One of the things that I find to be really intriguing is also the work that you've been advancing and getting established here at Emory University to try to establish a center called The Emory Center for Advancing Non-Violence. And I want you talk a little bit about how all the things that you just mentioned in those various different areas, how they connect to ECAN and what do you want to achieve from that institution. And maybe share a little bit about the importance of institutionalizing this work. I know you've talked a lot about the mandate that Dr. King left for you about institutionalizing the work. Maybe, you can share a little bit about that, and also talk about the work of ECAN. >> Well, the last conversation I had with Martin Luther King was during the poor people's campaign, and we were preparing to also go to Washington, D.C, but we're in Memphis at the time and he said, now Bernard, the next movement we wanna have is to internationalize and institutionalize non-violence. And five hours later, he was assassinated. So I had to pick up the pieces there and went back to school, so I could prepare for this next phase of my life. So since that time, I've been working on developing institutions around the world so that people would be able to be exposed to these kind of concepts and be able to work them, and be able to see some success in their own efforts in their own countries. I was just thinking that it was only when, last evening, yeah, okay, that I was talking to a family in Nashville, Tennessee, and they had a five year old who just started kindergarten. And his name was Charles. And Charles had a problem in kindergarten already where some girl pinched him and twisted his skin. Okay? And apparently, the parents wanted to help Charles understand how to address this problem, five year old. So we sat down and we had a discussion, and so I simply took the approach that I always take and gathered information. So I was tutoring Charles about what questions he should ask, like, why did the girl do this? Did she do it to other people? Yes. But it's only boys, by the way, that she pinched. Yes. So I gave him some questions that he should ask her, so he could better understand her behavior. Had she been pinched before? How did she feel when she was pinched? Okay? So my point is, I'll be giving him an assignment, so I'll be checking with him to see how he- >> See how he came though with his homework assignment. >> Right. So the next phase would be to say, okay, you have this information, Charles, what is your goal now that you have this information? Now, I already have something in mind for him, but you have to do it through asking questions, so he can come to that same conclusion. What I would like to see him do, is to organize a group, okay, in his kindergarten. An organization. >> Get them started early, then Dr. >> Yes, right. And how do you respond to these things that people do to you? And already put the idea in his head that he might get together with the other fellows who had been pinched. >> Okay. >> Okay? And rather than retaliate to the girl who's pinched him, what you do is, get some flowers. >> Oh, okay. >> But you have to find out her favorite flowers from the other girls, and then, okay, show her some love, cuz maybe there's something that hurts her. And that she wants to share the pain. >> Hm. >> So rather than accepting the fact that [COUGH] she's sharing the pain, you teach her to share something else. >> Are these the same kind of teaching methods and principles that you would envision a center like ECAN being able to practice and promote? Are those the kind of teaching, pedagogical perspectives that you can envision being advanced by the center? >> Yes. And one of the things I would like to see the center do is to get sponsorship for a television program. And one of the aspects would be focus for children and doing role play, okay. And it could be very exciting. You could have some music and theme songs that would go on there. You have the actual children who would start promoting, non-violence and looking at alternatives. Children are very creative if you give them the material. For example, when we trained one elementary school, fourth graders, and we gave them the concepts, then they came up with the idea that when a fight broke out on the playground, that the other children would form a circle and they would sing the national anthem. >> Hmm. >> It's kinda difficult to have a fight going on when you're talking about the unity of our country and our people. But they came out with an idea of forming a circle. And it diminished that whole idea of people wanting to fight with each other instead they would always, when there's a conflict, they start singing the national anthem. So what we want to do is put these ideas in the minds of the young people, so ECAN, we want them to get a sponsor for a television program, because that's the major media kind of approach we use, and start even on Facebook and other outlets that children might use. And start giving them the language and also the feeling, which would be appropriate to potential violent conflict. So the whole idea is to get ahead of the game. >> Gotcha. >> Rather than trying to respond to violence, let's make our response a pre-response. And I think that's so important because what we see across this country and across this world, is just outbreaks of violence in various forms, and I know from the work that you've been doing with ECAN, that the goal is to help make an epicenter so that it can be able to advocate on behalf of issues of non violence. To be able to be place for people to come and learn about all the intriguing and empirically proven ways in which people can apply non-violence in a variety of different arenas with law enforcement, in business, in education, and in their own personal lives. So it allows ECAN to be really a place to synergize and connect a lot of the work that you're doing in various other parts of the country.
