‘Make Sure That It Mattered’

Dying of cancer, Colonel Billy G. Murphy stepped forward to give what would be his farewell address to the student body at Valley Forge Military College in 1996.

 

To this day, then-cadet Wes Moore hasn’t forgotten Murphy’s words.

           

“He explained that when it’s time for you to leave here, whether it’s time to leave this school, this job, this neighborhood — or when it’s time to leave this planet — make sure that it mattered that you were ever even here,” Moore recalled.

             

In a visit to Brunswick’s Upper School, Moore — Rhodes Scholar, paratrooper and Captain in the U.S. Army, White House Fellow to Secretary of State Condeleeza Rice, and author of New York Times and Wall Street Journal bestseller The Other Wes Moore — asked all in his audience to do the same.

 

“So much of the focus about your level of success is determined by a transcript or a GPA,” Moore said. “The argument I hope to make is that, while all that is important, never forget the real point of why you’re here.

           

“The point is not simply a diploma,” he said. “The point is having a greater and lasting understanding of who it is you’re supposed to fight for — who this degree is going to matter to.”

 

It took a decade-long process, beginning in December 2000, for Moore to understand fully what is now a focal point of his life’s philosophy.

 

As Moore prepared to head off to Oxford for his Rhodes scholarship, another young man of the same name — also from the same neighborhood in Baltimore — was being sought for the murder of an off-duty police officer. He was eventually caught, tried, and convicted.

 

Moore couldn’t stop thinking about this strange coincidence, and decided to write his jailed namesake a letter.

 

A month later, he got a response.

 

“It’d be one thing if it was written in crayon or magic marker,” Moore said. “I guess I would have said ‘I get it’ and that probably would’ve been it. The problem is I never received that kind of letter.

 

“Instead, I received one of the most interesting and articulate letters I’ve ever received in my life,” he said. “That turned into dozens of letters and visits. I’ve now known Wes for more than 10 years.”

 

The Other Wes Moore was born out of that relationship, and this Wes Moore — veteran, social activist, writer, and entrepreneur — visited Maher Avenue on Sept. 29 to discuss the story all ’Wick 8th–12th graders read this summer.

 

Moore explained that his book might have been the easiest-ever open-book test:  Two guys with the same name. One guy goes one way and the other goes another.

 

According to the author, it’s not that simple.

 

“We wanted the reader to understand that it shouldn’t be that easy to decipher and determine which kid is which. At many junctions and at many points in the story, the chilling truth is that his story could have been mine, and the tragedy is that my story could have been his,” Moore said.

 

“Wes Moores exist in every one of our schools and communities — people literally one decision away from going one direction or another, people who every day straddle this line of greatness,” he observed. “The problem is they don’t even know it.”

 

Moore urged all to pay attention, to avoid apathy, and, to a greater extent, to become involved in a process that’s largely about others.

 

“How you take this education and compound on it matters,” he said. “The beautiful thing about this school is that these are not just academic exercises.”

 

“You’re here because they know what you’ll continue to do — not just while you’re here, but long after you’re gone.”