this week on "q & a" actor and activist sonja sohn, founder of rewired for change, a nonprofit group working with at risk children in baltimore, maryland. >> sonja sohn, when did you first think about becoming an actress? >> wow. i did not recall ever wanting to be an actress when i first started until just for my mother passed away. -- before my mother passed away. she presented my husband with a little piece of paper that i had typewritten, a story of what i wanted to be when i was 10

years old. that christmas my husband had a paper was some childhood photos. -- gave me that piece of paper along with childhood photos. lo and behold, in the middle of that little of day, i had no regulation of wanting to pursue acting. when it was first suggested to me when i was in my 20s and i was on the poetry scene in new york, i was appalled by the idea. there have been some suggestions in passing saying you should do print modeling, you should be an actress. i thought it was the most vain profession that anyone could get into. i was quite opposed to anything of that nature as a career.

i've always said i'd never wanted to be an actress and this profession kept digging me on the back of the head. -- knocking me on the back of the head. i felt i had to turn around. >> what was your first acting job? >> it was a small independent film. titled "work." very few people have seen that film. at the time i did not consider myself an actor is. i was an artist. i planned on teaching english in the city high school. i was writing a novel. that was the track i was on. there was a film and music critic at the time that was a friend of mine who had seen me on stage. he thought i should actually

addition for this role. -- audition for this role. it got me to do it job he simply told me the role ask for someone with an athletic build. the character was a track star in high school. i played school in high school. just go out for it. what harm does it do? i ended up with the roll. i ended up with the role. i thought i would just try it. i have an adventure is nature. i will try anything once. it was a six week shoot. how many times in your life is someone going to ask you to be in a film? it was fun. >> what year was that? >> we shot it in 1997. but it had to be probably five years before that. 92.

it probably was 1991, 1992 i would say. just after that the director said the you might have something. you might want to look into this. i said thanks but no thanks. at any rate, it kept being in the back of my mind. when something digs like that with me, it generally speaking i take it as a sign that perhaps i should investigate. i took a class with lee strasberg in new york that summer. i had experience in the class that was very moving and opened up something inside of me. it revealed to me that perhaps there was another place to put all of my experience and by

expression, a place that would hold a bit more than maybe the written poetry world. >> the hbo series "the wire" ran for five years. you starred in it. where did the name come from? >> you'd have to ask david. to be quite honest with you. but i would say simply we were running a wiretap the entire season on someone. -- the entire five seasons, on someone. "the wire" comes from that. i do not know if there is some sort of metaphorical meaning. >> what was your part? >> i played a detective known to be the lesbian cop.

i see her as more than that. i think in a certain way, she was the moral compass of the police department. i think she held all of that. >> we have just a trailer. it does not show much. people can get a flavor of it. >> ok. >> i went to journalism school, and northwestern. >> you do not trust the old reporter. >> seriously? >> the and you walk in it -- work in a tv station? >> it is the same thing. >> bring it. >> come on. >> it is not going to work. tody ass, that's all i have

say. ok. >> ok. i'm with you. look at tonya. she runs a damn art gallery. >> what was that? >> that was one of my favorite scenes. we did a monologue after that where she talks about what moves her to become a cop and stay a cop and the moment when her connection to the job was sealed. the woman that was speaking most of that clip was my girlfriend in the show. she was an attorney and did not her acting in law enforcement and wanted me to get out of that line of work.

it was the moment where we really, you realized that she was connected to her job. her girlfriend realizes she's really connected to the job. and that it means more to her than she may realize. >> situated in baltimore -- what impact? >> i am sorry, i did say sheryl was an attorney. she worked at a television station. she wanted kima to become an attorney, study law. that's what it was. >> this program was centered in baltimore. >> absolutely. >> a lot was around the? -- around the harbor? >> season 2, you're right.

