SMITH: Because of the terrible school massacres in places like Littleton, Jonesboro and Paducah, Americans have an increased sense of vulnerability about their children and about themselves. In the last year or so, our suburban and rural communities have come to understand they are susceptible to this kind of violence the same way inner cities are. Everyone feels an acute sense of anxiety, and people are quite literally desperate for sound, practical examples and advice on how to deal with this problem of crime.

That's what this program does. Seeking Solutions presents a series of stunning examples and thoughtful discussions that show what ordinary people have accomplished through courage and hard work. In many cases, they have found answers to challenges that are plaguing communities all across America.

SMITH: Actually, we've been working on this topic for the last year or so. It's an outgrowth of a program we produced in 1995 about an inner-city neighborhood in Washington, D.C. It's been perfectly clear that the issues of youth violence, hate crime and street crime have been high on the public's agenda for several years. And so the agenda of Seeking Solutions has been appropriate for American television for the past couple of years.

We debated about including Littleton, but we felt that specific situation had already had intense media coverage, and the Littleton community had not had enough time to develop its own solutions. So we stuck to other success stories that had developed more. What makes Seeking Solutions unusual is that it focuses not on the problems, not on the agony, but on the solutions, on the healing. We don't believe in shying away from problems, but we believe that as journalists, we have a responsibility to give people balanced reporting and tell people good news as well as bad news. Balanced reporting means the media have to report not only about problems, but also what is being done that is effective - success stories that show the ordinary heroes among us all. For most Americans, that is every day reality.

QUES: While the program addresses issues affecting the country at large, you've chosen to profile the efforts of local communities from Oregon to South Carolina. Why?

SMITH: While the problems of teen violence, hate crime, street crime and drug dealing are national in scope, they occur in local settings. Local problems rely on local solutions. Much of the national debate about violence basically shifts responsibility to somebody else: Why is there so much violence in movies? What is television doing wrong? What are the gun dealers doing? And what is Washington not doing? We don't dispute that all those are parts of the problem. But we found that when there were solutions, almost all were generated locally by local people who decided they had to take the initiative and not point the finger at outsiders.

In a very real sense, we didn't pick the communities we profiled; they picked themselves by coming up with answers to these problems of violence that are plaguing our towns and cities from coast to coast. These were places where people said, "This is our problem, and we've got to do something about it." What this shows is grassroots democracy at work, Americans taking responsibility to improve the quality of life in the most basic sense, namely personal safety.

SMITH: There is absolutely no question that you can take situations that look impossible and turn them around. In our first episode in Washington, we go into an urban war zone where there have been multiple killings, both of street fighters and innocent bystanders. It looked hopeless to everyone. Then a group called the Alliance of Concerned Men went in, negotiated a gang truce, worked with the D.C. Housing Chief and helped give these kids training, jobs and a future away from a life of crime.

As one person in this story said, "If it can be done here in Benning Terrace, it can be done anywhere in the country." And I believe that. I think that what you see in this program are some of the most difficult, impossible situations and every single one of them is a turnaround.

The community we profiled in Chicago is an extremely tough neighborhood that has many disadvantages compared with places like Springfield, Oregon, or Littleton, Colorado - in terms of the demographics, in terms of the economics. And yet they have a very low crime rate. That certainly doesn't mean we can solve the problem totally or avoid any of these episodes in the future. But we can dramatically reduce crime and violence if we get engaged at the local level.

QUES: Is there a national trend towards solving these problems?

SMITH: Unfortunately, I don't think so. The youth crime rate is down a bit but that may have something to do with the seven years of economic growth we've enjoyed. There are more jobs available, and when people have jobs and a decent living, they're less inclined to be involved in crime. We need to admit that. So, if we are faced with an economic downturn, we may see the crime rates go up again.

