Life lessons

If a black billionaire philanthropist decides to eradicate the student loans of Morehouse College graduates, he’s teaching the wrong lesson. Am I missing something here?

According to the PG’s June 12 editorial “Grand Gesture,” the students are at fault for attending expensive colleges and their parents should have “guide [d] them toward ... community college, state universities or technical schools.”

These students were obviously qualified to be admitted into this prestigious black college and worked hard for four years to graduate from this institution, which they felt offered much more toward their future career endeavors than a community college or technical school.

The right lessons gained from this “grand gesture”: paying it forward (several students have pledged to do so); unselfish distribution of finances that open pathways of opportunity; celebrating the successes of young people; pure unadulterated altruism.

I believe the editorial board’s issue is more with the realization that there are black billionaires in existence who might encourage generations of intellectually talented young people to successfully undertake the problems of race and social inequality that are waiting to be solved.

It’s the editorial board that is missing something here — the “grand gesture” of affluent parents paying millions for their children’s fraudulent admittance to “high priced” institutions. Clearly not “the best life lesson to come at the start of real adulthood.” DIANE CARROLL

Stanton Heights