After I read Amazing Grace at first I felt really down and even shed a tear after I thought about when David called Kozol about his mother. This chapter of Amazing Grace was very powerful and vivid. I thought to myself why would Kozol name this Amazing Grace when there is nothing graceful about the stories in the South Bronx. But then I thought about how David saw his world and the people around him thought that awareness of your surroundings is one step closer to change; I guess that is a bit graceful in a sense. the fact that David could step out of himself and see what is around him and recognizes it and instead of conforming to it sees and knows t is not the way to live. David talks about all the drugs, drug dealers and prostitutes and how it has become normal but thankfully he is not a part of the “evil” as he calls it. One of the parts that struck me the most about the chapter was when Kozol gets on the train to where he is going to meet David and notices that as he gets closer to David’s neighborhood he notices there are no white people and he says “it made me feel frightened for my race”(Kozol 23) I thought about how much of that I can relate to and how in my neighborhood I never see white people and then I look at the condition of my neighborhood and then compare to the conditions I see white people in. Much like David I have a caring mother who is nice to others and who I look up to but unfortunately he lives in way worse conditions than my family and I do. And although my neighborhood is not as terrible as David’s and thankfully my mother is not sick I still wonder about my skin color and if it has to with my living conditions. I could never know what it is like to not be me but I often wonder what it would be like.
Many questions came to my mind when reading Kozol’s chapter in Amazing Grace was why were there volunteers bringing condoms and clean needles? Why aren’t volunteers going out with a better purpose? What is wrong with the world when we have volunteers encouraging the state the South Bronx was in instead of helping? Why aren’t people more concerned for each other?
csevblog 
I totally agree with your questions that you had after reading this. I especially like the question about why the other people are not concerned and wanting to help each other. I also thought that this piece was very powerful as you said.
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I really love the many personal connections you made to the text. I also agree that people are not as concerned as they should be with helping others. Too many of us are bystanders and only see those people who are making bad choices as the problem in the world. However, the other people who are doing nothing at all to help are also part of the problem even if they are not directly involved. We have to all work together to resolve the tragic issues unfortunately happening in our country.
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I liked all of the questions you posted because a lot of them were similar to my own questions about the piece. Bringing condoms and needles to the scene was something I also questioned and wondered why they wouldn’t offer a different type of support instead.
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