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Can We Have Peace?

Aired February 23, 2005 - 13:33   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.


KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: Headlines this hour, right to live, right to die. A Florida judge today decided whether Terri Schiavo's husband can remove the feeding tube that's keeping her alive. Schiavo has been in a vegetative state for nearly 15 years. If the judge rules to end her life support, attorneys for Schiavo's parents say they'll appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court.
Mystery solved, California game official working on sightings of some kind of big cat. Found, a big cat. Looks like a tiger. They shot and killed it. It had apparently been roaming the hills of Moorpark (ph). That's just north of Los Angeles. It was leaving paw prints and generally alarming the residents. Who it belonged to is the next question. We'll have more on this mostly illegal ownership and trade in so-called exotic animals just a bit later on LIVE FROM.

And until today, investigators in New York City were still try to put names to human remains found in the World Trade Center wreckage. That process has ended. According to the city's medical examiner's office, DNA technology simply does not exist to allow them to identify the almost 10,000 body parts still remaining.

And she was one of South Korea's most popular and in-demand film actresses. Lee Eun-Ju is dead, and police suspect suicide. She starred in Korea's biggest ever grossing movie, and was reportedly depressed over some negative media criticism. Lee Eun-Ju was only 25 years old.

So is there a benefit to war? Many people would say so. It provides homeland security, takes down terrorists, and rallies the nation. So is war the way? Bestselling author and spiritual adviser Deepak Chopra says, no, peace is the way, as did Mahatma Gandhi, Nelson Mandela, Mother Teresa and Martin Luther King. They proved that promoting peace could help end suffering and change the way people treat each other. So why are there dozens of wars right now in our world? Dr. Chopra joins us here in Atlanta to talk about his new book, and that's one thing you point out in your book. You told me 30-something wars going on right now.

DEEPAK CHOPRA, AUTHOR, "PEACE IS THE WAY": Thirty-five wars going on in the world right now, 25 million people killed in war since the Second World War. In the last 10 years, most of the casualties of war have been what we call collateral damage. More children have died as a result of war violence than soldiers in the last 10 years. So, you know, it's a frightening statistic.

PHILLIPS: And you talk about in your book, war is a habit, war is a culture, the key to ending war starts are personal transformation. And I know you get asked this all time, but I have to ask you again, so when you sit down with an insurgent or a terrorist, or members of Islamic Jihad, how do you say to them, I want to talk to you about personal transformation?

CHOPRA: I never get an opportunity to sit down with an Islamic Jihadist...

PHILLIPS: But know what, you sit down with everybody else in the world. I could you see you of all people...

CHOPRA: Oh yes, I'm going to sit down with the guerrillas in Colombia. They are so fond of my book "The Seven Spiritual Laws." They said the only person that they would sit down would be with me. And yesterday, I was at the United Nations.

I'm happy to sit down and help us collectively think of creative solutions. You know, because when you kill another person, a human being is very difficult to kill unless you demonize them. So we end up demonizing our perceived enemies and our enemies also demonize us. They call us, oh, the Satanic forces, don't they? And we end up comparing our acceptable ideas of slaughter, you know, so dropping a bomb from 25,000 feet is not -- is acceptable slaughter, even though 90 percent of the casualties might end up being civilians.

PHILLIPS: But a lot of those bombs take out insurgents, take out insurgent strongholds. I mean...

CHOPRA: So it's worth the price -- that still the majority of people who are killed in war are not soldiers? They're innocent people, like you and me, and mothers, and children, and you know, just regular people who have the same kinds of thoughts, and feelings and emotions that you and I have.

PHILLIPS: So you did speak at the U.N. Seems like everybody calls you to speak to them. And I don't want to debate whether war is right or wrong. I want to talk about -- because your book is so deep when it talks about the history of war and why we go to war. You always talk about tangled hierarchy.

CHOPRA: Yes.

PHILLIPS: OK, let's try and explain that. You explained it to all these people at the U.N., standing ovation of course at the end. Open forum here.

