- [Nido] At High Point University, we are focused on preparing students for the world as it is going to be.

- I'm Marc Randolph, and I'm proud to be the Entrepreneur in Residence at The Premier Life Skills University.

High Point University.

- [Narrator] Funding provided by, Sidney and Rachel Strauss, Julia Courtney.

Scott Oxford.

And viewers like you.

[suspenseful instrumental music] - [David] It's not a forum to try to change anyone's position on anything but to open up an avenue for conversation.

- And let's just go out on a limb, and try something new and different.

- I have very strong opinions about things that I feel are ruining the dynamics of this country.

- I have opinions.

[chuckles] - So why do I not be able to protect my family if something happened at my house, but a government official could sit there, and have the same magazine that I've been banned from having?

- One of the things we've noticed within the society is that, there has been a loss for the value of life.

- The actual vaccination didn't split the country, it's the enforcement.

[suspenseful instrumental music] - So I asked you a moment ago if you would to list three of your fundamental values, your core values.

Katherine?

- I wrote kindness, respect and non-judgment.

- How do you define respect?

- Sort of golden rule.

Treat others as you would want to be treated.

- Pillar.

- Respect.

Honesty and flexibility.

- Ashley?

- I had wrote down God, family and relationships.

That's my three.

- [David] Which one means the most?

- I believe God does.

Pretty strongly.

I have a spiritual connection, and allow that to guide me in my decisions, that guide me on the way up here, you know, kind of this morning and really is where I'm led by is my faith is really important for me.

- Yeah.

- Because of working with Habitat for Humanity for so long that the Jews, Christians, and Muslims built their house, and then came in the Hindus and said, "But what about us?"

I said, "Okay, you're welcome to come."

Then the next build the Buddhist said, "We are here too."

"Okay, come."

Then the Bahai came.

Okay, So the religious coordinator said, "Why don't you give each one from your faith tradition something which is common."

The golden rule was across.

So we built a T-shirt with 12 different you know, saying the same thing.

"Love your brother as you would love yourself is the Islamic principle and the so forth."

That really is very helpful to come to the common, at least get to that commonality first and act.

Put that into action, makes it much helpful.

And then respect and understanding of course faith also plays a part.

Hello?

- I put first is my relationship with God, and that becomes what helps develop me, and my heart and drives me to behave with others a certain way.

And then respect for others, and having manners is important.

And then value of life.

And I feel like that's has actually been one of the things we've noticed within the society is that, there has been a loss for the value of life.

I'm talking about the life for a dog, a cat, a person.

They don't value what it means.

- Jake?

- One, taking care of anybody in need regardless of where they're from.

Color.

Religion.

If I need help, help 'em.

Freedom of speech and honesty.

- I wanna go back to what you just said about freedom of speech.

Guaranteed by the constitution.

- Yes, sir.

But there's no guarantee of the constitution, I have to listen to your speech.

I can walk away from it.

Do I have the right to cancel your speech?

- Or censorship - Because I disagree with it.

- I don't think so.

- I'm gonna go with no.

- But slander is also against the law.

- But when a university chooses not or chooses to uninvite a speaker because students on that campus disagree with the beliefs of that speaker.

What does that say of our constitutional right to free speech?

- I think it questions who picked the speaker.

[laughs] - Or how close-minded the college is.

- I mean, who was it for?

I mean is it for the people there?

- I think in college they have the right to do what they want.

Is it for the people or like, do you wanna learn other cultures, other aspects of things, like how close-minded do you have to be to be like, "I don't only wanna listen to what they gotta say 'cause you don't know what they are gonna say, - Isn't it?

Isn't it the college's prerogative to hire who they want to speak when they want.

- If there could be harm or danger involved, like if they've received multiple threats that are legit threats.

It may be in the best interest that that not be their platform.

- Right.

- If the history of the speaker has got a history of hate you know, and causing nothing but division, then they should rethink in spite of this freedom of speech because freedom of speech is as long as you can speak, nobody's stopping you.

But if your speech is hurting somebody, you know, I think you have to rethink the value of the speech.

- I do think that while they have a right to speak, I think that organizations have the right to say no thank you.

- Even when they receive tax dollars.

- If they're inciting, hatred, exclusion, I'm gonna go with yes.

Yeah, but I think, I think just to counter that just a little bit, and I think that when you have a college, right, the college has a certain tone to it, and you've got entrusted leaders.

We've empowered and entrusted specific people to make sound judgmental decisions on who they allow to speak on campus for a very specific reason.

And like you said, if it's going to cause harm, weighing the timing of the speech is important.

Is it going to hurt the people that are on campus by distracting them?

Is it taking away from the learning of that trade because you're inciting argumentative dialogue.

- Who ultimately gets to decide what is argumentative.

- [Lee] University admin.

