The Other Wes Moore by the author, Wes Moore, describes two men with the same name, both black, from the same city of Baltimore, with very different backgrounds and histories. One, the author Wes Moore, is a Rhodes Scholar, decorated army veteran, business leader and is currently a candidate in the 2022 race for Governor in Maryland. The other Wes Moore, is serving a life sentence in prison for armed robbery and murder. From the author’s narrative of how these two grew up, you notice the stark difference right off.
The author, was born in 1978, to two loving parents. His father, a news journalist, died when he was four years old. His mother also had a college degree and came from an educated family. They moved to the Bronx to live with his mother’s parents after his father’s death – the South Bronx.
The other Wes, born in 1975, did not have both parents. Wes’ father didn’t support him or keep in contact with him. His mother had her first child, Wes’ older brother, as a teenager and didn’t have much support because her mother died while she was pregnant. She also had to drop out of college for financial reasons. His older brother, Tony, began dealing drugs and was in the streets since he was a young boy.
Both Wes Moore’s, however did have encounters with the police growing up. The author, first at age 11, arrested for spray painting property, was sent to military school by his mom, who was at her wits end with him continually running in the Bronx streets and cutting his private school.
The other Wes, like his older brother, also started dealing drugs and got his girlfriend pregnant at 16 and was arrested for shooting someone. He was charged with attempted murder as a juvenile. By the time he returned to school, so far behind, he dropped out of high school, after the birth of his child. To support himself and his family, Wes became a captain in the drug trade, with his own crew, and arrests became routine. By the time he was 21, he would have 4 children.
The author on the other hand, settled in at military school, becoming a leader and got a scholarship after his first year. He ended up attending college, interning for the Baltimore City mayor, becoming a Rhodes Scholar, a successful business man and travelling the world.
At one point, the other Wes did try to turn his life around. He joined a Job Corps program, got his GED and with his academic training complete, chose carpentry for his vocational training. After completing the program, Wes got work, a string of temporary jobs that paid a low hourly wage. With financial pressures of supporting four children and his mom, Wes returned to drug dealing. Sometime later, he was arrested with his brother for a jewelry store robbery, where an off-duty police officer was shot and killed. Wes insisted he was not there that day. Both brothers were convicted and sentenced to life without parole. Wes was 23 years old.
What made a difference in the lives of these two men? This is one question the author tried to answer researching for this book, The Other Wes Moore. How much is genetics, your environment or circumstantial bad luck a factor in how one’s life turns out? There is no absolute answer to this question, although I do agree with one observation the author made – The importance of having a mentor, especially one you can relate to, gives you a vision of possibilities of what your future can be. The author had this most of his life. This was lacking in the other Wes’ life. Reading this book made me think of another title I read a few years ago about a young man who had a chance at a great future, but his surroundings, like quick sand, kept pulling him back.
The book, The Short Tragic Life of Robert Peace by Jeff Hobbs, describes the life of a brilliant boy from Newark, New Jersey. This account of his life is written by his college roommate, Jeff Hobbs.
Robert Peace grew up poor in Newark with his mother just trying to make ends meet, to give her son a better life. Robert’s father was arrested when he was a young boy for murder. He would try to help with his father’s defense throughout his life and was always tied to the Newark streets, because he looked up to his father.
The thing about Robert was that he was a brilliant student. Enrolled in Catholic school, he got the attention of one of the wealthy benefactors of the school, who offered him a full scholarship to attend Yale, where he studied molecular biochemistry and biophysics. However, he also had another life on the streets as a dealer. He graduated college with ease, and was supposed to go on to graduate school, but Newark was home – he never really left and continued dealing while he was in college and after. As the title reads, Robert Peace was shot to death in his home by a rival drug dealer, who thought he was being crossed in 2011. Robert Peace was 30 years old. This one was such a heartbreaking read.
The author describes in detail the surroundings of Newark that Robert grew up, the poverty, the street life, the prison system and the social politics over the years that kept that section of Newark underdeveloped. All this helped shape who Robert Peace was, but he was intellectually gifted and felt comfortable in a classroom, as a student and later as a teacher.
Both of these titles, The Other Wes Moore by Wes Moore and The Short Tragic Life of Robert Peace by Jeff Hobbs, describes the lives of three men who grew up in poverty and had potential. One did well and became extremely successful. The other two – their lives ended tragically. I hope you give both of these titles a read.