Blog 2
Reflection
The article, “Amazing Grace”, by
Kozol, is all about the inequities that are present in the Empire State of New
York. The experiences of these people whom make up one of the poorest
populations in our country and the way Kozol retells them brought me to tears.
The empirical evidence he brings forward regarding the grotesquely unfair conditions
people live in within such close proximity to some of the wealthiest in our
nation (The Trump Towers for example) is the most shocking part. The train from
Manhattan to the Bronx is only a nine-stop train, yet the differences between
these two cities is remarkable. Without going into too much detail on how terribly
the people of the Bronx are treated, the most powerful fact I surmised was how detrimental
the conditions are for children in that city. The fact that the median
household income at the time was only $7,600 while thirty-five percent of the
population was children leads me to believe that nearly all of those children
were living with parents that can barely afford to raise them (not due to
faults of their own). Because of this, only seven out of 800 students at elementary schools in the Bronx do not qualify for free
lunches, which is just absurd to think about. Depression and anxiety hang in
the minds of children rather than the homework they must do at the end of the
day, and with this comes the inability to sleep most nights.
The
question on my mind is whether the children living in conditions like this
believe they deserve this, and whether or not they even think politicians and
powerful people are fighting for them. Living in these conditions, children are
forced to lose their innocence and grow up faster than any normal child in
order to survive in this hard world. Something needs to be done in order for
children to not have to grow up in conditions like these and keep their
childhood intact. With the question of whether or not politicians are looking
out for the well-being of children, I believe the answer is no.
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