The Other Wes Moore

 The state of Maryland has a new governor, and his name is Wes Moore: a promising political candidate for the Democratic candidate who grew up in Baltimore, attended Johns Hopkins University, enlisted in the Army and deployed in Afghanistan, basically hitting all the checkmarks of a great political profile. However, it's the book he wrote in 2009, "The Other Wes Moore," that garnered him the most attention and gives his story an authentic feel. It's about the story of 2 men both named Wes Moore, who were on similar paths in lives before their paths diverged, and the dichotomy of their stories is as rich as something from a Robert Frost poem, like "The Road Not Taken." Wes Moore the future governor was sent to Military Academy and developed the discipline needed to succeed in the next chapters for his life, while the other Wes Moore floundered in Baltimore's crime environment, leading to a life of drugs and absentee fatherhood and eventually a life sentence in prison. 

Be forewarned, it's a heartbreaking book, but also a heartwarming book. I cried or was on the verge of crying several times in the book, not just because of the various setbacks that the other Wes Moore suffered through to fall on hard times, but also because the reader is able to feel those first successes that Governor Wes Moore felt, probably the most jubilant of times in our lives where we discover ourselves and experience the first successes of our lives and become more confident; for most of us I'd say it's a time we'd all love to relive or recreate somehow. Similarly, I think we all can imagine circumstances where if a few decisions for us or a few lucky breaks turned out to be unlucky breaks, we would be in the dire straits that the other Wes Moore found himself in, maybe not necessarily a life sentence in prison but maybe something equally hopeless, a dead-end job that one hates with no hope of advancement, or a hopeless addiction to alcohol or some other form of drugs/vice, a downward spiral of depression that one is stuck in and someone has thrown away the key. In many cases, those breaks start before birth, where or parents are selected for us randomly by luck of the draw; who's to say we wound up with the other Wes Moore's family situation where he never knew his father and his mother worked all the time and couldn't give him the attention he needed and had to move into the projects (called "Murphy homes" in Baltimore). Even the most self-aggrandizing people in the world have to acknowledge that they didn't choose their births, that many were just born privileged over others, including myself. It is really an unfair hand people like the other Wes Moore were dealt. Governor Wes Moore's situation was slightly better where his parents and grandparents had experienced economic movement upward and understood the valuation of education (and military education, which really seemed to scare him straight) and that enabled him to get just the bit of an edge he needed to make the right choices. It's really tough to say how much is within one's control versus just dictated by one's environment, as if written in the fabric of fate. Governor Moore does a tremendous job not to excuse any of the crimes and to hold people responsible for the crimes and choices they commit, but also to balance that with possibility that it's a perpetuating cycle of poverty and crime. 

In my own life, I'm worried about a larger than expected tax bill from my earnings in 2022, if and when MJ and I are going to start a family, and where we should go for summer vacation this year. And I just got done with a week meeting up with friends in LA discussing legal matters, career aspirations, college basketball, and what each other's kids are up to, all legitimate topics but all topics that we're privileged to be discussing instead of how many drugs I have to sell or how many months we have to spend in jail for the latest alleged crimes. I feel those are so trivial compared to some of the monumental decisions the Wes Moores of the world have to make all the time, that either make or break their entire lives, send them on the right path to success or tip the domino that leads to a chain reaction leading to their downfall. It was just the right time to read the story of The Other Wes Moore.