CHOPRA: OK, a tangled hierarchy is where everything is connected to everything else. So let's look at it, fossil consumption -- fossil fuel consumption, overconsumption, unsustainability, 50 percent of people in the world living on less than $2 a day, 20 percent living on less than $1 a day, hurricanes if Florida, war, terrorism, a country that has 5 percent world's population and consumes 35 percent of its resources, and...

PHILLIPS: So you're saying...

CHOPRA: All of this is connected. PHILLIPS: So you're saying because of greed and because of selfishness...

CHOPRA: The tangled hierarchy of greed and selfishness, not only in our environment, but in you, and everybody out there. We do not feel the anguish of our fellow human beings. When my son was on a flight and I thought it had gone into the Twin Towers, for eight hours I was devastated. And then I heard his voice. Had gone on another flight. You know, I assumed he was on that flight. But that day, he changed his plans and took a frequent flyer and went on Delta instead of United. Otherwise, he would have been on the Twin Towers. And you know, after eight hours, I felt relief. But for eight hours, it was like I had been bombed.

And then it occurred to me, you know, there are people like this all over the world, feeling this anguish. And if we could feel that anguish, then that shared suffering would be the birth of compassion, in the birth of compassion, there would be love, in the birth of love, there would be the possibility of healing.

I'm not saying go negotiate with the Jihadists. You know, when you have a cancer in your body, you've got to take it out. But then you've got to ask yourself, what are the conditions, the tangled hierarchy of conditions, that gave rise to this cancer? And if I don't understand that, it's going to come back, it's going to come back even more viciously than before.

PHILLIPS: All right, here's something interesting, and it was just in the past couple of days. And I don't know if it's because of karma and we were having this interview. But everything from newspapers that I was reading, magazines to NPR, military officials and also folks within the Pentagon -- here's a couple of quotes I put down. They said, "With regard to Iraq, you can't just kill and capture terrorists anymore. This is also a battle of ideas. You must capture the heart and minds of the people. Terrorists are the symptom. We must go after the cause." I mean, sounds like this is what you've been teaching.

CHOPRA: That's brilliant.

And you know what, if we spent 10 percent of the money that we spend on weapons in trying to understand why people behave the way they do, you know, no matter what, how irrational we think people are, in their minds, they have a sense of irreparable injustice. Whether that's legitimate or not. If we can figure out what's that sense of injustice, and help alleviate that and do it sincerely, then there's a chance for healing.

PHILLIPS: Now, you would think that we'd look at the lives of Mother Teresa and Mahatma Gandhi and all these wonderful people that did promote change and talk about peace. Now, you told me that you actually wanted to see President Bush. You had a group of people that you had come together with. What happened with that? What was the mission? And did the president say, I want to talk to you, I want to hear this plan?

CHOPRA: I don't want to talk about it. Never got there, actually.

PHILLIPS: Interesting. Well, what was the idea, what was the concept?

CHOPRA: The idea is there's a possibility for reconciliation and I'm saying this on CNN right now, that anyone who wants a team of people that will help resolve conflicts without violence, I'm ready to offer my services along with a lot of very, very intelligent, creative people. Because we feel that there are creative solutions to every problem. There are people I work with like Reggie Williams, the Nobel laureate from Ireland; Oscar Areaz (ph), the former president of Costa Rica; also, the Bell Prize winner...

PHILLIPS: I know the Dalai Lama loves you.

CHOPRA: The Dalai Lama. We can all come up with creative solutions. And you know, it doesn't really in the end matter who gets the credit, as long as we can rally together to create a critical mass of peace consciousness. And that's what my book is really about. It's not even about political policy or military policy or governmental policy.

It's about Mahatma Gandhi's idea. Be the change that you wish to see in the world. There's no greater peace, peace is the way. So begin with yourself. Being peace, thinking peace, feeling peace, speaking peace, acting peace, creating peace and sharing peace. And that's what we're doing right now.

PHILLIPS: And that's what peace is the way is all about. Next book. Am I allowed to talk about the next book?

