personally i'm andrew feldman and welcome to currently speaking i'm here with my cause tom eunice nearly a fisherman how you guys doing doing well let's start the show like we always do with headlines one of the first headlines we're going to look at today is the president of iran is in the news again this week because he said he's going to have a conference discussing idea that the holocaust never happened and that was a complete myth in the past week we heard have heard about the iraq study group discussing what they want to do with that we should meet with this man guys if this guy thinks the holocaust is a myth which is completely irrational should we meet with him i don't think well it just shows me that there's still people out there that that think the holocaust is a m try i don't think that he is completely well i don't think he's delusional he's a really smart man because what he's doing is a pure political move if the holocaust didn't happen as he says than israel really has no right to exist and that's that's his point  what's really interesting is that one of the top k k k members prefer talk to a judge and discuss how the holocaust did not exist she blamed zionists and jews for all of the troubles in the world especially the middle east and he said it was the jews who are trying to make  in america but heads i mean well i mean that's also if he said if he thinks this is this is the exact reason why israel should exist because of all of this negative and negative feelings around the piles of ashes i know i mean six even though we've tried with the nuremberg trials we've tried these killers they've admitted to killing these people so i don't know what he's trying to make people think when he i to me it makes him ideas with the united states and nothing gets done just a waste of time i really think that always has to be i guess it has to be monitored of course it on a monitor that both sides are going to you know i don't think we should we can get the man this is he's a very cunning person but she he is a fascist leader that's what he is he controls his country he's a dictator approved or not approved by the ayatollah as it doesn't matter because they are the leaders of this deal in world war two chamberlain sat down with hitler cloisters talks and go well cuz chamberlain and i've got giving poland to hitler but i feel that if you lie if we do if we learn from those mistakes in the past i think it could be productive to sit down of this thing yeah i really don't know what the answer is we'll have to just see how things play off walk up to see how the united states responds to this conference that the president of iran is supposed to have if it happens or if it doesn't happen want to see what steps our government takes in the future with  what was interesting actually like commenting what you just said that you want to see how our government what a government does what's interesting is that none of the other muslim none of the other muslim personalities except for i think the main of the of russia they never went on the air and said that this man is a liar and like we don't agree with him right they were silent and that that scares me i mean i think i think a muslim countries around the world are a bit afraid of this guy he's very powerful you know he's killed thousands of innocent people so i mean i think they want to keep their mouth shut since they're in such close vicinity with iran so nothing happens to them as moving on to another issue that is currently going on in the middle east and has been going on for numerous number of years there's still severe violence in israel you know many more israelis and palestinians die each day because what can we do this needs to stop and will robert gates the incoming secretary of defense help this horrible tragedy going on with in the war between israel and palestine well it's nice to think that the united states can you know come in and make a difference in the is very fast and confident but the point of the matter which is kind of a selling point is just it's not our business to be there to be in the middle east at all we have problems in all of them i pretty much by you saying that it makes me feel like you're saying well it's not our business in being dealing with the de can't while the u n is not functioning very well do you why would why not have us step in and try to save some lives they have always tried to say some wise in our own country we have violence in our city in this city we can't rebuild new been so why does israel is that is that the united states understands that if it gives up on israel and cuts off it or whatnot israel would destroyed and if israel destroyed in the middle east save maybe for levanon or become one huge slab of these states like iran that all they want to do is perpetuate this jihad is the idea and i don't think we have the right to let that happen and it's our see another thing with the united states and united states has so much pride in everything they do they don't want to back down and they don't want to make look like a failure so i think they're going to stick with us and hopefully we can have some peace i mean i really don't know what the solution is it's when you get into a discussion about religion that's a very tough issue for citizens and of countries to to move around and with this with this war that's all that's all it's around religion and what the real what the religion says we deserve and that's very hard if if you've been believing that for a thousand years  palestinian people they they aren't too bad to them but they are bad too that is but if you're a palestinian and your feet you're better off with mohsen power than i don't i can't put myself in that situation but i that's the thing you're going to toss is only line and this has been proven because not the leaders it's not that leaders don't want peace now that arafat's out the new leader of the palestinians and the new leader of the israelis want peace it's the citizens it's the citizens that don't want peace and are affecting this  process for moving along because they're willing to commit terrible acts there is there is pressure from the psychological aspect the in the inveterate hatred which is the bread bread on both sides there was a there was a great movie called relentless where they were the reporter interviewed was a bicycle of course but the reporter interviewed palestinian children and they their greatest dream of a lot of them was to become a shia that is a suicide bomber but there's another movie on there's another movie that contradicts that a bit it's called i've seen it numerous times it's called promises and it takes a look at seven different israeli and palestinian children was done about seven years ago and it looks at these kids just want to live a normal life you know and they want to get to know each other but because of their religious backgrounds they can't and then the movie at the end brings these two groups together and you see they play normal like any other children do they play soccer and they have a good time so people can think about you know