It was disappointing to read that three Miami Northwestern football players recruited to attend UM in the Fall, have not yet met the academic qualifications required by the NCAA and will attend prep school in New York. The disappointment, partially, is that these young men become statistics that feed into the stereotype of black student-athletes who are more athlete than student.
The reasons for the nation's love affair with sports and the economic opportunities sports offer are complex. With the dropout rate of black students from high schools at about 50% nationally, young lives lost to crime, AIDS, and other dismal facts; it's really time for the community to do something to save itself. Not all is dismal but it's definitely time to re-order our priorities.
So how do we get from an article about UM local football recruits to an issue about the community and individual responsibility? Well, all of these issues are connected. The state of our community is tied to a quality education or perhaps lack of it. Education is connected to economic challenges that are in turn connected to health challenges and so on and so on and so on.
We pray for a bright and promising future for these young men at UM and for all of our young people. It may seem corny but they are our future and we must do all we can to help them succeed.
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