Jonathan Kozol creates a hauntingly vivid portrait of the

South Bronx neighborhood of Mott Haven in his 1995 bestseller

Amazing Grace, The Trials and Tribulations of Everyday Life. The

shocking truth of Americans living in abject, third-world

conditions in the same time zone as myself was incomprehensible.

Kozol's descriptions of crippling poverty, lethal pollution, and

almost non-existent health care, bring to mind places half a

world away, such as Somalia or Kosovo, not a 20 minute subway

ride from Wall Street. Amazing Grace is far more than a

travelogue of the poorest Congressional District in the United

States of America, as such a book would be of little significance

due to our collective ability to tune out such scenes in our own

backyards. Instead of merely observing, Kozol takes to the

streets to introduce us to the faceless and forgotten, and

transmits voices that may otherwise never be heard.

Statistics and stereotypes became an eight year old boy,

named Bernardo, who plummeted to his death in the shaft of a

faulty elevator, uninspected due to budget cutbacks and

inspectors who are afraid to enter the public housing where

The unsafe and unsanitary environment of the high rise

caregiver at such an early age. Therefore, there is also a need

Even the drug dealers in Children's Park give up the floor and

natural resource, they generally mean their own child, or their

tells Kozol that such children have even restricted their levels

own immediate families and not our human family. Many a child is

treatment and vocational programs instead of newer, bigger

our elected officials. Funds must be reappropriated to refurbish

opportunities, such as funding for higher education, and to help

spent on schools instead of prisons, we would need so many

go outside. Such children need to be exposed to as many

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Approximate Word count = 829
Approximate Pages = 3 (250 words per page double spaced)