CHOPRA: Sure.

PHILLIPS: I know you've got a couple going.

CHOPRA: Yes. But the next book is "The Soul of Leadership."

PHILLIPS: There we go. All right. Deepak Chopra, it's always a pleasure.

CHOPRA: Thanks, Kyra. Always a pleasure to be with you.

PHILLIPS: All right, now we're going to give peace a chance here on LIVE FROM. Then again, we always do that. But what about giving pizza a chance? The notorious caught on tape. That's right. Here at the pizza joint. I don't understand why this happened. It was very un-Deepak Chopra-like, that is for sure. We'll talk about this amazing video and the message that it sends. What happened next?

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BARRY BONDS, BASEBALL PLAYER: ... business, because I wouldn't let you in my house.

(END VIDEO CLIP) PHILLIPS: Man, and more nastiness. This time, slugger Barry Bonds tells the media more than they want to know. The highlights of his blistering news conference on deck when LIVE FROM returns.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PHILLIPS: News around the world now. Don't set a place for the mother of the groom. When Britain's Prince Charles marries in six week, his mum, the queen, won't be attending. Royal watchers and tabloids are all in a tizzy over the news. Buckingham Palace says the decision was made in order to keep the wedding a low-key affair and that everyone is A-OK the arrangements.

Dateline, Tokyo. Man beats car with baseball bat, police ask man to stop, man addresses cops with bat, cops run away. It was all caught by news cameras. Japan's prime minister says I'm sorry for what he calls an embarrassing scene and politely urged his national police force to toughen up. The car basher was arrested.

Speaking of bashing, the unbelievable pizza shop scuffle is next on LIVE FROM. That's right, we'll tell you what happened, right after a break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PHILLIPS: Well, a man and woman in Akron, Ohio, are learning a hard lesson about minding their own manners and holding their temper in line for pizza. Gary Liberatore of Cleveland affiliate WJW reports on a shocking assault that was all caught on tape.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

GARY LIBERATORE, WJW REPORTER (voice-over): Several people wait in line at DaVinci's Pizza. A woman comes in, looks at the crowd and proceeds to go right to front of the line. A man in the middle of the line gets a call from his girlfriend.

JOE SCARPINO, CUSTOMER: She asked me what happened, what was taking so long. I said, "Well, it's going to take a little longer now. Somebody just jumped in front of us."

She goes, "Who?"

I said, "Some lady wearing camouflage." And she overheard it, and that's when it all broke out and started.

LIBERATORE: The woman who cut in line proceeds to get into this guy's face. She then goes outside and comes back in. The employee tries to calm her down, and she spits on him.

He goes after her, but then the woman's 300-pound boyfriend comes in. The employee then retreats back behind the counter. And she continues to go at the guy in line, actually hits him in the face using a racial slur.

SCARPINO: She wanted to get loud and jump up in my face, and I told her I don't hit women.

PRESINA SIMS, CUSTOMER: Let's go, yes, you, (expletive deleted).

SCARPINO: I guess I kept on getting hit. The only thing I remember, really, was having my hands out in front of me. But by that time, you know, they probably hit me five or six more times.

LIBERATORE: This, while each and every person in the place stands by and watches.

SCARPINO: I had a cerebral concussion, a fractured tooth, a broken nose.

LIBERATORE: Joe Scarpino says some of the pain to his head is still there, and he still gets headaches.

SIMS: Yes, you (EXPLETIVE).

LIBERATORE: A jury has found Mark Jones guilty of felonious assault. He'll now spend the next four years in prison.

SCARPINO: If the video wasn't there, I think he would have got off quite a bit lighter, you know, because there was really no actual cuts or anything on me. He didn't break skin. Everything was sort of internal.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PHILLIPS: President Bush and the first lady arriving now in Bratislava, Slovakia. It's a part of the president's fence-mending tour through Europe. Slovakia, a staunch U.S. ally, was among a number of former communist nations sending soldiers into Iraq and supporting the United States. The contributing countries were dubbed "the new Europe" by Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, who labeled France and Germany as "old Europe" for rebuffing American requests for help. So sort of a tour in a new century, a new alliance of Europe and North America to come together and talk about world security.

