Terry Burnside - Peoria's Black American Hero

If you missed the article, "Vigil focuses on unity" by Anna Spoerre in the Monday, July 11, front page edition of the Peoria Journal Star, you need to find it and read it. Mr. Burnside, one of Peoria's good leaders, tells it like it is to both the white and black communities. Mr. Burnside was disappointed in the turnout, being quoted as saying, "Don't retaliate with when someone shatters your dreams with the sounds of gunfire. I am really disappointed in the black community, referring to the less than 100 people who showed up for the vigil, Black lives need to matter to blacks.If you are really concerned about black lives, where are you?"

The Rev. Marvin Hightower, first vice-president of the Peoria Chapter of the NAACP, said black lives can't matter until all lives matter. (I have said the same in my blogs, criticizing the way the "Black Lives Matter" organization has been mis-representing the very people they are supposed to be representing).

Mr. Burnside's son, a promising professional athlete, was shot in the leg causing injuries so severe, he may never play sports at any level. With the lack of leaders like Mr. Terry Burnside and the Rev. Marvin Hightower in both the black and white communities, violence on one another will never end.
Banning firearms will NEVER stop violence by those intent on being violent. Those brought up to hate and physically harm will find weapons somewhere from whatever source. The solution is not simple, but kids must be persuaded that they must attend and pay attention in the classrooms. And the educational colleges must find ways to teach their potential graduates, the Burnside and Hightower ways.

Organizations like Black Lives Matter is exactly the wrong way to teach all people to try their best to get along. Discipline and respect must be returned to schools, homes and public places. Blocking roads and terrorizing communities must be met with wise use of force by all security forces. Black youth must be taught to understand that the people in this country have come a long way since the 1940's. And the major way to further this progress is by teaching and practicing facts, not falsehoods inciting further violence.




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