Now I must say, everyone was very respectful and a lot more informed than I had expected.  As you will see in the first video, many of them watch the news, but they only watch and trust a single news source. That is always a bad idea, especially when that source is Fox News.  Everyone who we spoke to (during this exchange and otherwise) very much wanted to address issues and has the best intentions to make concrete changes to improve America's future.  They recognize and are feeling the stresses of the times, but want to revert to our old ways which led to this mess instead of finding new ways to lead us out of it.  Many of their thoughts and ideas are skewed to fit within a narrow mindset, imagining we were living in a perfect world.  For example, the fellow speaking with us in the second video somehow believes that all you need are clothes and shoes and the government will pay you $900 a week to sweet streets.  Theoretically, clothes and the ability to work are the only prerequisites for getting a street sweeping job, but it doesn't mean that you will be able to get that job, especially at $900 a week. 

Professor Marc Gopin is the Director at the Center for World Religions, Diplomacy, and Conflict Resolution (CRDC) with the Institute for Conflict Analysis and Resolution at George Mason University. You can follow his work by visiting www.MarcGopin.com. He has focused a lot of his work around interfaith conflict resolution, which is why we asked to speak with him about the controversy over the proposed construction of the Cordoba Mosque in lower Manhattan. Right after we scheduled the interview, news broke that peace talks among Israel, Palestine, and the United States would resume in September. This is an issue that Professor Gopin has been deeply involved with for a very long time now, so we included that in our line of questioning.

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