>> you tell me how wrong i am. a lot of smoking and drinking and swearing. a lot of real world language. what was the reaction that you got during those five years with this program? >> the reaction from whom? >> it seems to me it was rough and what life was like up in person and that world. -- in that world. >> there was a population of people who cannot watch this show. -- could not watch this show. it was too raw and real and painful for them to see. either because they came from that environment or because some folks used television as something to unwind with. they did not particularly care

to spend their time in that way. however, many folks felt it is a story that has not been told truthfully and without apology. i am talking about folks in law enforcement. i am talking about judges and politicians as well as folks whose lives are depicted by some of the street characters. they felt as though someone was finally getting it right. >> how we saw you in the first time -- you testified i believe in baltimore, the attorney general national task force on

children exposed to violence? but just watch, and we can catch up with your story. let's just watch. >> i remember lying in bed as i heard an argument bring in my parents' bedroom. i was shot by the deafening sound of my mother's jaw being crushed. i watched in horror as my mother's head laid on the chopping block as my father held a large butcher's knife to her throat. and she cried and begged to be put out of her misery. she used to tell a story about my coming in and asking "why is my mommy crying?" i was 2 years old. this kicked off a pattern that i had some control over and responsibility for the situation. >> how hard was that for you to do? >> it has been many years and a long process of healing. at this point, there is some

distance from the emotion and trauma of that. it is part of my story but it is not me. i would not say it was difficult for me to tell the story. i think really it is, you know, it was more difficult for me -- my father and i have a great relationship. part of my life. members of my family are still part of my life. i was concerned at how it would reflect upon them and how they would it take it. just trying to navigate those waters while being respectful and honorable and to honor their journey. >> you are born in virginia?

>> in georgia. >> your father is african- american and mother is korean. what has that impacted on your life? adding those two background? >> growing up at times it was difficult. i grew up in an all black neighborhoods. just in general with kids, you do not want to stick out in the difference. particularly the growing up in the south in a newly desegregated south, busing had just started when i was in elementary school. virginia was one of the last states on that track. on that track. there was a challenge there of

always having to prove that i was as black, whatever that means, as the rest of my peers. later on i began to see my definition of blackness was quite skewed. if you were tough and could kick butt, then you were respected. that was a part of the running definition of "blackness" at the time. there was that challenge. however, i believe it has had its advantages for me in terms of how it shaped the world view and perception. i was aware that i was a person

first and not a label. an amalgamation of what people can see in terms of my mother and father. there was always this strong impulse to unite and get folks to understand that i am just a person. we are people. >> you talk about your father. >> he was mentally ill. i learned he was paranoid schizophrenic on a lot of medication. my father is a brilliant man. he had moments of brilliance as a parent. there were faces in our life for -- phases in our life where we try to have sunday dinner. in may have been a tyrannical nightmarish event at times, but

there was times where it there was laughter at the table. he thought he should play chess. -- teach us to play chess. by the time you are six, you could play chess. he had moments of brilliance. there were times he turned into a monster. >> we learned that your mother died some time ago. when was that? >> 1998. >> when you go back in your own life, you grew up in newport news, you talk about you were into the drugs at some point. how did that happen? how old were you? and why were you attracted to it? >> you know, i guess the story could speak for itself. after a while it becomes reality. it is tough to take. i started smoking pot when i

was 11. at the time, i was not conscious that i was doing it as an escape. i was in a neighborhood with other 11 and 12 year-old experimenting with pot. but by the time i was 13, i was smoking every day. at that time, you are not aware that you are doing it to keep things manageable or create some distance between you and what is really bothering you inside. i would also say around that time was the time i pretty much gave up on fixing my family.

i was trying to bide my time. i spent many childhood hours trying to figure out how i could fix this situation. around 11 and 13 i decided there was nothing i could do about it, but i could not leave. i had a whole plan to leave and i was confident that i believe it. -- confident i could leave. i is one of to leave town. i did not want to go to a foster family. i wanted to go to new york. it is strange for people to hear an 11 year old making this plan. i was literally about to walk out the door. i had a packed backpack and everything. -- had my bags packed and everything.

i kept seeing visions, i guess, my mother was heartbroken and crying. she stayed in this marriage because she believed we needed a father. there's nothing i could do to convince her that regardless, that perhaps this is not the arrangement. we could have a father but not in this arrangement. my mother grew up without a father. i realized that had a lot to do with her, you know, being adamant that we needed to keep our father in the home. >> where did they meet? >> korea. >> during the korean war? >> just after, i believe. >> how did your mother do in this society? >> my mother was quite successful considering where she came from.