You see the president there, walking the red carpet. Slovakia does not plan to pull its troops out of Iraq unless the Iraqi government asks the country to do so.

As you know, the Iraq war strained European and U.S. relations, when most European leaders staunchly opposed it. Let's listen now to a little bit of the ceremony.

We'll continue to follow the president's trip throughout Europe.

Now, speaking of leader, the leader of Poland's Solidarity Trade Union, Nobel Peace Prize winner and controversial president. As part of CNN's anniversary series, we take a look back at Lech Walesa influential past and where he is today.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE) UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER (voice-over): A Polish shipyard worker with a passion for freedom. Lech Walesa's fiery determination inspired Poland's solidarity trade union and the eventual fall of the Iron Curtain. For his efforts against communism, Walesa earned the Nobel Peace Prize and some powerful allies. The electrician from Gadansk had the ear of the free world.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

LECH WALESA (through translator): Freedom is a human right.

(APPLAUSE)

(END VIDEO CLIP)

AARON BROWN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: In 1989, Poland formed the first noncommunist government in the soviet bloc, and Lech Walesa was elected the first president. But the controversial style that made Walesa a great revolutionary made him a controversial president. He lost re-election five years later.

Walesa turned 62 this year. The father of eight, he's now a grandfather and still lives in Gadansk. After a failed bid for the Polish presidency in 2000, Walesa turned his attention to political struggles outside Poland, from Taiwan to the recent election issues in Ukraine. He also founded the Lech Walesa Institute to Preserve the Spirit of Solidarity, in Poland and around the world.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

PHILLIPS: Coming up in the second hour of LIVE FROM, is it really a pandemic waiting to happen, or are health officials just ruffling your feathers? How worried is should you be about bird flu? We'll go deep straight ahead, when LIVE FROM's hour of power chirps on.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

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Aired February 23, 2005 - 13:33   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: Headlines this hour, right to live, right to die. A Florida judge today decided whether Terri Schiavo's husband can remove the feeding tube that's keeping her alive. Schiavo has been in a vegetative state for nearly 15 years. If the judge rules to end her life support, attorneys for Schiavo's parents say they'll appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court.
Mystery solved, California game official working on sightings of some kind of big cat. Found, a big cat. Looks like a tiger. They shot and killed it. It had apparently been roaming the hills of Moorpark (ph). That's just north of Los Angeles. It was leaving paw prints and generally alarming the residents. Who it belonged to is the next question. We'll have more on this mostly illegal ownership and trade in so-called exotic animals just a bit later on LIVE FROM.

And until today, investigators in New York City were still try to put names to human remains found in the World Trade Center wreckage. That process has ended. According to the city's medical examiner's office, DNA technology simply does not exist to allow them to identify the almost 10,000 body parts still remaining.

And she was one of South Korea's most popular and in-demand film actresses. Lee Eun-Ju is dead, and police suspect suicide. She starred in Korea's biggest ever grossing movie, and was reportedly depressed over some negative media criticism. Lee Eun-Ju was only 25 years old.

So is there a benefit to war? Many people would say so. It provides homeland security, takes down terrorists, and rallies the nation. So is war the way? Bestselling author and spiritual adviser Deepak Chopra says, no, peace is the way, as did Mahatma Gandhi, Nelson Mandela, Mother Teresa and Martin Luther King. They proved that promoting peace could help end suffering and change the way people treat each other. So why are there dozens of wars right now in our world? Dr. Chopra joins us here in Atlanta to talk about his new book, and that's one thing you point out in your book. You told me 30-something wars going on right now.

DEEPAK CHOPRA, AUTHOR, "PEACE IS THE WAY": Thirty-five wars going on in the world right now, 25 million people killed in war since the Second World War. In the last 10 years, most of the casualties of war have been what we call collateral damage. More children have died as a result of war violence than soldiers in the last 10 years. So, you know, it's a frightening statistic.

