The other Wes Moore

Have you ever met up with a longtime friend or aquatience and asked how things are going? Weather they came from different backgrounds or they are totally different from you; somehow you expect a totally different answer than your own, wouldn’t you? What if you met a friend who grew up with such similarities that he/she could have been you're adoptive brother or sister. What if you ended up being successful but your friend a criminal? If that person grew up in the same street with the similar struggle and temptation as your own; would you be surprise if they ended up a totally different outcome than you? What if they did? The question is how did they go down diverging paths? Was it coincidence? Reflecting on Wes Moore's New York Times Bestseller, The other Wes Moore one name, two fates, addresses this problem. Was it coincidence?

         Both Wes Moore are from Baltimore Maryland, Both Wes Moore’s had lost their father from their lives, the difference is that the Author's father was there and wanted to be there, while the other Wes Moore's father was not. Both Wes's grew up with single parents, most of the time; Both Wes Moore’s grew up as trouble makers who did not adjust well in school. Both Moore's was raised in rough neighbor hoods where temptations and danger were always lurking. Both had friends and family that care for the Wes’s one way or another. Both Wes’s mother attempted to have a better life for themselves and most importantly for their kids. Both Wes's had chances to succeed in life.

          The other Wes Moore’s turning point was the attempted stabbing of the little kid who punched his lip; the specific turning point is when Wes Moore’s brother , Tony, told him to send a message. This specific message gave Wes Moore a sinister foundation that he lived by. When Ray, the boyfriend of his sex mate/ girlfriend, came to him and punched him around, Wes Moore grabbed his gun and chased him down becuase he wanted to send a message. Another point has  to be the time he found his mother's stash of weed and when he became a look out for a drug dealer. This set up Wes to get into the "game"; He was finally like Tony. He did try to change and decided that being in the "game "was not worth it at one point. He went to job corps, thanks to recommendation of his friend Levy, to try to straighten up his life but realized that the reprocuttions of his criminal ways still burdened him financially; the earnings from his job corps skills were useless to support him and the child support he had to pay from his previous relationships.
           
           Wes Moore's, the author's, turning point was his mother's love and perseverance. Joy's love sent an unwilling Wes Moore to military school. Wes was surrounded by discipline, though in the beginning this caused his runaways, He generally idolized the officers’ demeanor and wanted to obtain it. Since Wes Moore did terribly in private school and was skipping, his mother’s choice was inevitable. Joy had to sum up money from family and friends to be able to send Wes to Valley Forge. Wes Moore decided to stick it out at the military school; specifically it was his mother’s risk to burden her. Another point would have to be when he was handcuffed with his "friend" Shea and thrown in a cop car. Wes indicated that he "was also sincerely fearful about what was going to happen next. and that self righteous look on shea's face was starting to piss me off...something about this situation soured me on romantic rebellion...and I swore I would never get cuaght in a situation like that again."(pg.83-84).

         Both Wes Moore’s parents were alike and different. The other Wes Moore had a lousy father who abandoned him. While Wes Moore's father past away right in front of him of natural causes. During the two's Wes’s conversation the author asked the other Wes " You don’t think about how things would be different if he'd (the other Wes’s father) been there? If he cared enough to be there?" The other Wes replied” No, I don't"...”Youre father wasnt there becuase he couldnt be, my father wasnt there becuase he chose not to be."  The other Wes asked “what impact did your father not being there have on your childhood" The author replied” I don’t know" The other Wes asked “Do you miss him?" and the author replied " " every day. All the time"...It always amazed me how I could love so deeply, so intensely, someone I barely knew." (pg. 1-2)

            While their mothers were very similar, both cared for their sons. One finished college and the other had to drop out. Both had abusive relationships, both moms dealt with the same personalities. One mother sent a son to military school willing to burden the financial weight. While the other mom just ignored the problem until it was too late. Yet the other Wes was heavily influenced by the game, the money, and authority over the streets; he was heavily influenced by his brother who was all of these things. The criminal’s brother was ruthless in the streets but loved and showed compassion to his brother. He told the criminal countless times to don’t be like him. ; But with the obvious hypocrisy from his presented to be a poor example for his brother.  While the author was influenced with the authority of honor from the officers'; who he frequently described to have a hovering aura of demanding respect. Because of the military personnel he cemented the idea that being a gangster was stupid as recalled his past truama with Shea, that he rather have this kind of respect than that of peoples fear on gangsters.