More importantly, the testimony that we get from the experts - and even from people who are working on these problems full time - is that not enough parents, teachers, community leaders, civic groups and local governments are involved. Too often, there is a tendency to say that this is somebody else's problem or fault. So until more people heed the advice of the woman who said, "You don't have a right to a good community, it's your responsibility to create it," we are not going to have a great national trend.

SMITH: First, there is a great tendency to believe the horrific killings can't happen here in my neighborhood. If you live in Littleton, Colorado, you think it's a problem of the inner city - until it hits you in the face. Part of our apathy comes from a denial of reality.

The second reason is fear. These are very scary problems to deal with. When it comes to coping with hate crime or street crime or teen crime, people are afraid to get involved - they are afraid of getting hurt themselves. Many of the people in the communities we profiled in Chicago and Kansas City had felt isolated. They felt that the drug dealers and the criminal elements were dominating their neighborhoods. They didn't see any link-up with police. They were isolated from each other by their fear.

Third, many people feel they are too busy, they have too many other things to do, other priorities. But the question really is what can be more important to you than your children's safety or the safety of your neighborhood? How can you be too busy to worry about that? It is clear, from the examples we have seen, that neighborhoods that work together and that worry about each other's kids have much less of a problem in their own schools and families.

I think that we in the media need to restore balance and integrity to our reporting. We have an obligation to give our audiences a relatively accurate picture of the reality of our society. That's what I was trained to do when I became a reporter for United Press International and for The New York Times. I think we are so preoccupied with conflict, violence, sensationalism and scandal, that we really don't show how ordinary people live their lives and how ordinary communities get through the year, week by week, month by month. We show a community in crisis like Littleton or like Springfield, Oregon, or Paducah, Kentucky, then we walk away. We don't stay to see how those people are getting through the next six months, the next year. And because we're not giving people an accurate picture of reality, we're contributing to public cynicism and apathy. People feel life is too hopeless, it doesn't pay to get involved.

SMITH: I hope that people will learn from other people's experience and find resources to change life in their own communities. I think that our function is to inform people and I hope that the information we offer is practical and useful. In fact, we are producing a Web site on the PBS home page that will support this documentary. The site will provide a large information bank for communities all across the country that will enable them to get in touch with academic and governmental experts, civic groups and successful anti-violence programs, so that if they want to confront these challenges at home, they will have some resources to help them.

SMITH: Personally, I have to say this has been an enormous education, and that is one of the most exciting things for anyone to experience, certainly a journalist.

I met all kinds of people in these stories that I never expected to. I met felons in prison for life who were trying to keep young people from joining them in prison. I met a guy who had the good sense after some terrible violence in San Clemente High School to start a course in tolerance. I went into a community in Chicago in which every single fact you learned should have spelled a high crime rate - terrific population density, 36 different nationalities, rich and poor living side by side, even homeless people. It should have been a community that was just blowing apart. Instead, by working together, these people have achieved a much lower crime rate, a much safer neighborhood and a better quality of life than other more fortunate communities. It blew my mind!

I am a reporter who covered civil rights in the South back in the 1960s. And to see the degree to which southern communities like Manning or Greeleyville, South Carolina, have changed within the next generation is really striking. There are still minorities that practice racism and intimidation. But these communities now prosecute the Ku Klux Klan and hate groups in ways that would have been inconceivable 30 years ago. It shows that life is changing in this country and for the better in some places. That's very encouraging for me as a citizen, but it's also very disturbing that when we wanted to hold a town hall meeting in South Carolina, some blacks were intimidated from coming by anonymous threats. We still have a ways to go.

SMITH: Yes, but not in a simplistic way. There is no ignoring the problems, there is no contention that every single one of these communities has been completely successful. The fight against hate crime and teen violence is an ongoing battle. These are people who are willing to roll up their sleeves and take some tough, gritty steps. So the program is hopeful in that it shows the courage, cooperation and commitment of people who understand that if they want to take back their own communities from drug dealers or bigots, they had to take action themselves. It's a hopeful program in that it's grounded in reality - the success stories of real people.