PHILLIPS: And you talk about in your book, war is a habit, war is a culture, the key to ending war starts are personal transformation. And I know you get asked this all time, but I have to ask you again, so when you sit down with an insurgent or a terrorist, or members of Islamic Jihad, how do you say to them, I want to talk to you about personal transformation?

CHOPRA: I never get an opportunity to sit down with an Islamic Jihadist...

PHILLIPS: But know what, you sit down with everybody else in the world. I could you see you of all people...

CHOPRA: Oh yes, I'm going to sit down with the guerrillas in Colombia. They are so fond of my book "The Seven Spiritual Laws." They said the only person that they would sit down would be with me. And yesterday, I was at the United Nations.

I'm happy to sit down and help us collectively think of creative solutions. You know, because when you kill another person, a human being is very difficult to kill unless you demonize them. So we end up demonizing our perceived enemies and our enemies also demonize us. They call us, oh, the Satanic forces, don't they? And we end up comparing our acceptable ideas of slaughter, you know, so dropping a bomb from 25,000 feet is not -- is acceptable slaughter, even though 90 percent of the casualties might end up being civilians.

PHILLIPS: But a lot of those bombs take out insurgents, take out insurgent strongholds. I mean...

CHOPRA: So it's worth the price -- that still the majority of people who are killed in war are not soldiers? They're innocent people, like you and me, and mothers, and children, and you know, just regular people who have the same kinds of thoughts, and feelings and emotions that you and I have.

PHILLIPS: So you did speak at the U.N. Seems like everybody calls you to speak to them. And I don't want to debate whether war is right or wrong. I want to talk about -- because your book is so deep when it talks about the history of war and why we go to war. You always talk about tangled hierarchy.

CHOPRA: Yes.

PHILLIPS: OK, let's try and explain that. You explained it to all these people at the U.N., standing ovation of course at the end. Open forum here.

CHOPRA: OK, a tangled hierarchy is where everything is connected to everything else. So let's look at it, fossil consumption -- fossil fuel consumption, overconsumption, unsustainability, 50 percent of people in the world living on less than $2 a day, 20 percent living on less than $1 a day, hurricanes if Florida, war, terrorism, a country that has 5 percent world's population and consumes 35 percent of its resources, and...

PHILLIPS: So you're saying...

CHOPRA: All of this is connected. PHILLIPS: So you're saying because of greed and because of selfishness...

CHOPRA: The tangled hierarchy of greed and selfishness, not only in our environment, but in you, and everybody out there. We do not feel the anguish of our fellow human beings. When my son was on a flight and I thought it had gone into the Twin Towers, for eight hours I was devastated. And then I heard his voice. Had gone on another flight. You know, I assumed he was on that flight. But that day, he changed his plans and took a frequent flyer and went on Delta instead of United. Otherwise, he would have been on the Twin Towers. And you know, after eight hours, I felt relief. But for eight hours, it was like I had been bombed.

And then it occurred to me, you know, there are people like this all over the world, feeling this anguish. And if we could feel that anguish, then that shared suffering would be the birth of compassion, in the birth of compassion, there would be love, in the birth of love, there would be the possibility of healing.

I'm not saying go negotiate with the Jihadists. You know, when you have a cancer in your body, you've got to take it out. But then you've got to ask yourself, what are the conditions, the tangled hierarchy of conditions, that gave rise to this cancer? And if I don't understand that, it's going to come back, it's going to come back even more viciously than before.

PHILLIPS: All right, here's something interesting, and it was just in the past couple of days. And I don't know if it's because of karma and we were having this interview. But everything from newspapers that I was reading, magazines to NPR, military officials and also folks within the Pentagon -- here's a couple of quotes I put down. They said, "With regard to Iraq, you can't just kill and capture terrorists anymore. This is also a battle of ideas. You must capture the heart and minds of the people. Terrorists are the symptom. We must go after the cause." I mean, sounds like this is what you've been teaching.