i think even in correa, my mother -- korea, my mother had a sixth or seventh grade education -- she could speak english. reading and writing was a challenge for her. there is a point when we were growing up and she started taking classes at a local church. my mother was very gifted of they seamstress and to make anything from scratch. -- not simply just as a seamstress but she could make anything from scratch. she spent most of through life working for the government in a civil service capacity as an upholsterer down in virginia on the various bases down there. like a supervisor in the shop at the norfolk naval base. she always had a dream to build your own home. we grew up in a mixed income housing unit, and i saw my mother by her first home when i

was a senior in high school, and then within, i guess, 10 years, my mother bought a piece of property in gloucester, virginia, and had her house built on an acre and a half of land. she was quite successful. >> did you move from marijuana to cocaine? >> well, not like that. >> did one thing leads to another? >> yes, you know. in junior high school, it was speed and acid and marijuana, and in later years of high school as when i first became introduced -- when i was first introduced to cocaine. and then, that was pretty much -- >> what i really want to know is, a lot of people use the drugs, and we all wring our hands. but the people enjoy these

drugs? or are you hiding from something? >> there comes a point where you no longer enjoy them. but initially, there has to be some sort of enjoyment for you -- when i was 10 years old i smoked my first cigarette. they were 50 cents a pack. i put a quarter in the pact so for me i on the pack. i got so busy and fell on someone's bed, and i did not care about the peer pressure or that they were teasing me. i said, you know what, i am not smoking. i get teased. i never really smoked a cigarette again. occasionally, socially, i have in the future but i did not enjoy it. but when it came to pot -- pot in particular, i enjoyed it. it was relaxing. for me, it just calmed my nerves and got me out of my head. that is what the initial attraction to that was.

drinking was never something that i really took to. it was something that eventually, when i got into cocaine, drinking was something that became a little bit of a balanced for the edge coke would give in the years i started to not like it, and i started to see where it was taking me. >> how did you get out of it? >> i got out of it -- initially, through a therapist, meeting a therapist. my first husband saw that there was a problem. we were having problems and solve the was a problem and suggested we go to therapy. this was the first time i had ever tried therapy, and i went to therapy with him. after our first session, she said, listen -- you need individual therapy before you touch carpels therapy. -- couples therapy.

when i came back to see her, she completely pulled my card and no one had ever been able to. i had written for three years in my journal thus i was not living up to my potential, that no disrespect to housewives, but i knew that i should be doing more than just kind of raising my kids. i had a great life. we had a middle-class lifestyle. i was a good mom. >> living where? >> new york, brooklyn. but i became very adept at creating a beautiful picture. this is something i learned when i was biding my time in high school. i said, ok, i've got to be here. i can't leave my mom. this is a miserable situation. they are miserable. i cannot save them from the misery but i and going to be happy. i took the drugs and started to create does have a picture for myself, something tolerable for

me to live in. that is what i became very active in sports and for a while i did very well in school, the junior honor society, a cheerleader. i did all kinds of things and there were a lot of cool, fun people doing those things and we created a scenario in which there was some level of comfort. and we presented this picture to the world that allowed us to function and to earn money, and have jobs. in a way, this is sort of tied into the dual existence that i think many african-americans live in this country. there is a face that you know you have to show when you are trying to get certain things accomplished, but then there is sort of the down-home side and the part of a culture that you can share with each other that you cannot really share with the larger world because there is some judgment attached to that.

