I'm David often.

Filmmaker on this clip was shot in ST Louis, Missouri, one night at the Y M.

C.

A.

My team and I are passing through town.

We hear about the Y M C A.

Having a group of kids together, talking about gangs and violence, particularly violence in the school.

Could we film it?

Sure.

So we step in there, a small crew and we set up our cameras and we watch what's going on.

You're about to see a piece of that.

The question being asked is What causes fights now?

What's interesting is some of the kids you're about to see look frightened, but you know what they weren't.

I saw and I talked with them, and I knew some of these people really had never expressed themselves.

They're like like this.

You'll watch that it's not because the cameras are there.

It's because expression off feelings is new.

That's disturbing to see to me that people who deal with emotional issues as young people don't have the freedom to just be themselves.

And I really admire the Y.

M.

C a for setting up these places where kids could talk like one of my friends.

He goes around his message People all day.

Hey, you know, girls and stuff just terrible.

It's all about respect.

These gains wants their own respect in your own way, in their own territory.

We'll just like, look at him, walk different you, like, get blamed for stuff.

Just someone started something with you just for the way you Walker Look at him or something.

What colors you wear?

Yes.

Um, like last year more, my friends were about to get into a fight, and I told him it was the best thing was deduced is to walk away, then just walk away from sometimes you get based on what you wear or what teams you wear, like how you do your make up or whatever, and that's how much let's get started.

We're also talking stuff, or what makes a fight get started, like really easily in my school, just over dumb stuff.

When I started my school, nothing happened because I straight up, tell him Yeah, I squashed.

The violence is not right to fight because you're fighting over stupid stuff.

I'll say I'm gonna be the forest horse.

Get heat open here and I don't fight.

I completely agree with what you write is saying, But I also think that if you want something to change, you have to be the 1st 1 to say, OK, I'm going to make a difference.

I'm not gonna fight with people.

I'm not going to smoke marijuana.

And I'm not gonna be around people who do smoke marijuana.

I few to say, Well, you know, you shouldn't do that.

Then don't do it yourself if you're going to go to other people.

If you expect other people to go to adults for free problems and you need to go to other people for your problems to you always set an example for your younger generation, and you always have to remember that.

And if you want things to change, then you have to make the change.

You have to start by changing yourself.

Um, if somebody's doing drugs off, I don't know that it's not good for you that it bad influence on friends.

I think most most fights and like nowadays like started as in like he said, she said.

Stephens asked, like causing more fights.

And I mean, if you don't, if you don't hear, don't Don't say nothing about it.

But if you hear you don't start, If I can just, like, confronted with something, just ask him if you're gonna have a fight.

What do you want?

Accomplishment.

Fight.

You just hitting each other and just keep hitting each other there.

Once going first and falls, the fight's not over step.

Accomplish your problem.

And if you kill, the person is still not gonna end because the family is going to get involved and people going to still want to be over your back wanted to beat you to death.

So it's really no point in fighting because you're not going.

It's not gonna never here, sometimes in the neighborhood.

I got it.

I just recently got into a fight myself or my brother.

Yeah, he went to quick Chip to go get some crackers and he come home crying, said to do jumping.

So I ran out.

So I was thinking when look for him, found him.

And so the just beat him up like they did my brother.

Sometimes you gotta buy some time.

You don't.

It's just like society plays a big role on you where you live.

If you can't, you can't avoid it.

Yeah, way.

Try to keep your head up.

Remember who you are.

Stay strong.

Don't forget where you came from.

Struggle is far as hard.

Is it to be growing up and going through middle school and high school and stuff?

Just make sure that you know what you're outside.

Your see what your goal is, What you're set out to do.

Know that you want to graduate from high school and you want to be different.

You don't want to be like everybody else.

You want to be the person that stands out in the crowd.

Try your hardest, Teoh.

You say you want to be a judge.

You say you want to be a lawyer no matter what anyone says, no matter how hard it's gonna be.

Life isn't easy.

It has its ups and downs.

Stay strong and stay focused.

And don't let anything get in your way.

I completely agree with what?

Your eyes.

Last year, this girl, she came into class crying and was she was a friendly person.

She always had friends and people always wanted to be around her.

But she came in class one day and says Somebody caught her.

She was ugly and she had bumps all over her face.

And I was like, Well, you know what people?

They're going to say things about you because either they have a grudge about something at home or they just having a bad day.

And I said, And I said, Well, one of these days, you're gonna get credit credit for one thing that you can do well and that's going, that's gonna be the thing that's gonna count.

And this year, she is just the most happiest person in the world.

Tells me that if you have a problem with somebody about your pressure, that you just drop the whole thing.

And if they just keep bugging you and bugging you about it, you just wait till the day you try to talk to the person and the person I want to talk about.

You can easily make yourself a distance away from.

They just keep getting close to close this me.

You bring in somebody who is at a higher level, and we'll break you from that person, and you shall always have in mind it.

You don't have to take that person home with you.

You don't have to go sleep with this person, so you shouldn't have to worry about him that much.

So you should have to take it home and be bothered all the time.

I admire the Y M C A for doing what they did and from providing these outlets for people to express themselves very often for the first time.

Are we still doing this today?

I don't find many places in my community where groups that disagree, groups of individuals get together and try to talk.

I really think that's critical.

The partisan divide is so severe that we've lost the ability to communicate with each other and to understand the other guy's point of view.

You know, Longfellow once said, I never forgot this phrase.

The way to really understand someone else is to express their point of view sufficiently that they feel you've understood them and that they agree with what you've said, and I really try and do that.

I try and express the other guy's point of view in such a way Guy gravel, that he she says, Yeah, David, you heard me.

And that is not easy to do in today's world, as you know, in today's America.

So I put this up in part because I think it's interesting to watch these kids from 1988 and impart in support of entities and organizations that try to say, Well, let's come together.

Let's talk Don't necessarily have to agree But we're all one America Least that's how I see it.

Thank you for watching.

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Take care.