Wes Moore on The Other Wes Moore
The Baltimore Sun took a closer look today at Wes Moore's new book about (as he puts it) "the crucial inflection points in every life, sudden moments of decision where our paths diverge and our fates are sealed." In "The Other Wes Moore," he wonders about the factors that allowed him to leap to success from an upbringing in the rough South Bronx, while another Wes Moore grew up in rough West Baltimore and wound up imprisoned for a slaying. On Read Street this week, we noted a Sun Q&A with Moore as well as a chance to win the book.
Here's an excerpt from Michael Sragow's article on Moore, which will appear in Sunday's paper. We pick up the tale in the author's childhood, as he struggled at a private school:
His mother assessed the situation and sent him to Valley Forge Military Academy. "Writing this book, I had to think about where I was mentally, emotionally and physically, and what would have happened if my mother had not made such an aggressive and creative intervention." Her parents mortgaged their house to pay for Valley Forge. But his mother's crucial act was asking a cadet captain to look after him.
"People took time to show me things; otherwise, my life could have gone in a different direction," he says. The other Wes "never had what I had in terms of support."
When the writer asked the prisoner, "Do you think we're all just products of our environment?" he answered, "Maybe products of our expectations," or "others' expectations that you take on as your own." The writer notes in his book, "I realized then how difficult it is to separate the two. The expectations that others place on us help us form our expectations of ourselves."
Baltimore Sun photo by Algerina Perna
Comments
I have recently written a summary of a session we had here at the jail (where I work) with hard core addicts and with workshop presentors- David Miller and La Marr Shileds of the Urban leadership Institute- in my opinion- the experts in town on the issues of black male crime and black youth crime. I'd be glad to share it with any one who wants it- it was quite revealing.
I heard Wes Moore on Dan Rodricks program on Wypr today- 8/26- and I have to say it was shallow. Good as far as it went- but, in the end...?
The solutions proposed? having a support system like the one that the "good" Wes Moore had- which has ended him in Afghanistan and now working for Citigroup.
Yes- the other Wes Moore lacked that family support system- as they said- a child wants a parent that cares. But what creates the system of poverty that makes that impossible for inner city kids. Neither Wes nor Dan explored deeply enough to get into it.
By the way- yr capchas can be a real problem.
Posted by: david eberhardt | August 26, 2010 2:32 PM