Suffering and Challenges of the Children in Kozol’s Writing

In the book entitled “Amazing Grace” authored by Jonathan Kozol, the children were suffering under severe poverty based on the fact that their parents was very poor. According to Kozol’s writing, some of them were described as the .. ”Poor of the poorest, poor by any standard. ” They were of mixed races according to him “two-third are Hipic, one-third black” and of the total population he wrote, “ thirty-five percent children – more than 95 percent are poor people”.

Most of them receive only elementary education. Their parents could not train them up to the high school level due to the fact that they were very poor. Kozol wrote, “At the elementary school that server the neighbor ……. only seven of the eight hundred do qualify for the free school launches.. ”. How their character reflects the environment Due to the fact that their parent was very poor and could not teach them good moral behavior so they grew up wild and behaved very uncontrollably and engaging in all criminal activities. Kozol reports: “crack cocaine addiction and intravenous use of heroin which I have met here call “The middle drug…Nearly 4000 heroin injections, many of whom are HIV –infected life here. ”

“Asthma is a common illness among the children…. ” “Some of these houses are freezing in the winter. ”. “Three more children and adults were shot dead in the living room…” “…Thirty minutes - a Minister and other Parishioner were shut dead…” Kozol asked: “What is it like for children to grow up here? What do you think the world has done to them? ” The answer to his first question is that the children were influenced by the environment they grew up.

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They grew up in poverty without sound education and the world does not care about them. Therefore Kozo asked “What has the world do to them? ” We shall now go over to answer some of those questions that are related to the question he asked in respect of the poor economic situation he found those children in his writing. “How does religion provide a framework of stability for families in this neighborhood?. “ (RS100/EVIL)Before we answer this question we should first of all answer this question which I feel forms the basis of religion. The question is “What rule does Ideology play in the suffering according to Kozol?”. To answer this question we must define the word “Ideology” this will give us a clue on exactly how it relates to the suffering children of Kozol’s writing. Let get the exact definition from the experts: “Ideology” “Could be defined as the mode of interaction between individuals” (RS-100/EVIL). One expert called “Max,” wrote “…human beings are concerned about the good of the group – cooperation”. Based on Max's definition, we can understand that “ideology” is all about working for the goodness of the people and co-operating with them in terms of need.

Now we can answer the question of those suffering children in respect of the “ideology” concept. Based on this background, Kozol wrote “St Anne Church on St Anne Avenue is three blocks from the subway station. The children who came to this small Episcopal Church for food and comfort to play and the mothers and fathers who come here or pray…” Now you can see the rule “Ideology” played in the life of those suffering children. They could find food and comfort including their fathers and mothers at St Anne’s church. Although the world generally does not care about them the church cares.

That is the real concept of “ideology ”based on Max's definition which states “human beings are concerned about the good of the group – cooperation”. So the church which is a body of individuals could reach out with love to the suffering children. Within the church, they received good moral teachings based on the principles of the Holy Bible and also to pray so that their lives could be transformed for a better society. “Religion as Protection Against Ideology” (RS100/Evil) The above statement gives us a better understanding of the importance of religion to humanity which will play a key role in times of need.

“How does religion project against ideology? ” One answer states “It inspired religious people to always look for victims “ Which means, religious people should search for victims and not victims to come to them although they could come to them just as the suffering children came to St Anne Church “for food and comfort” according to Kozol. But religious bodies should search for victims to help. “Are you going to celebrate the winner or loser? ” (RS100/Evil). My answer is religious people should search for losers and not the winners. People in a desperate situation and extreme poverty are losers who need help.

They may be involved in natural disasters such as flooding, earthquake, fire disasters ect and they lost everything. In most cases, they could live in a very poor environment without access to medical facilities, sound education, electricity, and others. “If you develop a Preferential option for the poor then you are challenging your society to do something about them” (RS 100L/Evil). The small church at St. Anne has challenged other rich individuals and the government to do something for the poor masses in that region including those suffering under severe poverty throughout the United States.

“The making of Ideology” (RS 100/Evil) According to Robert Nisbet – British Sociologist “-Coherency – Thoughts are connected to another in a way that makes sense” While individuals such as a church, philanthropic organizations, etc come with an idea to solve problems, other individuals could come up with some ideas that make sense. Therefore it becomes a “coherent idea” due to the fact that that the thoughts of individuals have come into agreement that could go along way to solve human problems. “Relationship to Political Power” (RS 100/Evil).

In the government circle, ideology plays a key role due to the fact that people in the government are always thinking of how to solve problems that the citizens are passing through. As a result, they could create an agency that could reach out to the people facing such problems as sending aids to disaster regions, epidemics etc. On the international level, governments, churches, and other philanthropic organizations send aids to foreign countries to save the lives of people who might have experienced natural disasters and even to refugee camps where there is an outbreak of civil war in a particular country.

“Ideology Question” (RS 100L/Evil) “What is the mode of interaction between individuals? ”

1. Answer “Individuals in their natural state compete with each other for scarce resources”
2. “If two individual are competing over access to some resources, they may kill each other in an attempt to gain possession” As you can see, the second answer explains the first answer above. Take, for example, oil is a “scarce resource” due to the fact that it is not common in every nation. Consequently, there are a lot of conflicts going on in several parts of the world due to its scarcity and high value.

People kill each other in order to gain possession because it makes someone to get rich very quickly. But Human beings are more valuable than oil. The need to help the suffering people is scarce; only very few people could provide help as the church in Kozol writing. So it is very scarce to help the poor. Why is it so scarce to help humans? The answer is that those who can help feel that they cannot have rewards from those people they helped due to the fact that they are poor.

But that of the oil, people fight for it and even kill themselves in order to gain access to it due to its value while the poor are not seen as valuable. Therefore the means to save the poor become a” scarce resource”.

1. Amazing Grace (By Jonathan Kozol)
2. Bill Gates Issues Call or Kinder Capitalism; (Wall Street Journal 24 Jan. 2008)
3. Pres. Chavez to Help Poor in United States before Christmas (ThinKandask. com Nov. 2005 )
4. The poor in the usa call out for international help(Now Health 16 August, 2004)
5. The Crime? Helping the Poor While Being Wealthy( A Alender Through About Editoral)

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