look  he's nice to hang out with why does it matter if you can just think about that and they can if i think if these see if these citizen see that they can enjoy if you just for one day forgot about all your differences and saw that you did have  some enjoyment with each other things would change but that's difficult to do or so would and i mean i think it's it's i think it's all on hamas to you know to be more open to there's areas because israelis have had been willing to do that and hamas just this the middle east says like we say every single week when we bring up a topic in the middle east it's in complete turmoil right now and  three of us have ideas but we can't make this go away overnight it's going to it's a long process could take continued take years to really have to see what happens let's take a more local issue now looking at in needham massachusetts a town about twenty minutes from belmont it does not it's this year it's not announcing they're on a roll list of students to achieve high academic achievement in this past first quarter they're doing this to prevent more tragedies happening giving people on the situation in need of high school over the past four years you've had over the past two years you've had four suicides and you've had just this past october you had a terrible car accident killing two needham high school seniors so you  very kind of on edge situation over the last two years regarding their public schools and i think this move is trying to prevent any peer pressure about grades and parent and parenting happening so these tragedies don't happen again well well first of all the parents are going to find the first question i asked you what do you think about this move by the president principal paul richards of new to my school i think i think it's a good move i think it eases some of the pressure from students academically to to perform an at the same level as some others it's not it fosters a more welcoming i think i've noticed here in the school where you know people  and the accident obviously wasn't i know the accident wasn't but there has been some links into aside no ten papers that these kids have or wrote that the school is really pressuring and they didn't know where they fit in one of the i was at one of the funerals for one of the kids that died last year and she had written an article essay right before this tragedy happened saying that look i don't know where i fit in i have i'm writing this paper but i don't know why all these kids are going off to college i don't know if i want that he wasn't free to be who he wanted to be any you know it just causes so much press or with kids these days because society has such a big expectation for everyone to move on to college and they can't be they can't wait a year and figure things out and you go right away that just causing so much pressure in our eyes to look at ninety seven percent of graduates ninety seven percent of our students graduate and majority of those go off to a four year college so look i think i mean that's situation to have so i think by this they're addressing there's an issue and they don't want any slight trip ups a cause any more tragedies so by not i think this move is going to now fuel other discussions about how we know if our kids are emotionally stable and getting more counseling in the schools and getting more people to talk from this i guess i agree with you on this is they are talking a surface issue and i mean you see also you also see this in universities special among engineering schools like mit and cornell what how they attack this issue is they have they have psychological counseling for their students i mean that's the thing that need be in every high school and just the guidance who focus on the just need to take parents need to be more nurturing with their childhood and it's because i feel like what you described was not really a great crisis it was more and of an identity crisis right and it's i don't think it's the schools the schools business to go into one's personal what i mean but i think  identity crisis comes from bowl feeling accepted at home and feeling accepted at school if you're not except at school because you don't have good grades or you're not cool then that's going to that's going to mess up with your head and i think that's what that's what the principal need in high schools trying to stop trying to stop this you know you know teasing by other kids because they don't have good grades i mean come on let's let's be honest here when was the last time you want except you because you didn't have good grades i mean it's happened you don't know what kind of groups people are trying to get into you don't you don't know i mean i'm not we're not we don't sit in my school it could be a completely different scenario than what we have here at belmont because yeah i think it's a good smart move by paul richards but hopefully we'll see how things play out with this and how the town of needham reacts to it but right now things are going well so far for needham over the last couple months it's good to hear yeah i mean let's move on to let's move on to our major issue of today show which is gang  been going on for you know two hundred years in the united states but over the past twenty years it's really been starting to heat up one hundred percent of united states cities with a population of over two hundred fifty thousand people have reported gang gangs and gang violence activity outstanding number because two hundred fifty thousand people is not a lot of people so and also some other statistics for you there are over twenty four thousand gangs in massachusetts consisting of all  not in massachusetts my bad in all the united states consisting of all races white caucasian hispanic black all different kinds of races and it's amazing there are seven hundred fifty thousand people in gangs and in the united states outstanding number and they cause numerous and thousands of deaths each year first question i have to ask you about this guys do you think guns are the reason why violence in gangs are so high no because if we didn't have guns they'd be using baseball bats let's think guns is just a mechanism for you of gang violence and it's definitely not the reason i think some of the reason is is  gangs are violent structures where members carry weapons and such and they sell things and they become rich that's all a matter of power in our society in our society powers defined by by monetary success too to a big extent  when the word gang and gang violence comes up to me i think immediately that well this must consist of all males that's just what i'm feeling well when if you look at the numbers numerous females are in these gangs there are over eighty thousand females in the united states and gangs is a very small number compared to the number of males but they are still and some cities have gangs it's empowerment yes i'm in support of the community are not as empowered or whomever let me just give you some some more information about these gangs there's been a study there has been a study taken a few years ago in the