Kozol "Amazing Grace"

     This article really touched me. I can't think of anything that we have read or seen so far this semester, with the exception of the video "Tammy", that could remind me of just how fortunate I really am, and how sheltered my life has been. This article is a great example of the ways in which class and privilege determine how miserable or happy our lives can be. The title of the article, "Amazing Grace", is ironic because there is little that can be found in the article to make the reader feel that God is going to intervene on behalf of the residents of the St. Ann's neighborhood. There aren't going to be any miracles or divine interventions on behalf of the miserable wretches of the St. Ann's neighborhood.
     In this article, Kozol describes the conditions that the people of the St. Ann's neighborhood, located in the South Bronx, endure. they are ravaged by the effects of drug addiction, prostitution, AIDS, violence, and  poverty. Anything and everything bad that can happen happens in this neighborhood. Education and improving one's status in life do not seem to be priorities in this neighborhood. Young boys, such as Cliffie, a young boy who showed Kozol around the neighborhood, see Michael Jackson and Oprah as heroes, rather than people in history books. Murder is an everyday occurrence. 15 year old girls are raped by their stepfathers, and then die of AIDS. Drug addiction and prostitution are prevalent, so much so that neighborhood organizations hand out clean needles and condoms in futile attempts to lower rates of disease. Even people who are not wallowing in the "filth" of society are not safe, as we see with Kozol's example of Alice Washington. Alice Washington's husband infected her with AIDS. As a result, she became too sick to work and had to go to a homeless shelter. She could not get disability because she was not sick enough, although she had AIDS and had had cancer. Her attitude was that of "hey, what can I do?" Unsurprisingly, most of the other residents of the neighborhood seem to have given up too.
     I would say that Kozol's main argument is that the poor cannot do anything about their circumstances, not because they are too lazy but because their circumstances are simply too much for them to handle. Certainly someone like Alice Washington could not be to blame for her circumstances. There is no better example of the failure of society to help people in need than of the St. Ann's neighborhood. Neighborhoods like St. Ann's will continue to exist as long as society does its best to ignore the so-called stains of society rather than taking the steps to change it into a productive part of society.