Amazing Grace

        The reading Amazing Grace by Jonothan Kozol, was very eye-opening to me, I never usually think about how others go about their daily lives. I don’t think of the struggles other people are faced with or horrors that they may see in their neighborhoods. The area of Mott Haven, where St. Ann’s elementary school and church are located, is a very dangerous area in New York. This website gives the crime rates in Mott Haven today, which are still very high; murder, robbery and assault risks are above average in this area. http://www.point2homes.com/US/Neighborhood/NY/Bronx/Mott-Haven-Demographics.html.

        There were three quotes in particular that stuck out to me. The first one was on page three of the text, it stated “at the elementary school that serves the neighborhood across the avenue, only seven of 800 children do not qualify for free school lunches. Five of those seven, says the principal, get reduce-price lunches, because they are classified as only ‘poor’ not ‘destitute’”. I went to a Catholic Elementary school, and I do not think that anyone qualified for free or reduced school lunches, so the fact that only two out of 800 children have to fully pay for their lunch is extremely surprising. The next quote that I found unsettling was that “nearly 4,000 heroin injectors, many of whom are HIV-infected live here. Virtually every child at St. Ann’s knows someone, a relative or a neighbor, who had died of AIDS.” It is awful for not only a child, but for anyone to be surrounded by so much drug usage, and to see many people in their community contract and die from AIDS due to unclean needles and injectors. The children in this neighborhood have to deal with a vast amount of death, which is something that no child should have to experience at such a young age. A mother states to Kozol “the truth is, you get used to the offense. There’s trashy things all over. Then there’s all the trucks that come though stinking up the air, heading for the Hunts Point Market. Drivers get their drugs and their prostitutes”. Many of the parents and community members of the St. Ann’s region are used to the horrifying things that occur in their neighborhood. I’m sure they wish for better lives for their families as well as themselves, but at the moment they have to make the best of the situation they are faced with. It amazes me that these children have to live in such an area where they are not always safe with running water, and food on the table; the little boy that shows Kozol around the city seems so friendly, knowing mostly everyone that he comes into contact with. The horrifying things that the children in this area have to experience and see, don't seem to lessen their spirits.