united states that ninety percent of gangs gang members are either either suffer from low income learning disabilities which is very surprising me they say eight out of ten gang members eight of out of ten gang members have learning disabilities and people with learning disabilities are three times more likely to join again i mean that that to me shows right off the bat triggers in my head insecurity because these learning to kids with learning disabilities get teased and they can accept themselves and then they try to find a place where they are accepted and that's your insecurity let me just let me just finish with a couple a couple other things here there's all like you are saying low achievement is a major issue low achievement in schools you don't feel any attachment in your school and there's just you how you weren't taught rules and you were you're just feeling fear in yourself you don't have a lot of you know you're just not feeling safe so that's that those are the major issues for people that do join gangs is this surprising you guys know i mean it's want something to do so this this problem is i don't think it's solved by any means actually i think will persist for as long as humanity persist because i think there will always be people who don't belong will be marginalized we can't we can't do  think it's as you said a place where people can belong and i feel i feel that this problem is solvable and it's solvable with you know not the most complex of methods issue regarding these other ways to be connected we've all agreed right now that people in gangs have felt some loss of connection and that's why we think join them what are other ways for these children and teenagers to feel like they belong well again is it the youth centers where you can have been shocked as that have a positive influence on this kids that kids need in a place to go to school and if we if we start if we start with the younger generations this  be great right now it's such a large scale that you want to minimize but guys and also if it fades in scale then you know you can have the police department step in and they can you know a bit more because they are just overwhelmed right now because also let's let's talk about we were just talking about like ways for afterschool program and such but you can't send after school program with other kids forever what happens when you go home what a parent's need to do to make sure this doesn't happen our parents are key to to eliminating this problem yes i think they absolutely are i think they're more important in a child's life than any school or after school program can possibly be the these people have some kind of relationship problem which in which they can form normal relationships or what would we would consider normal relationships so they go to the ga for them the parents home need to form relationships relationships with these children but sometimes that is really hard because the parents have to either work so much or themselves involved in some kind of activity that is not legal and they  crucial and that is why we need to have is you sentence so so kids can bond with their own peers in a nurturing environment other that you know again i agree with you that what you guys are saying but let's talk about a government standpoint on this public education we've seen from all our discussions on the shows that public education is a huge spectrum you have a great public education program and that horrible public engine education programs do you does your quality of  public education system affect whether you're going to be in a gang or not of course because i mean if you with the mindset sounds like belmont a winchester is that i have a future i have to go to college i'm not going to waste my life in a gang but was people you know in boston dorchester they they really feel hopeless and their lies because of the quality of the education why these towns that are in cities have to get be the run to the litter why can't we improve these education systems then money on that if we improve education systems in these inner cities would be the same as any suburban town yes but first you have to police force on that but it's more than that every issue we talk about on the show always has to go back to psychological needs and what teens and young adults need they need to be a lot and i mean but and also it's programs which is when you can bust students in from inner cities to suburban education programs helps reduce gang activity i think is chilled i think it helps the visuals to get bussed but there is a problem still because not everybody can be bus and just just the whole idea of bussing people out the way they select is really a mystery to me because why do some kids get to go and some told what about those kids that stay in the inner city schools what are they just left behind i mean it's a tough situation that's why i think the number one from the ground up but also you have to and this is the hardest thing to do again go back psychology people everywhere need to realize that they are in charge of their own identity and if they want something yes of course the inner city is going to be much harder to get a good education but if one achieve yeah i understand you need to prove drive to do things but guys we're running out of time here because what do you think the city of boston needs to do to start prevent preventing such violent acts and gangs to happen we saw over the summer one of our own belmont high school students herman taylor the third was shot and killed because of gang activity he was walking home on the on a street corner stand next to a gang member and a drive by shooter meant to go after this gang member but shot him by accident that's a horrible tragedy a fact that all of us personally and also just facts people every day so how to how does the city of basra invent this round i said i will keep saying is that we have to invest in these afterschool programs and these use centers and the church groups because it's as you said it's easy for the kids to get lost in the system in schools and if they have a counselor  made you more aware about some of the tricks out there and remember try to befriend everyone try to find some common relationship between individuals just so people can feel some kind of action and feel love that people need to feel between each other and  so always look out for people look around your surroundings don't walk by yourself always walk with friends in the middle of the night don't do that just for your safety keep on always be on the lookout and always friend other people that's currently speaking this week all the pinions on the show you heard our own we express them to give you knowledge they don't affect they don't know they don't represent the media center or the comcast cable network or our own and we just want to express them to give you some more insight on the world that's currently speaking we'll see you next week hope everyone has a great christmas and hanukkah and holiday season and remember be giving on this time happens once a year to great time a year and that's it for us