Currently, what we do is say like an pro-life group comes on campus.

We put out a campus warning, hey there may be some visuals that you don't wanna see.

If you don't wanna see it, don't cut through campus this way.

And in some cases they will uninvite people if it's too provocative, - The speech isn't violent, it's our reactions to it.

And if you're not open-minded enough to calm yourself down, enough to listen to somebody on what they believe is truth, then how, like how would you know that's what they thought.

Everyone thinks they're the good guy before they lose.

- Everybody absolutely has the right to free speech, and they have the right to march peaceably, and demonstrate.

I think what where that gives me pause is, it suggests what does that organization stand for when put forward at a state institution in particular, but at any institution that that says something about what that institution represents.

And that's when I get a little more nervous, and say, "Well, I don't think the institution should sponsor an extremist whatever side, but that that same person absolutely has the right to organize a rally.

- Okay, what did you write on your card?

- My three were loyalty, honor and fairness.

I'm a big believer in loyalty over everything.

It's actually even inscribed inside my wedding ring.

It's honor and integrity are almost interchangeable.

Do the right thing even when nobody's looking.

- I am a big believer in "Do unto others as you would have done unto you."

Golden rule.

And then protect what's sacred to others.

I think one of the biggest things that causes division is because people devalue what's sacred to somebody else.

- What does it feel like to love your enemy?

- Everybody has a mom, everybody has a dad.

And if we look at every single person on this table, they're very highly valued.

- Similarly to Nisha.

I think about what's happened in that person's life to lead them there.

And so, that for me helps.

I don't know if I can love them.

- Do we ever get to the point where we truly can live into loving enemies?

If someone wanted to take away your firearms, could you love that person?

- I could probably love them, but I'm not gonna be, I'm not gonna give 'em up that easily.

So I don't have to have a hate for you to disagree with you.

I guess it would be what kinda level you mean too?

Like if someone wants to take my guns away, versus they are taken away, and that would make it exclusive.

- When we look at a conversation around the right to bear arms, we seem to get lost in what we're talking about.

Why is it that any talk of any additional limits just seems to drive people nuts?

- Part of it is people fear that once you make this rule here, that the limit's gonna be changed later, and it goes further, and further and further until where it takes it away from you.

And that's why a lot of people are like, "Oh no, if they say that we can't have this, then you wait five more years, they're gonna say we can't have this.

- But isn't that like the same thing with like any amount of change?

Like any change that you do?

And so us as a society can't, - We don't like change.

- Right, we don't like change, but change brings about disruption.

But I think to change is good and like living, and thinking outside of the box, believing that there is no box, right?

So that we can continue to grow as a society, I think is important.

But growing as a society means, like some people think growing their way is correct, whereas other people are like, no.

Growing their way is more correct.

And what defines growth?

Because like guns, the AR, the largest argument is that, people, it's not the people that go through the legal process to get a gun.

It's the one that we have to worry about it.

It's the people that are getting the guns illegally.

And if we're not allowed to have guns, then we're actually putting ourselves in more danger.

- Where does it stop at?

Where it's good for this population, but it's not good for this population that I can't protect myself if so happened something broke out.

- Do you feel like the government is trying to take your firearms away?

- I think they're trying to limit to what kind of firearms I can own.

They wanna say that there's no use for a 30 round mag.

That's okay.

I was gonna ask you like on a practical level, I just to help me understand like, do we need them?

- It's not for hunting.

It's not for hunting.

For me right now, it's just for sporting going to shoot targets.

- Okay.

- You don't have to reload as much.

So why do I not be able to protect my family if something happened at my house, but a government official could sit there, and have the same magazine that I'm been banned from having.

So if it's not good for my family, why is it good for theirs?

- Does anybody need that kind of weapon?

This a genuine question.

I mean other than for sport - Sporting and protection, if something never did happen.

- I see David with a gun.

I see Catherine with a gun.

I see Pillar with a gun.

What do I see?

Three threats.

I don't have time to figure out which one of you is a good guy with a gun.

- My feeling around weapons outside of like deer hunting because my family does deer hunt, and fully support that and being safe.

Gun safety is very important.

It's such a violent piece for you to possess, and have and the possibility being a lot less of you needing to use it.

The amount of damage and deaths that are happening because so many are out into, you know the United States.

- I think it's so much mistrust.

If you do not trust a person, then you suddenly come with the idea that they're going to hurt or harm.

Jake, he's used to those arms, and he's independent.

He knows what he's doing.

If I get it, I might like he said you know, shoot my own foot or something - And it's frustrating sometimes to like certain people you talk to.

Like they go.

It's like the scary military style rifle.

It looks military but it has similar things, but it's not military.

But there's more violence by pistols than are rifles.

Somebody would have to backtrack it on their phone right now.