CHOPRA: That's brilliant.

And you know what, if we spent 10 percent of the money that we spend on weapons in trying to understand why people behave the way they do, you know, no matter what, how irrational we think people are, in their minds, they have a sense of irreparable injustice. Whether that's legitimate or not. If we can figure out what's that sense of injustice, and help alleviate that and do it sincerely, then there's a chance for healing.

PHILLIPS: Now, you would think that we'd look at the lives of Mother Teresa and Mahatma Gandhi and all these wonderful people that did promote change and talk about peace. Now, you told me that you actually wanted to see President Bush. You had a group of people that you had come together with. What happened with that? What was the mission? And did the president say, I want to talk to you, I want to hear this plan?

CHOPRA: I don't want to talk about it. Never got there, actually.

PHILLIPS: Interesting. Well, what was the idea, what was the concept?

CHOPRA: The idea is there's a possibility for reconciliation and I'm saying this on CNN right now, that anyone who wants a team of people that will help resolve conflicts without violence, I'm ready to offer my services along with a lot of very, very intelligent, creative people. Because we feel that there are creative solutions to every problem. There are people I work with like Reggie Williams, the Nobel laureate from Ireland; Oscar Areaz (ph), the former president of Costa Rica; also, the Bell Prize winner...

PHILLIPS: I know the Dalai Lama loves you.

CHOPRA: The Dalai Lama. We can all come up with creative solutions. And you know, it doesn't really in the end matter who gets the credit, as long as we can rally together to create a critical mass of peace consciousness. And that's what my book is really about. It's not even about political policy or military policy or governmental policy.

It's about Mahatma Gandhi's idea. Be the change that you wish to see in the world. There's no greater peace, peace is the way. So begin with yourself. Being peace, thinking peace, feeling peace, speaking peace, acting peace, creating peace and sharing peace. And that's what we're doing right now.

PHILLIPS: And that's what peace is the way is all about. Next book. Am I allowed to talk about the next book?

CHOPRA: Sure.

PHILLIPS: I know you've got a couple going.

CHOPRA: Yes. But the next book is "The Soul of Leadership."

PHILLIPS: There we go. All right. Deepak Chopra, it's always a pleasure.

CHOPRA: Thanks, Kyra. Always a pleasure to be with you.

PHILLIPS: All right, now we're going to give peace a chance here on LIVE FROM. Then again, we always do that. But what about giving pizza a chance? The notorious caught on tape. That's right. Here at the pizza joint. I don't understand why this happened. It was very un-Deepak Chopra-like, that is for sure. We'll talk about this amazing video and the message that it sends. What happened next?

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BARRY BONDS, BASEBALL PLAYER: ... business, because I wouldn't let you in my house.

(END VIDEO CLIP) PHILLIPS: Man, and more nastiness. This time, slugger Barry Bonds tells the media more than they want to know. The highlights of his blistering news conference on deck when LIVE FROM returns.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PHILLIPS: News around the world now. Don't set a place for the mother of the groom. When Britain's Prince Charles marries in six week, his mum, the queen, won't be attending. Royal watchers and tabloids are all in a tizzy over the news. Buckingham Palace says the decision was made in order to keep the wedding a low-key affair and that everyone is A-OK the arrangements.

Dateline, Tokyo. Man beats car with baseball bat, police ask man to stop, man addresses cops with bat, cops run away. It was all caught by news cameras. Japan's prime minister says I'm sorry for what he calls an embarrassing scene and politely urged his national police force to toughen up. The car basher was arrested.

Speaking of bashing, the unbelievable pizza shop scuffle is next on LIVE FROM. That's right, we'll tell you what happened, right after a break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PHILLIPS: Well, a man and woman in Akron, Ohio, are learning a hard lesson about minding their own manners and holding their temper in line for pizza. Gary Liberatore of Cleveland affiliate WJW reports on a shocking assault that was all caught on tape.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

GARY LIBERATORE, WJW REPORTER (voice-over): Several people wait in line at DaVinci's Pizza. A woman comes in, looks at the crowd and proceeds to go right to front of the line. A man in the middle of the line gets a call from his girlfriend.