               This book taught me that human behavior depends on the environment and people you are raised with.  Both Wes Moore wanted respect and power. While one took the path to gain power with respect and honor, while the other decided to achieve it with fear and crime.  When people are young and find an idol to look up to, that idol will mold who that man or woman will be. An example of this would both the Moore’s mother, who constantly tried to move their sons to a new location and schoo. They knew that a bad enviroment would effect thier sons values and morals. That they had to sacrifice to get any benifits; it was the author's mother who sacrificed more  because Wes Moore’s mother worked harder to send Wes to military school ; with the financial support of his family, mostly his grandparents, and officers. 

              Another would be Wes moors family, Wes Moore had two successful parents, his father was a well-known reporter and his mother a ____. His grandparents were minsters of a church; Wes Moore had a friend who went through the struggle with him and kept contact through mail, he had officers to discipline him. In the case of the other Wes Moore, He had a hard working mother, a father who abandoned him and didn’t even recognize him; the other Wes Moore had a brother who he respected only because he was wealthy a feared rather than “respected”.  Wes’s brother was a drug dealer, who taught him to send a message, though he tried to prevent Wes Moore to become like him, he gave up after he turned up to be a reflection of himself. For a human to succeed in this competitively dark and unforgiving world, you need support.
                 
               I believe the other Wes Moore was an eye opener of a novel.  I like that it shows how two people who grow up with so much similarities could result in different outcomes ,which in reality it’s sad but its show the reality of how life can result. I also love the messages the people other than the main characters gave; for example Colonel Murphy, the commandant of cadets who was leaving to undergo treatment for his advanced stage cancer, " When it is time for to leave this school, leave your job, or even leave this earth, you make sure you have worked hard to make sure it mattered you were ever here." (pg. 133).
                
              The whole book is a motivator and inspires you to overcome the odds and grasp the chances you are given. I also love the fact that this book uses two lives as an example; Even though the other Wes in prison for life, this book uses his struggle as a deterrent and eye opener for the youth. The only dislike I would have is the fact that the Author never found the answer of why he ended up in a better position than the other Wes. I feel like the answer is all over the book.

what team are you on W.2

       Have you ever really noticed the little messages that your favorite news channels or newspaper gives off  in thier reports. You wouldnt think there would be a hidden message behind the stream of information. When my ears and eyes were truly open I could comprehend it. Main stream media has a strong sense of conservative views; its like the media are the last defensive line to protect the goverment.

                           though i agree with the video, the guy was kind of aggressive

         though being "defensive" of the goverment is not a bad thing becuase youre speaking for the conservatives. When the news reporter are in live portest, they allow both parties to make thier pioint. Maybe the media is biased towards connservatives becuase majority of the people are liberals.     

 Majority of the news channels, websites, newpaper have conservative views (1) . the news media chooses how many of the liberals opinions are exposed and how many of the conservatives are exposed.  I believe that the news media shouldnt voice thier preffered views, just pure and equal facts.  maybe there is a reason 29% trust the media (2)

Facts

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relative resource manager pp

The american culture 

We are better than this!

The death penalty has been declining in most countries, the states in the country is winding down on the penalty . It should be taken away becuase there is too much emotion involved, too expensive, and it's not a very effective deterinet for criminals. "The death penalty is largely rooted in the Bible" according to theweek.com. Yet isiah 33.22 says"For the Lord is our judge; the Lord is our lawgiver; the Lord is our king; he will save us." then "though shall not kill" should be enforced. We are human, there is no pure justice whithout the sweet taste of revenge.we humans are not pure enough to execute a person without hard and solid evidence.

An eye for an eye a tooth for a tooth is the policy that the death penalty operates under, a life is worth a life.  how could  a man who murdered a series of people not deserve death? If the victim was one of your loved ones would you seek the death penalty? according to fox news , 2/3 of americans support the death penalty. 2/3 of the people believe in life for a life; but how do we know if they are 100 percent guilty. Priti Patel beleives that the death penalty would be a deterent for criminals becuase it would make them think twice. Majority of the time innocent people are put to death. Rapist, murder's, and pedophiles, if found guilty, are to be put on trail for capital punishment;everyone on trail especially the victims familly will have biased hatred towards the defendant becuase there are emotionallyinvolved. When a child or woman are involved in tradegys it presses an emotional button; we automatically think the perpetrators deserve the worst punishment, as seen in the video above(@1:38). Even though billions is spent on defendants sarah van white indicated that " when you lose a loved one so quickly and tragecally whithout any warning there is no factor in the cost". If the defendat is truly guilty i believe that he or she has suceeded in taking lives and money. Justice should prevail but in incarceration instead of death.

