And the “Michael Vick Award for Self-Inflicted Dumb-assery” goes to….
This is the kind of story that happens way too frequently. A young black man focuses his energy on athletics and manages to ride his talents out of an Atlanta slum. Beyond his athletic abilities his SAT scores were high enough to get into some fairly competitive schools. He just needed a scholarship.
The college that offered him a free ride wasn’t some Division III school that would have offered little in terms of a resume after graduation, it was in fact the most prestigious military school in the deep south which was prepared to provide him with a commission in the US Army upon graduation.
His good fortune gleamed even brighter the very first time he was allowed to showcase his athleticism in college.
Miguel Starks, The Citadel, QB, 6-2, 219, RFr., Atlanta, GA
In his first collegiate start, Starks was responsible for 327 yards and accounted for all five touchdowns in The Citadel’s 38-28 win over Furman. He connected on 14-of-19 passes with no interceptions for 183 yards and one touchdown, while adding 144 yards on the ground with touchdown runs of 11, 5, 17 and 23 yards. Starks’ four rushing touchdowns tied a school single-game scoring record, and he became the first Bulldogs quarterback since Jack Douglas in 1992 to rush for four scores in a single game.
That remarkable game in late October 2009 was also Parent’s Day at The Citadel. It would be difficult to imagine the pride his parents felt that day.
Certainly a better feeling than they experienced over the weekend.
CHARLESTON, S.C. (AP)—A quarterback for The Citadel has been charged with three others in connection with an armed robbery of a man at his home, Charleston police said Sunday.
Miguel Starks, 19, and former Citadel player linebacker Reginald Anthony Rice, 22, were charged Saturday with armed robbery, first-degree burglary, kidnapping and possession of a firearm during the commission of a violent crime, Charleston police spokesman Charles Francis said in a news release.
Imagine that; from promising college football star with a commission on the horizon to orange jumpsuit facing four serious felonies each of which leads to hard time in South Carolina.
And for what? The robbery netted a wallet, electronic equipment and jewelry.
Category: Politics
I blame racism…oh yeah, and Bush too.
I noticed his partner in dumbassery is a “former” linebacker at the Citadel, which tells me he was jettisoned prior to graduating from there.
Ouch. Talk about throwing a future away. Still, when they say that the boy got out of “an Atlanta slum” – well, did the Atlanta slum get out of him? Nurture tends to rear its head at the best of times and the worst of times.
Correction, Cob…he got a wallet, electronics, jewelry and mo’ impo’tant, skreet cred. Fo shizzle.
Human stupidity can never be underestimated!
Another life down the shitter due to a bad choice and running with a bad crowd.
Damn, that’s just sad….
That’s Fo shizzle ma clizzle…..
I didn’t mention it in the original post but I do fear that “Street Cred” played a role in this unbelievably stupid chain of events.
I am still dumb struck by this whole thing.
COB6:
You and I conversed over Michael Vick, mentioning that both he and Tiger Woods were world class athletes, but Mike Vick had a ghetto mentality. So much for using Tiger as an integrity measure, but this is so similar. If he had only used his head as much as “TO” used his mouth………….
Nuf Sed
Frankly Opinionated – At least Tiger Woods never tortured, murdered or facilitated the rape of animals. Or spread herpes (remember the Ron Mexico saga?).
This might be the final straw that gets me run off this blog, but the temptation to take this opportunity for shameless fundraising for a GREAT inner-city charity program in Atlanta has overwhelmed me.
If you would like to give your support to a valiant effort underway in Atlanta to try to reverse these kinds of statistics, if even for only one kid who learns to develop the moral and intellectual strength to pull through in one piece and rise above the moral destitution of his culture, please consider giving to BRIGHT FUTURES ATLANTA, a ministry in the heart of Atlanta to break the cycle of too early parenthood, glorification of criminality, and academic failure.
Their website is at http://www.bfatl.org/
Bright Futures Atlanta is not a government program, nor do they obtain any federal funding (nor would they). It is funded completely by private charity.
I know about this program because my oldest daughter and her husband were volunteers at Bright Futures Atlanta in its early day when they were both college students at Georgia Tech. While she was still in college, my daughter became the academic director of Bright Futures Atlanta and also helped with the grant writing. While the military life has taken my daughter and son-in-law away from Atlanta and they are no longer directly involved in the program, it remains part of their life and part of their heart. They maintain communication with the Bright Futures Atlanta kids via Facebook and return visits to Atlanta.
I attended numerous social and fundraising events sponsored by Bright Futures Atlanta with my daughter when she was still there and directly involved. The minister who runs the program was the minister who officiated at my daughter and son-in-law’s wedding, and many of the youngsters were part of the wedding party as junior bridesmaids and groomsmen.
Watch the video on their website and see if it doesn’t make your heart both break and sing at the same time. You can donate to BRIGHT FUTURES ATLANTA right on their website through PayPal.
I should mention that this is a very small home-based ministry that is run right out of the home of the minister and his wife who run it.
Thank God. Finally a story about a youth from Atlanta that didn’t include the line “aspiring rap singer/performer”. So glad this young man was able to break the cycle of low expectations that is so prevalent among the minority community in Atlanta. This however should improve his chance with the University of Tennessee, who over the summer had 3 athletes arrested for holding up a convenience store.
Let’s see if the trend continues. They are such wonderful role models and I am sure many parents want their kids to grow up to be just like them.