i believe this fed into the kind of picture i was able to create in my 20's and in my first marriage. >> we will come back to that. but you talked about this when you testified. let's watch a segment. >> when you live in a world that is never safe, where you feel abandoned, numbing the pain becomes an essential survival skill. this is how i became and how many children today become easy prey for pedophiles. this is why our young people create the nurturing they so desperately need by forming an joining gangs. this is why many children enter into the drug world at an early age. this is why the sex trade seems like a viable option, and this is how we lose our nation's future. without resources to deal with the trauma and numbing it came with the drugs and sex and creating an illusion for family and as these become sick opening

as a muslim. oftentimes these children and opened a pattern using the self- destructive acts to escape the smallest of discomfort, never regaining the pop -- ability to handle stress. they use sex for marshall support and they become very young parents. the effect of the violence they live with just add up in layers. >> why did you agree to testify? >> because i believe in the mission of the task force. i believe that the fabric of our nation is being -- is disintegrating and being ripped apart at the seams because we are not paying enough attention to the trauma and pain and the struggles that our young people are facing today. >> how old your kids? >> my children are older -- i

have a 21-year old and a 25- year-old. >> boys or girls question of >> girls. >> your first marriage? >> yes. >> did you marry again? >> yes. in any children from your second marriage? >> no. >> wauconda work are your daughters in? >> by august daughter graduating from the institute of arts, theatre and major -- my youngest daughter. my older daughter, she has been working in retail for the past two years and interested in fashion, and right now she has her sights set in that direction. >> you live where now? >> i am telling of the one i live where i work, essentially. i spend quite a bit of time in baltimore. when i am working on "body of proof" i am in l.a., the new abc show, and when that show is down i come back to the east coast

and i spent part of my time in baltimore because rewired for change to my non-profit, is based there, and i have a home in the outer banks the north carolina which used to be a vacation home but now my primary residence. and i have connections in new york -- family and friends. my oldest daughter is in new york. so i pretty much just hop between those three places but i used north carolina as my primary residence right now. >> but the main reason to ask you to come here is talking about the impact on "the wired" on you and your organization. >> the division came to me in 2008 and 2009 is one way officially started -- the vision came to me in 2008. >> what does it do?

>> rewired for change, our mission is to support and an hour and affect the lives of high risk youth and their families in the communities in which they live. we started by offering a pilot program, rewired for life, which is a program that was geared to high risk youths arrested before, and we used "the wired" the show as a springboard for discussion, and opening to the possibilities of personal transformation. >> how did you raise the money? >> oh, gosh. initially it was my money that i use for the organization.

it is still something on going. >> how many people are working there? >> for the last year and a half, -- and has been two years, 2010 -- for the last year and a half we have been a community home in baltimore at the village house and we offer an after-school program and we have a local community group of the village council. and essentially opening our doors to the community in many ways we can. that house right now employers -- employs four people. >> what is the age group you will take into the house? >> through the after-school program, we are talking about seven -- i think what we have

now is seven of 13. and we were running our program out of their but right now we are revamping our curriculum and we will reintroduce. that was a two year pilot and we are actually revamping the curriculum and putting out an official program later this year. one of the things that we discovered after -- >> by the way, what is the difference between rewired for life -- >> rewired for changes the organization and rewired for light is the program for high risk people. the village council -- council is the local community group. will it house is an initiative of rewired for change. one of the things we discovered through our work with the pilot program is that if our young

people had to go back to families and communities that were broken and not unified and not healthy, it would make the transformation much more challenging. and there was no way to isolate a population and truly assist them -- we are looking for real healing. we are not looking at, okay, you get your ged from a job, you are set and off the streets. that means something to was. but what has unfolded it is what we want to seem is a deep level of healing in the life of a young person, but also in the lives of the entire community. and so, our overall mission really is to uplift and to empower communities of the faults to -- folks to recreate

community in a way we have not seen in a public-service community that i have seen. >> statistics, i just saw this -- >> 80% of african americans do not qualify to be in the military. that was the headline. 70% of white men and women do not qualify. that is a large statistics because of drugs and obesity. then the statistic that you are aware of, here is a statistic, 40% of americans have children out of wedlock. 70% of african-americans have children out of wedlock. how do you get out of it? >> that is a good question. i can have an opinion on it. no one is an authority for sure. i think this boils down to

something really simple. you say 70%. i was not familiar with the70% statistic. 70% of african-americans have children out of wedlock. i would like to know how that is broken down within age groups. i think that would inform my answer. >> i think a lot of them are younger. >> i talked about them in the clips. a core need of human beings is to be in love. -- the deepest need of every human being. any character, somewhere in there, is a need to be loved. when you do not get that nurturance, not to say they are not loved, but true love in a healthy way entails a lot more

than being cared for in basic ways. it calls for an emotional nurturance. it calls for guidance. it calls for a whole host of other aspects that i young person needs. that a young person needs. we do not have those things, you reach out any way you can to feel it. sometimes it is just touching and one thing leads to another and you become invested in another person in an unhealthy way by the time you're in your early 20s, a person that has been nurtured properly, they're at the point where they can go inside and their confidence and their principles and their values. they can hold onto its.

