OT THE WAR WE SHOULD BE FIGHTING IN THE USA: Excerpts From "Amazing Grace.." by Jonathan Kozol

[Gotta LOVE Rudy Guliani]

The 600,000 people who live [in the South Bronx of New York City] and
the 430,000 people who live in Washington Heights and Harlem, which are
separated from the South Bronx by a narrow river, make up one of the
largest racially segregated concentrations of poor people in our
nation.

What is it like for children to grow up here? What do they think the
world has done to them? Do they believe that they are being shunned or
hidden by society? If so, do they think that they deserve this? What is
it that enables some of them to pray? When they pray, what do they say
to God?

***

The following day, I visit a soup kitchen where more than 200 people,
about two thirds of whom are children, come to eat four times a week.
The mothers of the children seem competitive, and almost frantic, to
make sure their children get their share. A child I meet, a
five-year-old boy named Emmanuel, tells me he's "in kiddie garden." His
mother says he hasn't started yet. "He starts next year."

"You have to remember," says one of the priests with whom I share my
thoughts about these meetings, "that for this little boy whom you have
met, his life is just as important, to him, as your life is to you. No
matter how insufficient or how shabby it may seem to some, it is the
only one he has"-an obvious statement that upsets me deeply
nonetheless.

"Many of these children," says the priest, "get literally nothing in
the way of 'extras.' There are many children here who don't get
birthday presents, who never had a gift at Christmastime and never even
had a Christmas tree, which would not be included in the welfare
budget. It's particularly hard here in December when so much of life in
New York City has to do with buying gifts and giving gifts.

When everything-the music, decorations, fragrances, the giant ribbons
wrapped around some of the stores-makes Christmas inescapable. You wish
that you could wrap one of those ribbons around certain of the
children. I mean. some of them have nothing. Their bedrooms are empty.
They don't hang up stockings. If they have food for Christ mas, they
are fortunate. It is a bare existence.

"Sometimes, in front of a wonderful place like FAO Schwarz, you wonder
if poor kids like these have fantasies of breaking in and stealing toys
or games, electric trains- whatever children play with nowadays. If
they ever did it. if they just went in one night and cleaned the whole
place out, you have to ask if they could ever steal back half as much
as has been stolen from them."

During these days I walk for hours in the neighborhood, starting at
Willis Avenue, crossing Brook, and then St. Ann's, going as far as
Locust Avenue to look at the medical waste incinerator one more time,
then back to Beekman Avenue. In cold of winter, as in summer's heat, a
feeling of asphyxia seems to contain the neighborhood.

The faces of some of the relatively young women with advanced cases of
AIDS, their eyes so hollow, their jawbones so protruding, look like the
faces of women in the House of the Dying run by the nuns within the
poorest slum of Port-au-Prince [Haiti]. It's something that you don't
forget.

Seeing these women in the street, you feel almost ashamed of your good
health and worry that, no matter how you speak of them, it may sound
patronizing. "The rich," said St. Vincent de Paul, "should beg the poor
to forgive us for the bread we bring them."

Healthy people sometimes feel they need to beg forgiveness too,
although there is no reason why. Maybe we simply ask forgiveness for
not being born where these poor women have been born, knowing that if
we had lived here too, our fate might well have been the same.

On a gray afternoon at Children's Park, I stand for a long time looking
at the Calderon memorial behind the little hut where needles are
exchanged. Nearby, scattered in the weeds and trash, are several rusted
55-gallon barrels bearing "Toxic Contents" warnings. The barrels are
empty.

Whatever residual poison they contained has long since seeped into the
soil. The cumulative ugliness of things contains its own toxicity,
however. It's hard to think that any city that has love for children
would allow them to grow up in such a place.

Perhaps you should be giving more to charity to help those less
fortunate than you? The Bible commands us as individuals to
tithe. I do, and then some, won't you help as well?


mike hunt



Little Richard wrote:[color=blue]
>[/color]
I visit a soup kitchen where more than 200 people,[color=blue]
> about two thirds of whom are children, come to eat four times a week.[/color]

BenDo...@mailcity.com wrote:[color=blue]
> Perhaps you should be giving more to charity to help those less
> fortunate than you? The Bible commands us as individuals to
> tithe. I do, and then some, won't you help as well?[/color]

Perhaps we should impeach the Fascist, Racist George W. Bush and
company, and divert some of that $400,000,000,000 (four hundred billion
dollars) he's spending on Halliburton to the babies who have rats
nibbling on their ears while they sleep in the Bronx?
[color=blue]
>
>
> mike hunt
>
>
>
> Little Richard wrote:[color=green]
> >[/color]
> I visit a soup kitchen where more than 200 people,[color=green]
> > about two thirds of whom are children, come to eat four times a week.[/color][/color]

Does your attempt to change the subject, once again, mean you
will not give more of you own money to charity?

