In Jonathan Kozol Essay

In Jonathan Kozols novel Amazing Grace, piety plays a dominant role through out(a) the book. As Kozol describes the commonwealth in indigence of Mott Haven and the myriad horrible circumstances that they wait everyday, religion wins their champion and only salvation and solace. It is much easier to ask what these children wear offt face than what they do. They face people dying daily, prolonged sickness, villainy, drugs, abuse, alcoholism, asthma, poverty, dirt, dilapidated housing. They see people die horrific deaths whether it is from AIDS or a little girlfriend falling down an elevator shaft that nobody would fix.They are denied aesculapian care or given substandard care, which means people dont master better. They attend substandard schools where they receive less than suitable education. What they dont face is a lot of compassion or empathy. At a time in America when neo-libera disceptations would like to get rid of government control of the economy, which results in cutting social programs that instanter benefit the poor, religion is their only means of hope. Incidentally, neo-liberalists do not pass any problem with government subsidies or benefits for businesses.With the rising sentiment of I didnt breed themI dont want to endure them (128), this nations poor are shoved a air and hidden more and more. They are blamed for the problems they face, and less is being done to help. As lofty Overall says of the lack of mention of 97th road, though 96th Street is featured in tourist guides,, The papers ignore realities like the waste burner, but they do it in a way that tends to neutralize the dangers almost instantly (187). 97th Street is poverty, and America turns its back on these people in the name of neo-liberalism.The Ameri erect public believes as Kozol states, If only enough children, we are told, would act the way heroes do, say no to drugs and sex and gold chains and TV and yes to homework, values, church and abstinence, and if only enough good parents, teachers, volunteers, and civic-minded business leaders would assist them in these efforts, we could turn this around (240). This again is blaming the victim, not the society who created these conditions at all. As long as the poor are hidden away in places we run from, the inequalities will continue to exist.And when faced with such an extensive list of problems, what can these people do? They can turn to religion. Religion provides them hope. Churches provide them with food and clean needles and community organizers as well. Church becomes the focal stop consonant around which their lives revolve. As Father Glenwith Miller says, Many here a great deal more devout then people you would stomach in wealthy neighborhoods. Those who have everything they want for need have often the least feeling for religion.The rich are very busy storing everything they can accumulate wealth, power, or prestigeStill I think it grieves to examine of god when humanity beings created in His image treat other human beings like filthy rags (78). This quote says a great deal well-nigh why people of Mott haven are so religious with a comment about the social responsibility of humanity as well. mickle from Mott Haven come to church in order to escape bullets and crime for a brief respite. They use church to take away the pitilessness and darkness of their own lives.Church is someplace where they can hope and dreaming for something better than they have. Kozol wants the reader to truly understand the power religion has to lighten their spirits against the rising tide they must face everydaythe guns, the violence, the drugs, the sickness, the injustice. A nightly prayer for Mrs. Washingtons children is divinity fudge bless Mommy. deity bless Nanny. Dont punish me because Im black (69). Others express the sentiment that god provides a better place after(prenominal) death or are just thankful that God has allowed them to live.Kozol asks Shirley Flowers, a friend of Reverend Overalls, Do your children have the same judgement in God that you do? She replies YesThey do. This family talks to God (169). And when a bookman of Gizelle Lukes is asked Who do you feel up to? , he replies I look up to God, my mother, and myself (33). These quotes are used to file just how important religion is as a force in their lives. Father Glenworth Miles discusses the importance of God in this community. We are not literal fundamentalists hereWe see God as a liberating force who calls us to deliver people from oppression.The bare consensus of the powerful is that the ghetto is to be preserved as a perpetual catch-basin for the poor. It is not about annihilating segregation or even about version of the ghetto, but setting up programs to teach people to adjust to it, to show a functional adaptation to an evil institutionAs a religious man, I see it as my obligation to speak out against this, not to bend the poor to be accommodated to injustice but to i nvest them to fight it and to try to tear it down (81).He determines it to be