Kozol's Argument

          In the article "Amazing Grace", the author Jonathan Kozol argues that the reason why the people Mott Haven live in such poverty is because they do not have the power to change their situation.

          The imbalance of power has gotten real bad in our country, I never realized how much until reading this article. The neighborhoods in New York that are considered the ghettos are so run down and broken because the city doesn't care to do anything about it because they look at the people as lost causes and waste of resources. Practically everyone in St. Ann's has some sort of illness to cope with on their own. Heroin ravages across across the town, taking countless with it. The children also often suffer from things such as depression and anxiety. The most common one is asthma which is so bad in Mott Haven that some moms have to keep breathing machines next to their child's bed. The neighborhood isn't nice by anyway means, there's always adults and kids both being shot and killed. the times magazine referred to it as "the deadliest blocks" The people that live in the town have given up any hope because they know that they can't do anything to change the horror happening in their city. Kozol's main point with sharing all the detailed descriptions was to show the true misfortune that people that live in poor communities  have to endure because there is really nothing they can do about because no matter what anyone says they do not have the POWER to change it unless the country is willing to give them some power.