Phil Luciano: PJS Reporter

On 8/15/07, Luciano writes “What sets bricks and fireworks apart?” he talks about two sets of compassions. One senseless act meant to cause no physical damage and one act intended to do physical or severe property damage at the least. He describes two sets of good kids and then he attempts to make this into a community racial problem. He talks about the anguish of four young men involved in the disastrous prank and the younger man (kid?) who threw the concrete with an apparent deliberate attempt top do much harm. (I’m glad I wasn’t the driver of the car hit by a deliberately flung piece on concrete or some PJS reporter would have tried to make it look like I was the one at fault.)

Luciano writes “Fireworks pranks are common in college.” Really; no wonder we are falling behind other nations in learning or did Luciano hang around with a bunch of stupid idiots “throwing furniture into the street off balconies and or “shattering beer glasses over someone eye” as he wrote in his 8/15 column? Where were college administrators? These “kids” should have been booted from college then they wouldn’t have had to wait for graduation when as Luciano states at least “he would no longer have to listen to meaningless lectures that kept him in boredom”.

Luciano continues “other parts of town have different cultures. Young people with no direction (don’t they go to school, attend church and what about the millions of dollars poured into Peoria’s approximately 70 social agencies?) or hope often turn to crime for fun or profit.” He says these problems are prevalent. I suggest he needs to return to take more journalist classes as the word “prevalent” as described in my Oxford Dictionary is “generally existing or widespread”. Yet our sheriff has stated publicly that if we could permanently remove a couple hundred “swinging door” juvenile and adult criminals from this community, much of our crime would cease.

Luciano rants on, “Until July, the 15 year old (person, kid, man) had one prior: a juvenile account of car burglary.” Want to bet? He continues "that is not a good thing (really?) but it’s not horrendous either." (really again.) Next, after being caught, (probably finally being caught) this person sets a car on fire, beats up a jogger and hit a car with a brick killing one occupant.

Then Luciano says it’s the mother; she suffers from some behavior disorders, including be-polar disorder. So now this bleeding heart liberal excuses the kid for behavior “prevalent” in certain cultures.

He ends his article of inanity by saying that public compassion favors the stupid “kids” who killed a fine young man when their prank went awry as opposed to the kid born in the wrong “culture” where acts of violence are prevalent and who deliberately set out to steal, beat-up, destroy and kill.

I suggest Mr Luciano keeps trying to paint this community as racist; he is really saying only whites are predjudiced. He is not the only JS reporter who paints this community as 'white" racist. He disregards the definition in my dictionary of racist as “being prejudiced with antagonism against other races.” The term “racist” unfortunately creates the perception of white against black.

It’s not the race that is the problem in Peoria; Mr Luciano, and others who have been in print lately talking about the great racial divide in this community. It is the culture of a small minority of people of all races in Peoria, white, black or whatever. Few care about race; most thinking people care about the culture of the race.

For Mr Luciano’s benefit, as well at a couple other PJS writers and some elected officials, I define “culture” from my Oxford, “the arts and other manifestations of human intellectual achievement regarded collectively; a refined understanding of this; intellectual development, etc”.

Luciano complains of bloggers not being “fair and balanced”?

Really!