they do not have to anchor themselves to another person. for someone to give them what they are lacking inside. i believe that pattern has a lot to do with that statistic. going back again in your life, we have testimony where he decided to do something to your father. it is rather strong stuff. let's watch that and ask you to explain it. >> i spent weeks trying to figure out how to get my hands on a gun but i had no success. so, i resorted to a new option after reading the magazine how a popular singer of the day had been scalded by hot pot of grits. it came one day when i was washing dishes, watching myself calmly take the biggest pot, put it in water, but among the stove to boiling and started putting back editions. i started to watch myself like i

was outside my body and his associates. once the water boils, i took the pot and walked slowly into the living room and stood over my father as he slept on the sofa. all the scenes i violent -- scenes of violence last before my eyes and that we saw us without him. i saw myself happy and free in my home. i saw laughter in the faces of the rest of my family. i stepped closer to the sofa. just as i was about to throw the water on him, a horrifying thought the jilted me to consciousness. the singer did not die. this pot of water was not going to kill my father. suddenly, the pot seemed to shrink in my hands, and so did i.. i began to see myself as this tiny child i was, a wave of grief and sadness rushed over me. i stood there growing smaller and smaller until i felt completely insignificant and totally useless. >> the you ever talk to your dad about that? then i never talked to my father about that. >> really? >> my father is a different man

now, and i really want to make that clear. regardless of the various diagnoses and problems that he had when we were younger. he had a bad 20 years. >> did you see that? >> no, i do not the he saw that. i had spoken to my fought -- i have spoken to my father about the past and i tried to gingerly tried to prepare him and speak to him about some of the things that were being revealed right now. but he has shared with me he would rather not go back and revisit that time in his life. and that he is a changed man and he would like to keep his focus on what he is now. and i need to respect that. always a little uncomfortable

when i see this stuff coming out in the public because i care about my father very deeply and i want to make sure that folks understand that our life is very long, and that redemption and transformation is possible. it happened in my life, it happened in the life of my father, and my family is not the family i grew up in any more. >> but when we read about your life -- you were molested by your babysitter? what impact did that have? >> it had a great impact on me. i think that was probably -- that was probably the most challenging -- the wreckage of that abuse was the most challenging for me.

it took me that to really understand i was a victim. i thought there was a relationship. this was from the ages of four to nine, and what was most difficult for me at the time was the sense of betrayal and abandonment. when the baby sitter left the neighborhood, she said she would come back and visit me and see me -- and what was most damaging to me is she never came back. that, you could imagine, informed my intimate relationships moving forward it played -- forward, it played into my own relationship dysfunction. as a teenager, i was also -- i was raped as a teenager, and all of that sort of tangled up, and

quite a few knocks. >> you have obviously lived all of these things and you are now working with young people. what would you advise them, knowing what you have lived through and looking back, what would you have done differently to get out of the situation -- or would you? >> i did the best i could dealing with the circumstances. within those circumstances, i did the best i could at the time. i would not say there was something i would do differently. you know, there were things that shaped my mind to make the kinds of decisions i was making. i was incredibly bright. despiteuse i didn't -- all of the accomplishments and the picture that created and

high-school -- active in sports, basically had a b average -- but i was not studying. i could have a b average without studying, and getting high every day, and working, and all of those activities. i had decided -- the straight a student pretty much an elementary school, but i decided, what was all the work for? i could not be happy. i believe if i had a mentor in high school, -- i think i look like the kid who was going to be fine, so no one thought that i needed a mentor of any sort. she is really fine. and they were right, essentially. but i believe if i have had a mentor who could see beneath the surface, i would have gone on -- i absolutely would have finished college and probably would have

gone to and i believe-type schools. that was the idea got -- would have gone to one of the ideal league types schools. there was an idea of being a lawyer but i gave up when happiness was what i was striving for. getting back to what i would say to young people in these situations -- i will tell you what really let me, got me to -- brought me to where i am today. if it could happen before may it could happen for every single young person who is struggling with the issues i was struggling with, and even worse. i have friends who have stories like mine, who are successful now. personally and professionally. and the thing i think we all have in common is that we -- unbeknownst to ourselves, we listened and nurtured.

