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CNN Live Saturday

Interview With John Shuchart, Matt Crow, Samone Hendricks

Aired September 07, 2002 - 17:13   ET

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

FREDRICKA WHITFIELD, CNN ANCHOR: If you had a chance to tell the terrorists what you think, what would you say? That very question was posed to some middle school children in Kansas City, Missouri, who wrote down their sentiments as a class assignment. Some of the messages were so simple, and honest and compelling, their teacher decided to have it published in a book. It's titled "Kids' Letters to Terrorists."
And joining us from Kansas City, Missouri to talk about the book is co-editor John Shuchart and two students who wrote some of the letters. Matt Crow and Samone Hendricks. Thanks to all of you for joining. Matt, Samone and John, good to see you.

JOHN SHUCHART, CO-EDITOR, "KIDS' LETTERS TO TERRORISTS": Good to see you. Thank you very much.

WHITFIELD: All right, well, John, let me begin with you. There's so many different ways in which to help children deal with the tragedies of September 11. You decided to have everyone write down their thoughts. Why did you think that would be so cathartic?

SHUCHART: Well, prior to writing down their thoughts, they took a course that they helped create called "After." And this was actually the third session of the course. And during that session, they took their last two days' worth of working and put their thoughts together and wrote an imaginary -- wrote a letter to an imaginary terrorist.

WHITFIELD: And what was the assignment? What did you ask them to do as they would think about what to write, what to put on paper? What instructions, I should say?

SHUCHART: Well, after the first two days of exploring their feelings and talking to each other about how they felt, it really wasn't difficult to simply say, tell me what you think, tell me what you feel, tell me what you'd really like to say to a terrorist, and that's why these letters are so remarkable, because it came from their heart.

WHITFIELD: And what were your expectations? What did you expect you'd be reading?

SHUCHART: I really expected seventh and eighth grade type letters. I don't like these terrorists. These are bad guys. I want to kill these terrorists. Instead, we got some very insightful letters, saying, "why did you do this? You didn't have to do this. You could be better. You can improve yourself." It was quite remarkable.

WHITFIELD: In fact, an example, I'll read a couple that we pulled from the book. From one student: "You have succeeded. If your goal was to make me afraid, I am." So simple but so poignantly stated.

SHUCHART: That's right.

WHITFIELD: From this seventh or eighth grader's point of view.

SHUCHART: It is. And again, I think it took a couple of days of these kids really getting in touch with their feelings. At this age, they don't normally talk about how they feel. They don't talk to parents. They don't talk to teachers, and they don't really talk to each other. That's not a cool thing to do. And I think the kids, if you ask them, will tell you that one of the things that came out of this course and this book and the ability to write the letters was they got to really understand how each other feels, and that's important.

WHITFIELD: And in a way, their messages were so profound. But in a lot of ways, they were very much like kids, to be expected of a seventh or eighth grader. Here's another quote that we pulled from your book, quote: "Terrorism is bad. You should quit being a terrorist, and get a job. Start a family, and start over. Right now, your life is dog doo doo."

I mean, it's funny. But you know, in a way as well it's probably being articulated just like a whole lot of folks might want to state it.

SHUCHART: Well, I think kids make things very simple. And that's pretty simple. Get a job, don't do this anymore, and let's go on. And it's pretty easy.

WHITFIELD: All right, John, stick around. And Matt and Samone, we want to talk with you too, because I'm anxious to hear -- read your letters that you wrote. We are going to take a short break right now and we'll talk to you right after these messages.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WHITFIELD: Welcome back. We're continuing our conversation about the new book "Kids' Letters to Terrorists." And we're rejoined from Kansas City by the book's co-editor, John Shuchart, and two of the students who wrote some of the letters, Matt Crow and Samone Hendricks.

All right, kids, so it's your turn now to talk about this assignment and how you were able to articulate your thoughts and put them down on paper.

Samone, let me begin with you. When you were first given this assignment to write a letter or write a note, if you had a chance to communicate with the terrorists, did you find this as perhaps, you know, dream come true, something you'd been thinking about, or was it difficult to vent?

SAMONE HENDRICKS: Well, I found the "after" program as a perfect program and a dream to come true. It was a great program to get us all to open up to what we were thinking about.

WHITFIELD: All right. So what were some of the thoughts that inspired you to write? Perhaps you can just read us, if you will, your letter.

HENDRICKS: OK. "Is your religion telling you to do this? Then maybe you should change religions. Do you think people don't care about you? Well, they do care, as long as you don't try to kill them. It is a good reason to stop."

WHITFIELD: How worried, or how much have you been thinking about the worries that came after 9/11 over the past year? How consumed have you been with these thoughts?

HENDRICKS: It's been in my mind the whole time. So it doesn't -- stuff like this will never, you know, go out of your mind. It will always be there.

WHITFIELD: So after writing something like this, how much better has it made you feel?

HENDRICKS: After writing this, it made me feel a whole better and it made me find out how people were really feeling about terrorism.

WHITFIELD: All right. So Matt Crow, how about if you read me your passage that you put into this book. Surely, a few of you knew that this would end up in a book, but proudly, you can read that for us.

MATT CROW: OK. "You have some serious problems, buddy. You need to see a shrink. But I know that you won't go because you'll be arrested. So send me your head and I'll see that it gets to the doctor."

WHITFIELD: Now, when you wrote this, was there anything in particular that kind of inspired these thoughts? Had you had discussions with, perhaps, your parents or other students before you put your thoughts down on paper?

CROW: Well, I talked to my parents a little bit about it, but not much. And then once I did the "after" program, I got to express my feelings, then I just let it all out, because I was so angry at the terrorists.

WHITFIELD: Have you been feeling mostly angry or sad after 9/11?

CROW: A little bit of both. I'm angry about what they did, but I'm sad about what happened and about all the people who died.

WHITFIELD: So, Matt, when your teacher said, OK, I've got this collection of all these writings and they really run the gamut, everything from being very sad, as you put it, being very angry, we're going to decide to put a book together. How did that idea strike you?

CROW: It struck me -- I was amazed about what kids wrote, and I was glad that they wrote it, and I was glad that Mr. Shuchart made a book out of it.

WHITFIELD: And John, now that you've collected all of these pieces of works, from these seventh and eighth graders, you must feel awfully proud to have been able to help inspire all these kids to say exactly what's on their minds and put it down on paper.

SHUCHART: Well, I think it's a start to something we should be doing in education and should have done for a long time, and that's listening to the customer, and the customers are the kids. And they want to talk about how they feel, and we need to help create some courses for them that make them comfortable doing that. And I think that's where we succeeded.

WHITFIELD: All right. John, Matt and Samone, thank you very much for joining us from Kansas City.

SHUCHART: Thank you.

WHITFIELD: And the book is "Kids' Letters to Terrorists." Thanks very much.

CROW: Thank you.

HENDRICKS: Thanks.

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