Bill Cosby escorts students to university

The Associated Press

HAMPTON, VA — Bill Cosby dropped off three Springfield teenagers at Hampton University in Virginia.

It's up to them to earn a return flight home.

The comedian escorted Loren Wilder and Jimmy Hester, along with their friend, Wesley White, to the college yesterday, with the promise of an all-expense-paid education.

Wilder was 14 when his mother was jailed for dealing drugs. Hester left home at 15 following years of moving around and fighting with his mother.

The best friends shared an apartment this winter and were able to graduate from high school with honors.

Cosby — who owns a home in western Massachusetts — is also paying for the college costs of White, whose parents helped watched over Wilder and Hester.

Bill needs to stop being so nice to people & donating his money to people to go to college. People have to make their own choices in life cause nobody forces u to do negative things & act ignorant. People would probably talk bad about Bill if he didn't give money to charities & black colleges but he has the right not to do that if he doesn't want to. That's the problem with blacks anyway. We always expect somebody to give us something instead of workin for it. I know what whites did to blacks when we were slaves was very wrong but we can't continue to blame that on the reason why our neighborhoods are ghetto & why we continue to get locked up & commit crimes.

It seems that what Cosby has done is commendable in it's own right, and other entertainers should follow more in his footsteps, if not necessarily sending kids to college, but investing in the communities. I totally agree that African-Americans shouldn't live their lives looking for handouts and can and should take responsibility for their mode of living, but in the case of these students Cosby has helped, they couldn't help the situations they were in, and he saw fit to do something nice for them.

Bill just wants to give back, and there's nothing wrong with that. If he feels that sending kids to college, and in that way, being a role model for the community is the most effective way in which he can contribute, more power to him.