JOE SCARPINO, CUSTOMER: She asked me what happened, what was taking so long. I said, "Well, it's going to take a little longer now. Somebody just jumped in front of us."

She goes, "Who?"

I said, "Some lady wearing camouflage." And she overheard it, and that's when it all broke out and started.

LIBERATORE: The woman who cut in line proceeds to get into this guy's face. She then goes outside and comes back in. The employee tries to calm her down, and she spits on him.

He goes after her, but then the woman's 300-pound boyfriend comes in. The employee then retreats back behind the counter. And she continues to go at the guy in line, actually hits him in the face using a racial slur.

SCARPINO: She wanted to get loud and jump up in my face, and I told her I don't hit women.

PRESINA SIMS, CUSTOMER: Let's go, yes, you, (expletive deleted).

SCARPINO: I guess I kept on getting hit. The only thing I remember, really, was having my hands out in front of me. But by that time, you know, they probably hit me five or six more times.

LIBERATORE: This, while each and every person in the place stands by and watches.

SCARPINO: I had a cerebral concussion, a fractured tooth, a broken nose.

LIBERATORE: Joe Scarpino says some of the pain to his head is still there, and he still gets headaches.

SIMS: Yes, you (EXPLETIVE).

LIBERATORE: A jury has found Mark Jones guilty of felonious assault. He'll now spend the next four years in prison.

SCARPINO: If the video wasn't there, I think he would have got off quite a bit lighter, you know, because there was really no actual cuts or anything on me. He didn't break skin. Everything was sort of internal.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PHILLIPS: President Bush and the first lady arriving now in Bratislava, Slovakia. It's a part of the president's fence-mending tour through Europe. Slovakia, a staunch U.S. ally, was among a number of former communist nations sending soldiers into Iraq and supporting the United States. The contributing countries were dubbed "the new Europe" by Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, who labeled France and Germany as "old Europe" for rebuffing American requests for help. So sort of a tour in a new century, a new alliance of Europe and North America to come together and talk about world security.

You see the president there, walking the red carpet. Slovakia does not plan to pull its troops out of Iraq unless the Iraqi government asks the country to do so.

As you know, the Iraq war strained European and U.S. relations, when most European leaders staunchly opposed it. Let's listen now to a little bit of the ceremony.

We'll continue to follow the president's trip throughout Europe.

Now, speaking of leader, the leader of Poland's Solidarity Trade Union, Nobel Peace Prize winner and controversial president. As part of CNN's anniversary series, we take a look back at Lech Walesa influential past and where he is today.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE) UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER (voice-over): A Polish shipyard worker with a passion for freedom. Lech Walesa's fiery determination inspired Poland's solidarity trade union and the eventual fall of the Iron Curtain. For his efforts against communism, Walesa earned the Nobel Peace Prize and some powerful allies. The electrician from Gadansk had the ear of the free world.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

LECH WALESA (through translator): Freedom is a human right.

(APPLAUSE)

(END VIDEO CLIP)

AARON BROWN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: In 1989, Poland formed the first noncommunist government in the soviet bloc, and Lech Walesa was elected the first president. But the controversial style that made Walesa a great revolutionary made him a controversial president. He lost re-election five years later.

Walesa turned 62 this year. The father of eight, he's now a grandfather and still lives in Gadansk. After a failed bid for the Polish presidency in 2000, Walesa turned his attention to political struggles outside Poland, from Taiwan to the recent election issues in Ukraine. He also founded the Lech Walesa Institute to Preserve the Spirit of Solidarity, in Poland and around the world.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

PHILLIPS: Coming up in the second hour of LIVE FROM, is it really a pandemic waiting to happen, or are health officials just ruffling your feathers? How worried is should you be about bird flu? We'll go deep straight ahead, when LIVE FROM's hour of power chirps on.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

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