None of my properties have rats. Perhaps it is because we do
not create the conditions that attract rats. Does you home have
rats?




mike hunt



Little Richard wrote:[color=blue]
>
> BenDo...@mailcity.com wrote:[color=green]
> > Perhaps you should be giving more to charity to help those less
> > fortunate than you? The Bible commands us as individuals to
> > tithe. I do, and then some, won't you help as well?[/color]
>
> Perhaps we should impeach the Fascist, Racist George W. Bush and
> company, and divert some of that $400,000,000,000 (four hundred billion
> dollars) he's spending on Halliburton to the babies who have rats
> nibbling on their ears while they sleep in the Bronx?
>[color=green]
> >
> >
> > mike hunt
> >
> >
> >
> > Little Richard wrote:[color=darkred]
> > >[/color]
> > I visit a soup kitchen where more than 200 people,[color=darkred]
> > > about two thirds of whom are children, come to eat four times a week.[/color][/color][/color]

[email]BenDover@mailcity.com[/email] wrote:[color=blue]
> Does your attempt to change the subject, once again, mean you
> will not give more of you own money to charity?[/color]

Mike -- heh, I won't bother to answer that.

[url]www.unicef.org[/url] -- wow! its not faith-based!
[color=blue]
>
> None of my properties have rats. Perhaps it is because we do
> not create the conditions that attract rats. Does you home have
> rats?[/color]

This has what to do with what I said?

On Sat, 25 Jun 2005 11:50:13 -0400, [email]BenDover@mailcity.com[/email] wrote:
[color=blue]
>Perhaps you should be giving more to charity to help those less
>fortunate than you? The Bible commands us as individuals to
>tithe. I do, and then some, won't you help as well?[/color]

The irony of quoting Kozol is that anyone doing so MUST admit to his
writing describing perfectly the poverty and racism woven directly
into the welfare system itself.

This is the system that those on the left will defend to their last
breath, rather than admit to its failure over the past 40+ years.


------------------------------------------------
The DNC - Building a bridge to the 19th Century.

Eric Dreher wrote:[color=blue]
> On Sat, 25 Jun 2005 11:50:13 -0400, [email]BenDover@mailcity.com[/email] wrote:
>[color=green]
> >Perhaps you should be giving more to charity to help those less
> >fortunate than you? The Bible commands us as individuals to
> >tithe. I do, and then some, won't you help as well?[/color]
>
> The irony of quoting Kozol is that anyone doing so MUST admit to his
> writing describing perfectly the poverty and racism woven directly
> into the welfare system itself.[/color]

Sorry Dreher, they outlawed lynching.

See RUDOLPH GIULIANI

On 25 Jun 2005 08:53:31 -0700, "Learning Richard"
<learningrichard@gmail.com> wrote:
[color=blue]
>
>
>BenDo...@mailcity.com wrote:[color=green]
>> Perhaps you should be giving more to charity to help those less
>> fortunate than you? The Bible commands us as individuals to
>> tithe. I do, and then some, won't you help as well?[/color]
>
>Perhaps we should impeach the Fascist, Racist George W. Bush and
>company, and divert some of that $400,000,000,000 (four hundred billion
>dollars) he's spending on Halliburton to the babies who have rats
>nibbling on their ears while they sleep in the Bronx?[/color]

I've got a better idea....why don't you go up there and solve that
'problem'...since it worries you so much....

[color=blue]
>[color=green]
>>
>>
>> mike hunt
>>
>>
>>
>> Little Richard wrote:[color=darkred]
>> >[/color]
>> I visit a soup kitchen where more than 200 people,[color=darkred]
>> > about two thirds of whom are children, come to eat four times a week.[/color][/color][/color]

--

Scott in Florida

Scott in Florida wrote:[color=blue]
> On 25 Jun 2005 08:53:31 -0700, "Learning Richard"
> <learningrichard@gmail.com> wrote:
>[color=green]
> >
> >
> >BenDo...@mailcity.com wrote:[color=darkred]
> >> Perhaps you should be giving more to charity to help those less
> >> fortunate than you? The Bible commands us as individuals to
> >> tithe. I do, and then some, won't you help as well?[/color]
> >
> >Perhaps we should impeach the Fascist, Racist George W. Bush and
> >company, and divert some of that $400,000,000,000 (four hundred billion
> >dollars) he's spending on Halliburton to the babies who have rats
> >nibbling on their ears while they sleep in the Bronx?[/color]
>
> I've got a better idea....why don't you go up there and solve that
> 'problem'...since it worries you so much....
>[/color]

you constantly amaze me with your utter lack of regard for your fellow
man, Scott.

