Amazing Grace
by Jonathan Kozol
Quotes
September 18, 2016

The level of poverty in this article describing an area in the South Bronx was heartbreaking. Children and adults, old and young, living in very poor conditions and many of them die from diseases or murder. They never have a chance at a normal life.
Quote #1: "More than 95 percent are poor," the pastor says- "the poorest of the poor, poor by any standard I can think of." The pastor of St Ann's Church speaks of the population of the area. It is an extremely poor area, the poorest in the South Bronx. The children of the neighborhood come to this church for food and to play while their parents go to pray. Kozol goes on to explain this Mott Haven area in the South Bronx is loaded with heavy drug use, a very high number of HIV infected people- children and adults, prostitutes, and violence. It is a very sad place to live and grow in America. Children live in fear with a great amount of anxiety and depression. The air they breathe is not clean and many use breathing machines next to their bed for oxygen. There is trash everywhere and even a garbage dump three blocks over.  Their homes are freezing in the winter and sweltering in the summer with rats and roaches crawling all over them. What a horrific way to live your life, these poor children deserve so much better.
Quote #2: "In speaking of rates of homicide in New York City neighborhoods, the Times refers to the streets around St Ann's as "the deadliest blocks" in "the deadliest precinct" of the city. If there is a deadlier place in the United States, I don't know where it is." Kozol explains that there were 84 people murdered in 1991 alone. It is not safe to be on the streets or go to the park. Many of that number were children. I wonder how they can be brave enough to go outside and play in the streets after witnessing terrible things. They know each other well and how do they not have nightmares after learning of a neighbor or relatives murder?
Quote #3: "A person who works in a real job at a place like Chemical Bank, she tells me, is a rare exception in the neighborhood. "Almost no one here has jobs like that. Some are too sick. They live on SSI" - a federal program for sick and disabled people. Maybe five or six in 25, she says, have some legitimate employment." Kozol speaks of the ones that do not work, some may be too sick to work or could be selling drugs or prostitution. Even the hospitals are crowded, understaffed, and dirty. Patients have died in the hospitals because of staff mistakes. One of the hospitals, Harlem Hospital is referred to as a "cesspool" by the minister of Harlem's leading church.
     


This video shows images from the Mott Haven area.
Mott Haven, South Bronx video

Points of discussion: This article was written in 95', I wonder if the area has improved or is it still as horrific as described in the article? What could be done to help these people that are no more than 3 hours away from us? I felt like I was reading poverty in a third world country and not in our "free" country of America. How can the children survive and escape the diseased and violent world they live in?