we nurtured the ability to mission -- listen to our inner voice. there is an inner voice and intuition, if you want to call it that, that i strongly believe is connected to something much greater than myself and other people. it is knowing when to move, when to fall back, when to jump off of a cliff even though it looks as though you are not going to make, because that voice will never fail you. getting to know the inner voice and following it in every instance that you can, this is the thing that i see, that folks who come from that background will find success -- it is a muscle that they have trained and nurtured that is very strong within them. and that is something -- that is what we would like to teach in the rewired for life program.

>> do the -- your kids have any troubles like you have? >> my oldest daughter probably has the most challenges because when she was born, i was still using. i changed my -- i did my 180 in my life when she was about four or five years old. and those early years, after you have done the 180, everything does not just clear up. you are putting in all the hard worse -- work, and processing, you've got to raise kids and be in a marriage, and you created a bit of a mess there. it is a lengthy process. so, the people of around you get splattered with some of that. it is unfortunate, but it is a part of the process. and i did it for myself. but i was really moved to do it for my children, because i saw

what i was creating in the home. i saw that i was becoming the type of entity my father had become in our home. so, my older daughter has had to work through quite a few more challenges than my younger daughter. my younger daughter was born just before i turned around. so, she has seen the best of me. whereas, my older -- >> do you talk to them about this? >> absolutely. quite honest. i probably have spoken -- but i think in the end we are very transparent about going through my process, that i was feeling. if i was having a rough time with the girls in the home, and you could see it, and i knew what was happening, i would share it with them -- look, mommy is having a rough time. as they were getting older, i

was able to share more and more of my story with them so they could understand. i wanted them to be able to take the journey -- you know, i think every person regardless of how you look, there is some journey you take in getting to know yourself. and i wanted them to know that was important in life. that was the part of living a full and whole life. >> one of the rehabilitation clinics in this country -- i remember a statistic, from them that 83% of the people who go into rehab don't turn it around. that means that 17% do. and that is drugs and alcohol. what do you think of those statistics and how did you -- did you go through detox or any other kind of 28-day program? >> i did not go through a program like that. you know, i had a really

supportive husband at the time, and we could afford therapy. i was in therapy. i know for some years i did get the help of an outside support group. and to be quite honest with you, within that support group, all i saw romney were successful -- a great number of people successfully turning their lives around. those numbers -- i can't -- i certainly -- i can't reviewed or validate. >> they did an arctic -- article about you in "the washington post" magazine and i wrote -- wrote down some words. thuggin it up. >> criminal behavior. >> and some other words, dealing

with robbing and off. how much of it goes on in the an in the city? and not just inner city. >> and happens in the suburbs. >> all over the place. >> absolutely -- how much of it goes on? quite a deal of it. it depends on the community levin did but i believe even in the communities where you can see ithappening -- can't happening, again, this is what i believe this tearing this country apart. what we refuse to see, what we think is none of our business because it is uncomfortable to deal with until someone in our family is affected. and, we -- if we don't collectively address the shadows, the dark -- it is no

longer hiding in the dark corners and recesses of society but it is out in broad daylight now. if we don't address this for long, it is just going to continue to tear the country apart. >> at the end of 2011, you made a speech out in los angeles and i want to show you what you looked like. >> my goodness. but i know the population i am working with on the streets of baltimore who did not believe anything can be different -- they did not believe anything can be different in their families. they did not believe there is anything bigger than a four- square block a live-in. they believe that is the reality that is. what i want to pose to some of you folks is may be changing the language a little bit and may -- may be creating a new model, maybe healing from a whole other dimension. one that takes us out of this

