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Jonathan Kozol "Amazing Grace"

• I think Kozol talks a lot about the problem of AIDS mainly in this part of South Bronx. Back in 1995 AIDS was still not talked about, or such a known disease as it is today. In these neighborhoods that Kozol was referring to had a lot of cases of AIDS. In one building alone there were about "In this building? Including the children, maybe 27 people. that's just this section. In the other building over, there's maybe 20 more. Then there's lots of other people have it but dont know, afraid to know and don't want to be tested."(Kozol 13) Here alone you see how bad the AIDS/HIV epidemic was back in those days and today this is still relevant to people in this part of the NY. In this article you see how about "The borough's death rate from AIDS is nearly 10 times the national average, which health officials attribute to the fact that about 25% of its residents only learn they are infected after the disease has progressed to full-blown AIDS." Those are true facts that people in the Bronx fail to realize and is a recurring issue through out Kozol's article.

• Poverty in the Bronx is a big issue, Kozol talks a lot of about the amount of kids who were below the poverty line. "In 1991 the median household income of the area, according to the New York Times was $7,600" (Kozol 3) To have kids and make that much money is having no money at all. "Almost no one here has jobs like that. Some are too sick. They live on SSI. Maybe five or six in 25, she says, have some legitimate employment. Another five or ten are selling drugs or doing prostitution." (Kozol 14). Poverty was so bad, that "only seven of 800 children do not qualify for free school lunches." (Kozol 3) that right there is unbelievable and is still true. That article states how about 75% of the Bronx's children still qualify for free lunch because they are under the poverty line. This other article shows how the Bronx still has the most children in poverty in all of NY.

• Throughout Kozol's article he refers to how the Bronx was back in the nineties, but I found this video from this year. The video states how the Bronx, especially South Bronx is still the same exact way Kozol was explaining it from back in 1995. In the video you see and hear what Kozol was trying to depict to you in words, with images and you hear the way things are today from actual people who live there now. In the video the guys who were talking about the neighborhood they live in, they refer to the incinerators that were spoken of a couple times throughout the article. This is an actual issue that people in the Bronx have to go through, the majority of the Bronx is a dumping site to the government. The South Bronx is still one of poorest in the U.S. Kozol goes back to the state of poverty a couple of times through out the article.

• The government using these neighborhoods as dumping sites, and having incinerators near them has caused most of the population to have asthma. Kozol stated "Asthma is the most common illness among children here. Many have struggle to take in a good deep breath. Some mothers keep oxygen tanks, which children describe as "breathing machines," next to their children's beds." (Kozol 4) Asthma to this day is still a big issue in the Bronx because of how many dumping sites and polluted air their is. This article I was reading spoke a lot about the rates and how high they are mostly in the Bronx. Kozol mentioned this a couple of  times because he sees how much it affects children, especially when he was walking with the seven year old boy and half way through the walk, the boy had to use his inhaler.

All of these issues that Kozol brings up while reading his article. I know these issues are still occurring because I was born and raised in the Bronx. Poverty is a very big issue there, and the living situations are very sad. People live through these sicknesses, these issues they have no control over. A lot of people fail to ignore this, and say that its the peoples fault for not choosing a different path to get out of poverty Like this professor from NYU, he said "If poor people behaved rationally, they would seldom be poor for long in the first place." I believe this is very ignorant of him, because a lot of these people are poor because of lack of jobs, and the issue of making ends meet, most of them live pay check to paycheck. I believe all of these issues are very important.

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Talking Point: The unfairness of the lifes of people in the South Bronx.