Scott in Florida wrote:[color=blue]
> On 25 Jun 2005 08:53:31 -0700, "Learning Richard"
> <learningrichard@gmail.com> wrote:
>[color=green]
> >
> >
> >BenDo...@mailcity.com wrote:[color=darkred]
> >> Perhaps you should be giving more to charity to help those less
> >> fortunate than you? The Bible commands us as individuals to
> >> tithe. I do, and then some, won't you help as well?[/color]
> >
> >Perhaps we should impeach the Fascist, Racist George W. Bush and
> >company, and divert some of that $400,000,000,000 (four hundred billion
> >dollars) he's spending on Halliburton to the babies who have rats
> >nibbling on their ears while they sleep in the Bronx?[/color]
>
> I've got a better idea....why don't you go up there and solve that
> 'problem'...since it worries you so much....
>[/color]

haha... oh yeah, I throw thousands of dollars every year at the
problem. Bush keeps giving it to the Iraqis instead of the Americans.

By the by, my wife signed up for Americorps next year when Kieran
starts preschool. And as far as "tithing", I donate to unicef:
[url]www.unicef.org[/url]. And, I'm too active in politics. One could say its
almost my life.

On 25 Jun 2005 08:53:31 -0700, "Learning Richard"
<learningrichard@gmail.com> wrote:
[color=blue]
>BenDo...@mailcity.com wrote:[color=green]
>> Perhaps you should be giving more to charity to help those less
>> fortunate than you? The Bible commands us as individuals to
>> tithe. I do, and then some, won't you help as well?[/color]
>
>Perhaps we should impeach the Fascist, Racist George W. Bush and
>company, and divert some of that $400,000,000,000 (four hundred billion
>dollars) he's spending on Halliburton to the babies who have rats
>nibbling on their ears while they sleep in the Bronx?[/color]

And how, exactly, would that benefit Bush's wealthy elite supporters?

Apparently even you don't read what you post. LOL


mike hunt



Little Richard wrote:[color=blue]
>
> [email]BenDover@mailcity.com[/email] wrote:[color=green]
> > Does your attempt to change the subject, once again, mean you
> > will not give more of you own money to charity?[/color]
>
> Mike -- heh, I won't bother to answer that.
>
> [url]www.unicef.org[/url] -- wow! its not faith-based!
>[color=green]
> >
> > None of my properties have rats. Perhaps it is because we do
> > not create the conditions that attract rats. Does you home have
> > rats?[/color]
>
> This has what to do with what I said?[/color]

Does that mean you will give more to charity to help your fellow
man? We know that will never happen, your kind believes the
government is the answer to all problems. LOL


mike hunt




Little Richard wrote:[color=blue]
>
> Scott in Florida wrote:[color=green]
> > On 25 Jun 2005 08:53:31 -0700, "Learning Richard"
> > <learningrichard@gmail.com> wrote:
> >[color=darkred]
> > >
> > >
> > >BenDo...@mailcity.com wrote:
> > >> Perhaps you should be giving more to charity to help those less
> > >> fortunate than you? The Bible commands us as individuals to
> > >> tithe. I do, and then some, won't you help as well?
> > >
> > >Perhaps we should impeach the Fascist, Racist George W. Bush and
> > >company, and divert some of that $400,000,000,000 (four hundred billion
> > >dollars) he's spending on Halliburton to the babies who have rats
> > >nibbling on their ears while they sleep in the Bronx?[/color]
> >
> > I've got a better idea....why don't you go up there and solve that
> > 'problem'...since it worries you so much....
> >[/color]
>
> you constantly amaze me with your utter lack of regard for your fellow
> man, Scott.[/color]

On Sat, 25 Jun 2005 18:41:54 -0400, [email]BigJohnson@mailcity.com[/email] wrote:
[color=blue]
>Apparently even you don't read what you post. LOL[/color]

He probably doesn't WRITE what he posts.


------------------------------------------------
The DNC - Building a bridge to the 19th Century.

You seem like the type that would expect your wife to do, what
you should be doing.

You forget the Africans. President Bush has given more money to
AIDs relief in Africa than any President in our history.

You are active in the politics of distraction and diversion.
If we lose the war with Islamic terrorist there will be no money
for anybody



mike hunt



Little Richard wrote:[color=blue]
>[/color]
[color=blue][color=green][color=darkred]
> > >BenDo...@mailcity.com wrote:
> > >> Perhaps you should be giving more to charity to help those less
> > >> fortunate than you? The Bible commands us as individuals to
> > >> tithe. I do, and then some, won't you help as well?
> > >[/color][/color][/color]
[color=blue]
> By the by, my wife signed up for Americorps next year when Kieran
> starts preschool. And as far as "tithing", I donate to unicef:
> [url]www.unicef.org[/url]. And, I'm too active in politics. One could say its
> almost my life.[/color]