position of being victims of the government and victims of everything that has happened to us -- because that is just going to go on forever as long as there are human beings, ok? that is just the nature of man. so, what can we do to operate from now and say healing is our focus? i am particularly talking to the people who are reaching folks on the street and saying, listen, if you want things to change in your life, in your family, you want things to be different in your community, then you are going to have to be a part of this change. >> why are you doing this? >> because it is to ibm. -- who i am. my life's mission. all my life i knew i was born

to -- for some purpose. this is what is coming through. i am simply trying to honor that. i am simply just trying to honor what is true for me. >> so, i am a kid now, 13 years old and we would use to do. i am smoking pot or maybe moved to speed or cocaine or whenever, and i am robbing and stealing and all of that stuff. and i still in to get money to buy this stuff? >> my gosh. a lot of these people are robbing and stealing four food and clothes. >> how do you get the money for the drugs, by the way? how did you get it in your day? >> i worked and i sold drugs. my brother was a drug dealer and the neighborhood. >> your brother was killed -- how, when? >> he was murdered in north carolina in 1988.

>> what were the circumstances? >> oddly enough, my brother was down there trying to make a change. he moved from virginia to north carolina. my father was down there and he was really trying to make a change. he was living in my uncle's home and next door was a young woman who had an abusive boyfriend. from time to time he would talk to her. and the boyfriend basically was jealous and told him to stay away from his girlfriend. my brother was not going after the woman. he was just befriended her and speaking with her. essentially he killed him because of that. >> i started to ask you -- a 13 or 14 year old, what would you tell me -- and do you interact with these kids at the university of maryland where you are doing this? >> when we were running the

pilot program, i was a part of the facilitation team. because it was and ports and for me to see what was working and what was not working. and also because i have such a passion for young people, and particularly young people who are caught up in the cycles. and such a desire to see them transform. that work i love. i loved doing that work so much. however, i just don't have the capacity in terms of the resources -- and in this line of work i have seen a lot of folks who have been very well trained to do that kind of work, and it has been better for me to sort of empower them to do that work. preaching to these kids and talking at them is not the way

that they are going to make that shift. the shift is experiential. it is something that has to happen internally. the gift of being able -- the gift of those who know how to guide those young people through that transformation is this gift of knowing when to fall back and allow them to express themselves and to make the mistakes that they need to make without condemning them and without abandoning them, and always knowing that you are there to support them regardless. because it is unconditional love that these young people need to connect to on a very deep level. that i am not bad, there is nothing wrong with me. that no matter what i do, i still worthy. that is one piece. and then there is finding the curriculum -- i think it really

good curriculum allows young people to explore themselves, to get to know themselves and explore a lot of issues and raise awareness about things they may not know about but at the same time understand that what they have inside -- their thoughts, feelings, opinions -- there experiences are very valid and valuable. >> five years of "the wire" on hbo -- you can buy it in stores and watch it on demand, but if our audience was to see you today -- what time, what day, what is your character, and then i will let you go. >> you can see these days on abc, "body of proof." that is tuesday nights at 10:00 i play detective samantha baker. i am a homicide detective and my partner, bud, played by john carroll lynch, the support team for the medical examiner's

office and the medical examiner is played by dana delaney. >> sonja sohn, thank you so much for joining us. [captioning performed by national captioning institute] [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2012] >> today, the u.s. supreme court begins three days of oral arguments on the 2010 health care law. next, "washington journal" with

three straight hours previewing the issues of the court. at 10:00 a.m., more lives supreme court coverage. we will continue to take your calls, e-mails, and tweets, and give sights and sounds outside the court. at noon eastern we will breakaway move for live coverage of the house but our supreme court coverage will continue on c-span 3 -- at 1:00 p.m. eastern, the same day audio from the oral arguments, and also available on c-span radio and c- span.org. our guest coming up include los angeles times supreme court reporter david savage will lay out the challenges the court will hear this week. and then ilya somin, a constitutional law professor at george mason university who will discuss the question before the court, whether the constitutional challenge to the individual mandate, which does not go into effect until 2014, is premature. and law professors jonathan turley of george washington university and james simon from and why you will look at the