42 percent women. it's very unusual in the art world. and then of course, in san francisco, benny lafono. we had the first and the last of the new deal. coit tower is the first. it is i think, one of the best
7:17 am
in the country. it shows san francisco's history and that of human civilization shown through the eyes of labor. these are things that happened in san francisco's history. lynchings. again, coit tower, shows you the stock market dropping. something people weren't used to seeing. and a business many being held up. and in george washington high school, the farther of our country pointing the pioneers west as they walk over a dead indian. most of the art is not
7:18 am
controversial. most of the artists celebrates local produce. this is one of the most extraordinary murals i have seen. at a tuberculosis cemetery. they also painted a mural in san francisco. finally, it's on the outside of the berkeley community theater. all people brought together through the arts. unfortunately, it was not the last. the war came along. and anton refurgie. there were controversial. there were tried in washington in 1953. he had a panel showing the arts
7:19 am
and sciences. there is luther burbank and jack london. there was a thing on the side. it says federal art project and has beginning and ending date. that is a wall which becomes a tomb stone. the artists themselves are becoming ghosts. that's what he's doing there. joseph danish. head of the projects, it is it was a wonderful time that he woke up every morning wondering how long it would last. they were being paid to produce public art.
7:20 am
well, what happened of course is the war. the war came along. and roosevelt could see it coming. so, very few people understand the new deal segways into war. they beefed up the military bases like fort mason. my 1943, they are all killed. the war did what the new deal couldn't do, full employment. there were reports, it's still with mind numbing statistic. we have to rely on other people to do it.
7:21 am
the these projects enriched the lives of millions of people and does so today all the time. i have become aware of it, but very few people are. i have also become aware extraordinary people. here's a dedication of roosevelt. on the left, who painted the murals in the social security building with her husband and steph an kennedy. it's been a privilege to meet these people. just recently, i found this statue of roosevelt.
7:22 am
is over looks oslow harbor. they revere roosevelt, because of what they learned from the new deal about how to build a civil society. they didn't get rid of it, they expanded it. just like other scandinavian countries are consistently rated as the happiest in the world. the new deal continues to live on there. thank you. [applause].
7:23 am
good even and welcome.
7:24 am
jack hirschman. he has been a poet in san francisco from 2006. his powerful voice set the tone, his latest book, "all that's left". >> my voice is a little untuned. very simply so they are not any question of anxiety or worry. on march 14th, i decided to take an operation on my carotted artery and therefore. i don't want to go out by a stroke.
7:25 am
i would rather go out another way. the operation was perfectly senseful. there wasn't pain. they put a tube down your throat. so i lost my voice for a month or 2. therefore, i ask your indulgence. i will read in this voice, if you don't mind. i am very pleased this book came out. i am going to read with the war.
7:26 am
the war drug on. die after die. so shares and shout so jibes, nor many a steer of so cult exist and jams, juice, gins over in his tomb. tears over borrowed good as well. and future is dust and smothering. the war i rock is a masked, sad gem stone of war kings and people.
7:27 am
and fear must without heaven, over a toga pot. that's import that war boil. that's bile that gag or jail roomy and oath and the war is cocked. air and fuel the plague and watch him of his hunter of ash guard down the stinking hole. they were shacked up from to be done. >> [applause]. >> this house of hunger, for the american kids who go to
7:28 am
sleep each night without supper. this house of hunger has millions of kids in it. breakfast and lunch is all their worth. famished of billions of bucks in them. what pretty prophets have set before king's death. they stink with the stench of unmitigated treaty. their indifference included in their digital speeds. while those kids lie in bed without a cup of bullion in their head. also kill the children,
7:29 am
american you shootful. and the murders you plant in your own backyard. keep insisting your democracy. but in the starving darkness, those sad, lost eyes know the truths of your lies that you sold all the marbles in their little sacks to the bullies who applaud because they won't give them back. you have stolen the bread that cried from their mouths and turned it into dirty dough. when finally they manage to fall asleep, their dreams cause you the