Catch a little sarcasm there? I am sick and tired of the nightly news cast consisting of 15 minutes of the blotter report, always prefaced with the words “south Atlanta” when describing where the crime took place and who the perpetrators were. The south side is a war zone. They just don’t seem to get it over there, and after every “senseless” killing, a few people take to the streets, led by the local race warlord, sometimes they even manage to get the big boys to visit, carrying a big banner and vowing to take back their community. They get 30 seconds on the local news and then retreat back to their homes and continue allowing, encouraging and even turning a blind eye to the criminal element in their midst until they can once again get in front of microphone and get their 30 seconds on tv. Rinse. Repeat.
Sorry but any kid from the southside of Atlanta or hails from the counties of Clayton, Fulton, or Dekalb are lost causes. Yes I am sick of it.
This cycle of ghetto-ism will continue until PARENTS take RESPONSIBILITY for their CHILDREN and teach them right from wrong.
Debra,
Does this ministry teach ethics, morals, responsibility and accountability? Good clean “conservative” values? And teach the parents as well, so these values can be reinforced at home? If not, then it’s mission will have a very low success rate. These values are the things that needed to “lift the blacks out of the ghetto”, not dependence on government handouts and white guilt contributions.
All the school education and smarts in the world won’t make a person behave responsibly. That must start at home, and be reinforced in the church, school and at home. Obviously didn’t happen with Mr Starks.
Ah shit. So the one thing I see here today is one of my School’s least finest. 🙁
Especially after I had a reuinion of sorts last night with some of my El Cid classmates.
It gets better. The victim was one of the assistant coaches.
I guess I am most steamed about how these thugs have managed to smear a fine institution like the Citadel. An institution that is built on the character of it’s students and being able to build that character. I just hope they get a judge that is a Citadel alumni, although I am sure their taxpayer funded lawyers will make sure that doesn’t happen.
BTW Michael Vick played for the Atlanta Falcons, but he belongs to Virginia, just like his dope smoking, gang banging brother who didn’t finish his college career.
This is what happens when schools choose students based on athletic ability and not things like character, responsibility, and academics.
The level of stupidity involved just got ratcheted up a notch – the guy they robbed was one of the assistant football coaches. It’s almost inconceivable to me that someone could be that dumb. For the record, the vast majority of the scholarship football players at the Citadel, just like the vast majority of the student body as a whole, do not get commissions after graduation, so while this story is certainly tragic, in all likelihood, he wasn’t headed for a military career before this took place; he’s clearly not headed there now. With that said, the alumni network that the Citadel has takes care of its own, so this kid pretty much would’ve had his ticket punched if he would’ve kept his nose clean and graduated.
JAG, don’t forget the standard line, when one of the fine, upstanding yout’s ends up face down under a yellow blanket, and they usually do, is always, “he was just turning his life around”.
In Vick’s case, he didn’t lift his brother up, they continued to dwell in the sewer.
As some say, “Hide your beagle, Vick’s an Eagle”.
“were charged Saturday with armed robbery, first-degree burglary, kidnapping and possession of a firearm during the commission of a violent crime.”
Sounds home invasion-esque to me. Except at work (disarmed victim zone) That’s why yours truly packs his .38 on his person at all times until beddy-bye, when it gets parked underneath in the pistol safe next to the Mossberg 500.
That is sad.
In my previous life doing software training/tech support, The Citadel was a customer. Tommy that ran the bookstore and Debra in the “rah rah” store were good people. Actually got to visit the campus once, late on a Friday afternoon when I was in Charleston working with another customer. Got to see the parade/pass in review/whatever they call it on the parade ground. Picked up a Citadel t-shirt – the kind the Cadets wear for PT. It’s too big now, but I won’t be getting rid of it…
Oh god, those damn parades. Charleston, heat, wool uniforms. And me getting to walk tours for 3 hours after parade. Ah, the memories.
B Woodman, I completely agree with you with regard to what is necessary for a successful program in the inner-city and I can assure you that, indeed, that is precisely the way the program is run. Of course, even with that, there are no guarantees. They are definitely conservative folks and the minister takes sort of a “tough love” type of approach with some rather unorthodox methods. I didn’t always agree with his methods and my daughter didn’t either, but he’s doing what he believe is best and I certainly do not have the experience to judge his approach – even though there were times that he really churned me up. Regardless of his tough love methods, though, I think the key element is that he does truly loves those kids. He is also not afraid to show emotion and I have seen him on several occasions in front of a group of people, choked up and with tears as he talks about the kids in the program, and the work, or reads a letter from one of the kids who left the program, writing from prison. (Yes, that happened). There are no guarantees. However, I would guess that if you were to spend any time around him and the kids in his program, you would approve of how things are done. I can say quite authoritatively that I do not have the experience to deal with what he has devoted his life to, though I have spent time talking and playing with the kids and I have witnessed them to be very polite and friendly. The way he deals with the kids is nothing remotely like the way I raised my own kids, but then, with my children, our attachment began at birth, even in the womb, and it was based on trust from the very beginning, not trying to pick up the pieces from another parent’s mistakes 14 years down the road. So it’s really a whole different ballgame. What worked for me in raising my kids successfully is too late for these kids. Except for the love.… Read more »
JAG (#13), I hear ya…
To the parents of the kids in trouble, and the kids you have my prayers.
Parents,
You have to stand by your child for no one else will. I can appreciate the 1 player, that stood and gave comfort to the family. (Sunny day friends, rainy day friends) that is what
it is about. As long as a person, is on top everyone, jump on the wagon.