Wes Moore shares inspiring personal story for Everybody Reads event

March 08, 2011

By Jeff Baker, The Oregonian The Oregonian

Wes Moore answered a lot of questions at the conclusion of the Everybody Reads 2011 event Monday night, but one big question remains:

Is this guy a future president of the United States?

People have been wondering for a couple of years, since before his book "The Other Wes Moore" was published. Moore has the right résumé: honors graduate of Valley Forge Military Academy and Johns Hopkins University, Rhodes scholar, Army captain with service in Afghanistan, White House Fellow, leader in education reform efforts. He is 32 years old, and as students at Roosevelt High School and a near-capacity crowd at the Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall saw on Monday, he is a confident, inspiring speaker with a compelling personal story.

That story is told in "The Other Wes Moore" and was retold with emotion and humor by the author Monday. Moore spoke movingly about his father's death and deftly mixed in self-deprecating stories about his early struggles at military school as the basis for his themes. He succeeded because many other people believed in him, sacrificed for him and had high expectations for him. The other Wes Moore, a man with the same name and a similar background who was sentenced to life in prison for his role in a robbery and murder, did not make it and Moore believes their lives could have been very different.

Why was Wes' fate sealed long before (the day of his crime)?" Moore asked, then attempted to answer his own question.

Policies matter, he said, "especially for the least among us." Education matters and "is at the core of everything." A turning point in the other Wes Moore's life was when his mother's Pell Grant was cut, forcing her to drop out of college.

"The Other Wes Moore" has become a popular choice for assigned reading at colleges and for community-wide reading programs such as Everybody Reads. It has given Moore a platform to travel the country and talk about himself and about what he believes in. He is a strong supporter of City Year, an AmeriCorps organization that puts young people into community service for a year, and the U.S. Dream Academy, an after-school program for the children of incarcerated parents. Read more>>