A Brother's Murder

    Brent Staples writes his story, “A Brother’s Murder” for the love he has for his brother, Blake, and how one phone call would change his life forever. His brother Blake died as he lived. He lived the past everyday. Would Blake ever think that his one time a close friend, almost his conjoined twin, and would be his killer. Staples tell us of a crime, so horrendous for him to have witnessed. Blake must have felt if he could have just pulled his brother out of the life he was living, that he would be alive today.

Blake never did take the advice staples tried to give his brother. Eventually, the advice that he never took, he was shot to death by his friend.

    I personally feel that Staples did not do all he could for his brother. Blake had become a product of his own environment. The lifestyle he led was like his own personal addiction. The majority of the young kids that are being raised in the projects, ghettos, and poverty, it is going to be a life of despair for them. Even though Staples tried in many ways to tell his brother to get off the streets, but I think he could have done more for him. As the older brother of Brent, Staples could have shown him a better way of life. He had seen first hand the turmoil, murders, drugs and shootings. With all he grew up around, Staples could have seen the life his brother will have, if he did not intervene.

     Staples left the east coast and went on to college. In Chicago, he became a teacher for a short time, and then became a journalist. He found himself living a comfortable life. He rarely visited back home to see Brent. He had shut that whole world off in his head. He did not want to remember one day living in the projects. He had fled his past.

    Christmas of 1983, he did travel to visit his young troubled brother Brent. When he arrived in Virginia, he realized that his brother never did grow out of his past. He had even fallen more back in the housing project life. This story is not an isolated problem in the projects. Hundred’s of young kids, with or without a family unit, were killed. With money issues, selling drugs was the easiest way to make money. That life is cut short, time and time again.

     In 2011, across this country, in the best neiborhood's we see drugs, drive by shootings and murder. I hope that we can get to the kids before it is too late for them. We have many programs to help these kids today. Many more mentors such as teachers, sports figures and clubs to help them.  Who knows if Blake's life could have been saved. He lived his life as predicted. Staples was one of the lucky one’s. He had seen what the future was going to be, and if he did not make a change, he would end up like his just like his brother.