Sheri Fink. Fink's reporting has won the Pulitzer Prize, the National Magazine Award and the Overseas Press Club Lowell Thomas Award, among other journalism prizes. She is the author of the book "Five Days at Memorial: Life and Death in a Storm-Ravaged Hospital," which is a finalist for the 2013 Los Angeles Times Book Prize for Current Interest, and the winner of the 2013 NBCC Award in Nonfiction.
Charlie LeDuff. Leduff is a writer, filmmaker and reporter at Detraoit's FOX2 News. He is a former national correspondent for the New York Times. He contributed extensively to the New York Times series "How Race Is Lived in America," which was awarded the 2001 Pulitzer Prize for National Reporting. His book, "Detroit: An American Autopsy," is a finalist for the 2013 L.A. Times Book Prize in Current Interest.
Amy Wilentz. Wilentz is the author of "The Rainy Season," "Martyrs' Crossing" and "I Feel Earthquakes More Often Than They Happen." Her latest book, "Farewell, Fred Voodoo," won the NBCC Award for Autobiography. She writes for the New Yorker and the Nation and teaches in the literary journalism program at UC Irvine. She lives in Los Angeles.
Their comments (if anything is misstates, the is obviously due to me):
Sheri Fink: (Her book "Five Days at Memorial" deals with the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina and the impact on a hospital). We all have a role to examine our values. At the hospital, critical components of the backup power were below flood level. On the second day, the power went out in the hospital due to flooding. They needed to evacuate. Helicopters could only handle so many patients. Who goes first? Babies? Elderly? Medical Professionals? Healthy? What are the values? A group of doctors made a decision. The Do Not Resuscitate were determined to go last.
People at the hospital started to euthanize their pets as pets weren't allowed on the handful of rescue boats. The question came up: Should some patients be put out of their misery? With no electricity, the hospital was becoming unbearable. About 20 people were given morphine and sedatives. One person was a 61 year-old grandfather who had just had breakfast. He was 400 pounds and the doctors didn't feel they could move him to the rooftop for a helicopter rescue.
How does society adjudicate? The hospital had no plans. A doctor and two nurses were prosecuted for 2nd degree murder.
Katritina was (will not) be unique. What if SARS broke out and hospitals only have so many respiratory systems? In California, hospitals are not up to code for earthquakes. We need to be personally prepared. We must be flexible to change plans. Creative thinking is important. Creative thinking at Memorial helped save lives: such as hot wiring a boat.
For more on this story, check out this link: CBS.
Charlie LeDuff. He read a passage from his book. Some off-hand quotes he made (he was in the courtroom with his daughter during a sentencing hearing for a man who had burned down a building to get insurance money and a firefighter had died). Daughter: What did the bad man do? LeDuff: He killed their friend. He burned down a house to get some money.
The man was in court to receive his sentence. His mother said he was a pillar of the community. The man denied burning down the house, even though the handyman testified that the man was there at the house. This bad man was Wall Street. He was modern America. He was a cheater.
His final thoughts: Chaos is everyday in Detroit. We're still rich enough to save this experiment.
Amy Wilentz: Her book was about the aftermath of the Haiti earthquake. Haiti is always in a state of post traumatic stress disorder, because of where they are. She went down to Haiti, because of memory pull of history. Astounding how much was gone. She saw dead bodies in the rubble. Believes Haiti is de-previledged. Thinking: What gives me the right to trespass? What function does a journalist have in Haiti? Is it poverty tourism? Does it give readers complacency? She wants to give back. What's the relationship between journalists and the story? Her role, she feels, was to document Haiti, put it in your face even if she might just be preaching only to the choir (that being those who have an interest in Haiti).
My thoughts: This was the best of the conversations for Saturday. Charlie LeDuff called himself a conservative. I'll take him at his word. I'm happy conservatives are venturing back to the LA Times Festival of Books. For awhile they were not represented. I argue it was driven back when the festival was at UCLA and Max Boot got viciously booed. I think no matter your position on politics, it is important that on these LA Times conversations that various opinions are expressed. Hopefully, this trend of conservatives coming back to the festival continues.
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