Amazing Grace Essay -- essays research papers

Jonathan Kozols Amazing Grace is a book skilful about the trialsand tribulations of everyday life for a free radical of children who live in the poorest congressionaldistrict of the fetch in concert States, the to the south Bronx. Their livesmay seem extraordinary to us, but to them, they are just asnormal as everyone else. What is normal? For the childrenof the South Bronx, living with the pollution, the sickness, thedrugs, and the violence is the only way of life many of themhave ever known.In this book, the children speak openly and honestly aboutfeeling abandoned, hidden or forgotten by our nation, onethat is blind to their problems. Studying the peoplethemselves would only get us so far in understanding whattheir society is re bothy like and why they feel this way.Jonathan Kozol really got to know the people individually. We can take his knowledge and stories to try for a betterunderstanding of the milieu in which they live. Bydoing this, we can explore the many reasons why the peoplehave problems, what some levels of intervention could be,and possibly find somesolutions to making the South Bronx a healthier and saferplace for these children and others to live.Problem IdentificationThe environment in which we study these people can onlybe defined by starting line taking a look at possible reasons why thepeople have problems. Some of the problems discussed inAmazing Grace have festered throughout the United Statesfor some time now. The high numbers of drug users in thecommunity, the high amounts of gang-related violence, andthe numerous cases of people who have contracted theAIDS virus are just some of the problems that have arisen inthis ghetto. There are many differences between thiscommunity and others in the United States, one of which isthat the government has grouped these people all togetherand made a ghetto of the lowest income families. This hasostracized them from the rest of the nation. It has giventhem many abandonment issues to deal w ith, while alsotelling them they are not decent of living among the wealthierpopulation.Environmental factors are involved in the problems arising inthe South Bronx. Pollution, forexample, could be the biggest source of the high number ofchildren in the community who have asthma. asthma attack is a condition in which one has trouble breathing. Without clean ... ...s forthe people inthese neighborhoods have gotten to be that of violence anddrugs. These are not healthy norms. To castrate them, the communities could use more education onsocial issues in the schools and communities tohelp the people learn to live healthier lifestyles, to get theword out that violence and disruptance arenot all right, and to help the people obtain some communityunity. Getting some of the well knowncommunity members involved in politics is another way theycould get their voices heard and let thegovernment know their needs and desires. Support groupsheld for people with AIDS, for people who have lost lov eones, and also for people who just need a place to talkabouttheir emotions and get their frustrations out, would help thecommunity as a whole and get more peopleinvolved in the healing process of that community. If thepeople in the South Bronx would act as acommunity bound together to help themselves and eachother, there would be less tolerance for deviantbehavior among its members. Then the ones who actdefiantly could be out-numbered, and the goodcitizens of the South Bronx could see the light their homes andtheir lives.