I listened to an interview on PBS last night between Bill Moyers and Greg Mortensen , who wrote (Three Cups of Tea) about his experiences in Afghanistan … building schools. It got me thinking …

I taught delinquent boys in San Diego for several years. These were teenagers locked-up for six-week periods at Juvenile Hall. One of my daily classes was teaching English (ESL) to a rowdy group of street kids from Mexico (I never knew why they were there and didn’t ask). I liked the class. They wanted to learn English, and I tried to make it fun or at least pleasant.

One day they assigned a tough, older-looking kid, Carlos, to my class. He got nasty so I played my power-card and had him escorted back to his cell. (Frankly, I was scared of him)

The next day I was told that Carlos was rumored to have a concealed weapon which he intended to use on me (!). They had searched his cell but found nothing. He was in “confinement”. I was relieved.

That afternoon I visited Carlos in his cell. I was nervous. I asked him for his support. He hadn’t realized he was influencing the class. That surprised me. We ended up talking for over an hour and he came to my class the next day. No mas problemas.

Talk to your enemies.