It's a higher chance in the pistols.

They're so much more.

So easier to conceal.

And regular magazines come fitted with 17 to 18 rounds.

I feel like what doesn't come up with this discussion around the second amendment is, the underlying crisis, which is our mental health crisis, right?

That is what we need to be talking about.

And our mental healthcare system is virtually non-existent.

And if we could address some of that, I think the gun stuff would probably improve.

- In terms of the vehicle, like the gun is just kind of like a means to an end.

It's the outlet I think we pick on the children that are bullied at school to the point of having a mental health breakdown to go and shoot people.

But once you get to that point of wanting to kill or be killed, somebody's causing these triggers intentionally.

And it you know, it may be unintentional, but not checking in with a student when they are crying and screaming, and saying something's wrong or don't have the ability to say something out loud that they should be saying out loud.

You know at what point it may not be therapy, it may be, "Hey, let's be a little bit tougher on the bullies."

Let's be a little bit tougher on the people that are causing harm.

And I think, I think that's where your heart comes from because you don't want people to feel alienated.

But we could also look at what's causing them to feel alienated in their own school setting, and how do we fix it or maybe shift something just a little bit to make their lives worth living, and their anger reduces.

Yeah.

- I can agree with that Nisha, because I think that whenever we bullying is such a big thing.

Not to get like off topic, but it's kind of on topic a bit is that a lot of times whenever kids I feel like are being bullied they're the ones who we're trying to fix, right?

Instead of going and working with the bully and being to your point, like tougher on what they're doing, right?

But like kids are so covert and smart.

You know they know how to really kind of get at a person.

I mean I was bullied in school, I feel like to a point and I was like, how to quantify that to your parents of like, they said this like, ah, nevermind.

You know?

I think that just being more educated, and in tune to talking to your kids, which is really kind of getting back to more of a family unit, but also the schools being tougher on bullying and cameras, and you know, teachers being more aware.

- The empirical data showed that most of these people are loners.

They are not common people in the community that move around activity.

But they said terrorists are formed in the living rooms or in their dens where they go on websites that are constantly bombarding them, and then that converts them.

So we need to find the underlying cause why this 16, 17-year-old would just come up and and take life of so many people.

- There was way less gun violence before social media.

It's easy to sit there, and make fun of somebody on social media when you're not looking at their face.

- We started this conversation about second amendment.

We go to mental health.

- Sorry.

- No, no.

I'm glad you did.

We go to a child being, or a young person being a loner.

We come back to social media.

Jake, it occurs to me in listening to this conversation that and I need to own this.

I hope you don't feel picked on about this.

Oh absolutely.

That wasn't the reason to bring this up.

- No, absolutely not.

That's your hat.

- You should asked.

- I walked in with a hat and the T-shirt.

[laughs] - He did have one on there, - Yeah, you kind of did it to yourself.

- He's not gonna hear though.

- I knew it was gonna be a subject.

- Okay, this.

I'll let the camera take a look at it.

Is it a COVID test?

Is it a COVID test?

- I thought it was, - Pregnancy test?

- For COVID, for SARS.

Any number of things.

If you take that test today because you're feeling bad, more than likely, you won't be as sick as you might have been if you have received vaccines.

- You know I was a former teacher.

And became a nurse.

I've been a nurse for 25 years.

Looking at the trends.

We had seen some patients who got more ill after they took the vaccine.

Some, yes.

And that's because they already had a very compromised immune system that wasn't working properly to begin with is what we feel.

I've had several health issues, and basically they came about after I got the vaccine.

Now I can't prove that that's what caused it, but in my head I wonder you know, was it because it revved up my immune system to work a certain way and I got sicker?

Or did it keep me from dying when I did get COVID?

- From what I understand, the science has moved more quickly that years of study were not needed.

- It worked off of that.

- And it worked for a lot of people.

- The actual vaccinations didn't split the country, it's that enforcement of people, forcing people to take the vaccinations.

- In the COVID case, I would almost say it's to follow the money situation.

- Was the development of the vaccine in your minds a bad thing?

- I don't think it was bad, but my question is, where did the money go?

Like was there any money?

Was there profit - Right.

From this?

- Right.

- It takes so much money to have like researchers do research with no product and then you finally get the product and yes you need to make money so you can pay the researchers.

- And now we worked in the medical field, we were forced to have it.

There was either you like either you have a job or you don't have a job.

So we had to take it, and then eventually it came up to you have to wear that you know, just like you are going to extract some honey a little more than that pump.

I mean all those fancy stuff, it suddenly disappeared.

How did it disappear?

Where did it come from?

There are so many questions that the scientists themselves are still struggling.

So that's where it leads to.

And certainly there's a factor of money involved.

Like very eloquently said that in the past it was not.

Now if you want to send the CEO of the company on a vacation on a cruiser for two months, then yeah you have to make that money.