The death penalty is too expensive, the according to"theweek.com" the lethal injection is 86 dollars but the cost to appeal and the continous battle of trails to sentence death cost more than jail time. According to foxnews "4 billion dollars has been spent on thier (700 inmates in California) cases, resulting in 13 executions over 35 years". Again, adressing priti patel, People believe the death penalty would deter crime; This is false,  according to recent surveys from the death penalty information center, " the south had the highester murder rate. The south accounts for over 80% of executions".Criminals apparently did not find death a deterient becuase there are still crimes being committed and criminals put to death where the death penalty is permitted. I agree with Gil Garcetti, former district attorney, that we should spend all this money we are spending on capital punishment on our schools and communities.

SAVE THE ECONOMY!

Yes! We've all seen the movie "The day after Tommorow"[(http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w_1VnGp8Lls&feature=related)(http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iUAtoGaqnIo)]. Most Americans fear that one day we will suffer the reprocutions of our arrogance. There is strong evidence that scientist are right about global warming or climate change . There are other sources of energy we can thrive on to reduce the carbon polution but it is extremely expensive to convert or retrieve alternative power. So the question is should we concentrate on our economy or the enviorment. I'll tell you brothers and sisters that we should concentrate on our economy first.

There are so many hazards in retrieving alternative energy like natural gas. There is also the possibility that scientist's evidence could be irevilent. That the climate change is mother nature's s  natural cycle of changes and that everything will be eventually be okay . Another debate is that Fossil fuel will run out anyways and we n.The cost to repleace every fossil fuel related product to green products is high . The cost could futher damage our unstable economy. We need to strengthen our economy in order to invest. We can't invest in the enviroment because we need more technological advancements. To retrieve natural gas from the depths of the earth crust a process called fracking is involved. Fracking is a process where the gas company drills into the ground and chemicals are poured in to break up the soil. This process is a hazard because it contaminates the soil and water. The gas escaping the ground is explosive and the water flamable.

 Another reason is the output of other natural resources like solar, water, and wind are extremely low compared to the output of fossil fuels. We should concentrate on the economy because it is to early for us to invest on something that needs more work. America's economy is too unstable and slowly recovering; we should not gamble with what we have. Since flacking is a hazard and the gas company is expirmenting with the expense of our lives, I feel we shouldn't invest. Since the ouput of green energy is little compared to fossil fuel we would need to cover more land with wind mills, solar panels, etc. To convert from fossil fuel to green energy is extremely expensive. We should wait until there is more technological advances and when gas companies has safer and more efficient way to gather energy.

Second Chance or Taken out

President Obama has been in office for 4 years already and now has to show America that he is still the right man for the job. The question is if he deserves a second chance? I dont know, alot of politicians talk a big game and come up short. Acorrding to Pual Brandus post in ( the week) one of the presidents top successes is bringing the troops home. Bringing the troops home was one of his biggist goals in his first campaign.

A little about Myself

Guatemala City, Guatemala

Boston, Massachusetts

My name is Richard Paz and it is a pleasure having you here reading my blog. Before I get into my personal Outlooks and insights on current events i would like to tell you a little about myself. First off I was born and raised in Boston Massachusetts. Ethnically I'm from Guatemala city,Guatemala; both are beautiful but i prefer Boston.

My Goals are to get a bachelors and Masters degree in Mechancial Engineering. After earning the degrees i would like to run my own Engineering firm or business. Somewhere along the line I would like to open a engineering/architect firm with my fiance. I dont know what I want to do with Mechanical Engineering specifically but one of my goals is to find out. Last but not least i would like a career that I would love to wake up in the morning doing. Also a career that will allow me to make alot of money.

Lyto Machida Knocking out Rashad Evans

Cung Le Throwing a beautiful kick

 I'm not really interested in any sports except for one that overpowers all others; Mixed Martial Arts (MMA). To me MMA is way more entertaining becuase its has so many elements. It made me appreciate many styles that fighters know. Besides its the only sport that i actually Participate in.