Summer push for peace asks parents to become aggressive protectors of their children

Sneed on Sunday…

Hot town.

Summer in the city.

Here we go again: Heat waves stirring up gun violence, droves of teens following social media’s Pied Piper downtown, kids heading for fun running into a gun.

For years, the Rev. Michael Pfleger, pastor of St. Sabina, a South Side church, built a national reputation fighting gun violence from the pulpit to the street, leading decades of peaceful anti-gun marches.

Pfleger’s marching shoes are now heading off the street and into the home.

So, I gave him a call.

“I began to rethink how we were trying to save kids when two teens were shot and another killed March 31 heading downtown in droves to the dangerous whistle of social media,” Pfleger said. “Parents need to know where their children are and let their children know how important they are to them."

Pfleger has been hitting the phones, urging major media outlets to participate in “A Summer Peace Program” to encourage parents and all of us to protect youth from the dangers of social media and lack of parental guidance.

He has lined up FOX, NBC, ABC, WGN as well as iHeartRadio Chicago for “a massive media campaign of public service announcements to unite young people and their parents and grandparents to save lives,” he said.

“Even the CTA is running our print ads in buses and trains.”

Pfleger’s media pitch stars the parents of four young, innocent victims of Chicago gun violence.

“Our message is parents have to become aggressive protectors of their children,” he said. “They need to know where they are at every moment as well as encourage the use of cell phone locators. And they need to listen to their children!"

"I had spoken at the funerals of some of these children,” said Pfleger, who then asked the parents to join in their summer media campaign. “They all jumped on board."

“But, sadly, they all felt there may have been something they could have done differently."

Alan Nicholas Scott's daughter Kaylyn Nicole Pryor Scott, 20, was killed Nov. 2, 2015, standing at a bus stop en route home to Evanston after visiting her grandparents in Englewood.

“It drives me completely insane thinking of woulda, coulda, shoulda since my daughter was killed,” Scott told Sneed. “She had just won a major modeling contest involving a major hair care line ... and was going to be featured on billboards in the city … so happy and excited."

“Every time I see another parent going through this it tears me apart.”

Scott said he went to the city’s juvenile detention center “to mentor kids there … but so many had such horrible things done to them by their parents or family, they looked straight through me … and walked away.”

Added Scott: “I have lost my daughter for the rest of my life. Parents need to love their children and teach them to know where they are when they go out ... and to think twice and be able to walk away from danger. And politicians need to step up!”

Pam Bosley, who founded St. Sabina’s “Purpose Over Pain” program, lost her son, Terrell Bosley, 18, on April 4, 2006. He was shot and killed putting his guitar in a car after playing it while coming out of a church.

“Parents need to be there for their children; build a relationship with their children, and stop trying to be friends with their children,” said Bosley.

Chicago Fire Commissioner Annette Nance-Holt, whose son Blair Holt, 16, was shot and killed on a bus coming home from Percy L. Julian High School on May 10, 2007, is also part of the campaign.

“There is a strong need for community approach in the Black community for kids who don’t have parents or family protecting them, teaching them how to walk away from trouble,” she said.

Cleo Pendleton, the mother of 15-year-old Hadiya Pendelton, who was shot in the back and killed on Jan. 29, 2013, is also in the mix. Her daughter was the victim of a mistaken gang rivalry a week after performing in a band at President Barack Obama’s second inauguration.

First Lady Michelle Obama attended her funeral.

“Happily and ironically, our Summer Peace Project now follows on the heels of U.S. Surgeon General Vivek Murthy’s declaration this week that firearm violence is now a public health crisis,” said Pfleger.

Amen to that.

Sneedlings…

Congrats to Chicago artist Sheila Finnigan for having images of nine of her paintings curated into the permanent archives of the Louvre in Paris. Bravo!...Saturday birthdays: actor Gary Busey, 80, comedian Colin Jost, 42 (hubby of actress Scarlett Johannson), actor Maria Conchita Alonzo, 69. … Sunday birthdays: actor Rupert Graves, 65, actor Vincent D. Onofrio, 65.