- We had people lose their job over it 'cause they refused to test or do the vaccination at the city.

- We also had several coworkers that had adverse effects afterwards.

You know one of 'em that ended up with a heart attack and in the hospital.

One with a stroke.

You know, so there were several things that they were linking - With all this internet and media available to our fingertips.

Everyone's questioning everything.

And so our children are not naive and they, our children are gonna be worse than we are.

You know they're gonna, they're we're the most skeptical generation there has been I think.

- But they're learning also like from the leaders because I felt like the leaders of the country, like at that time in different areas we're don't take the vaccination.

And so whenever you put someone in office, and whatever the office that is, you entrust that they probably have a little bit more knowledge about things, and what you do.

And so I think that there's some trust there, or should be right, to trust what the leaders of the country are saying around the vaccination.

For myself, like going through the pandemic, it never seemed to seem consistent, and for rightfully so.

I mean sometimes they would say like you know, we're still learning, right?

Just like anything else happening so quickly.

So I think that that also breeded some skepticism because some of the guidance continued to change, it's like what guidance are we following.

The country's guidance.

The state's guidance.

The you know, the hospital's guidance.

Who are we listening to?

Who's kind of kind of riding the ship?

- I am not gonna sit here and defend pharma.

That is not.

I will however defend science, and the science behind the vaccine was, did seem fast because the technology had already been developed.

And so the vaccinologist were able to apply the existing technology to the new pathogen.

I'm an Infectious Disease Doctor.

I ran one of our COVID units in the hospital.

I watch people die.

I watch people get better.

I literally skipped to the hospital the day that I knew I was gonna get my vaccine.

I understand people's concerns, and objections around being forced to take the vaccine.

As a society one of the tenets that I think that we have lost is the notion that we have to take care of each other.

And part of that is, pardon my French, sucking it up, and getting the shot so that you can give herd immunity to those folks who are compromised, and won't be able to mount a good response to the vaccine no matter how many doses.

The COVID vaccine, no doubt has saved millions of lives.

And it's heartbreaking to me.

And I have shed many tears over this, that our country's leadership undermined the science behind masking, and the science behind vaccination.

Yes.

The messaging from the CDC changed, and that was incredibly frustrating, and confusing for the public.

And I get that.

It is hard because we were learning on the fly.

You know, we didn't know were we gonna have enough masks.

So public don't mask.

So the healthcare providers can have masks, and then that messaging changed, and so I get where that bread distrust, - If you get a vaccine, it doesn't mean you don't carry the virus.

And it doesn't mean I'm protecting her.

I might just be protecting myself from ultimate death or having worse symptoms.

- So, no.

That's a great question.

So it depends on the vaccine and the pathogen.

But with the COVID vaccine, what the data showed is that your viral load, so the amount of virus that you spewed out of said orifice was lower.

So then therefore your risk of contagion was lower.

- Gotcha.

- Some with the people I was interacted with that was like, we're not gonna be Guinea pigs.

Was worried about our about our bodies for our career because we're like, "What's the side effects?"

And they're like, "We don't know."

It's like, "Who's gonna back the bill if something does happen?"

And they're like, "Not us."

And we're like, "Yeah.

I'm not gonna take it.

- What is that role of government?

Should it be more limited regarding our liberties?

- Yes, yes.

But messaging needs to be correct.

If it's the greater good, and you're being requested to take something because it's actually lessening your contagion levels, that's a whole different thing then you need to take this for your own good because we're telling you to.

- We didn't have all of that information upfront.

Yeah, watching too.

It's definitely, what does it.

It look like I was, I was reading headlines because I can't stand watching news because of the polarization.

- How you're getting your information in I think during COVID was sometimes like maybe was it getting all of it?

And so like there was like, you could tell like some bias opinions.

One way or the other depending on like where you're getting your information from about what was going on with COVID.

So I felt like it was a little bit like they didn't say all that on this or other news channel, and then this year, it didn't have all this information.

So I think it got a little bit you know, it was frightening.

- Different and whenever you're talking about your own health and your family's health, and you're just trying to get facts out, sometimes they will leave out parts of it right about like what she was just talking about, about some of the benefits of getting vaccinated, not just for yourself, but like how it can minimize that for others.

- [Narrator] Coming up on "The NC Listening Project."

- Having a book like this is a way to foster understanding across differences.

- Can we define what gender queer is?

- [Narrator] Funding provided by, Sidney and Rachel Strauss.

Julia Courtney.

Scott Oxford.

And viewers like you.

- [Nido] At High Point University, we are focused on preparing students for the world as it is going to be.

I'm Marc Randolph, and I'm proud to be the Entrepreneur in Residence At the Premier Life Skills University.

High Point University.

[upbeat instrumental music]