Street roots
Jan . 4, 2013
Sifting through the ashes of poverty to find sparks of hope
BY JOE MARTIN
that pervaded the Martinique Hotel in New
York City, home to 1,400 kids and 400
t has been 45 years since Jonathan Kozol
parents: “Christmas Eve of 1985 was not a
published his first book “Death at an
good time for poor women and their children
Early Age,” which detailed the abysmal
to depend on the public kindness or
conditions endured by indigent black children
prophetic reenactments of the Christian
in Boston s inner city public schools. It was a
gospel at the hands of civic and commercial
shocking exposé of pedagogical indifference
leaders in New York.
and institutionalized violence for which Kozol
“It was a time when opulence among the
received the National Book Award. The
city’s newly minted rich and super-rich was
epigraph to that work is a quote from
flaunted with an unaccustomed boldness in
psychoanalyst Erik Erickson, who averred,
the face of New York City’s poor and
[T]he most deadly of all possible sins is the
homeless people, thousands of whom were
mutilation of a child’s spirit.”
packed into decrepit, drug-infested shelters,
An impassioned author, Kozol has
most of which were old hotels situated in the
chronicled the scandal of relegating
middle of Manhattan, some of which in
successive generations of so many
decades past had been places of great
impoverished kids — especially children of
elegance.” One social worker told him bluntly
color - to society’s scrap heap. In compelling
that the Martinique was a “midtown death
books such as “Savage Inequalities” and
camp for the spirits of poor children.”
“The Shame of the Nation,” vivid
One family whose matriarch was named
descriptions abound of criminal neglect that
Vicki lived in Mott Haven, which “remains
passes for schooling in a multitude of
today the single poorest neighborhood in the
desperate communities. With unflagging
poorest borough of New York.” Miraculously,
zeal, Kozol portrays lives of innocent kids
the family was offered a chance for a new life
caught in the appalling atmosphere of
in faraway Montana. A church community
ineffectual schools. Outside crumbling
had decided to sponsor a family and provide
classrooms many are pummeled by the chaos
them an opportunity for a fresh beginning
of troubled families. Such travails are
removed from the inner city. So Vicki and
compounded by dangers lurking on dismal
her children made the trip west. Kozol
urban streets.
maintained contact with Vicki as she became
The latest installment in Kozol’s running
immersed in the exhilaration of life in
commentary is “Fire in the Ashes.” It is an
Montana surrounded by newfound friends.
eloquent testament to his abiding concern
But initial ecstasy gave way to troubles and,
for the children and families he has depicted,
eventually, tragedy. Her son Eric had been
and the hopes and dreams often thwarted by
having problems and they wore away Vicki’s
poverty and feckless schooling. As always his
optimism. His life ended with a shotgun blast
subjects are portrayed with respect and
to the head, which was ruled a suicide. Vicki
affection. Kozol revisits families and
never recovered emotionally from this
individuals he has known over the years and
dreadful loss and would later die due to
brings their experiences up to date. There is
pancreatic cancer.
tragedy but also triumph.
T h ro u g h o u t th e tu rm o il of th e ir
CONTRIBUTING WRITER
I
Fire in the Ashes:
Twenty-Five
Years Among the
Poorest Children
in America, by
Jonathan Kozol
K ozol re fle c ts on th e d isp iritin g co n d itio n s
/
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«
K
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55
im p o v e rish m e n t and th e rad ical ch allen g e of
Reprinted from Street Roots sister paper, Real
Change News, Seattle.
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moving west, Vicki’s daughter Lisette
persevered. Now married, her husband is
completing a degree in dentistry, and she
hopes to become a paralegal. She tells Kozol:
“I’m going to give a good life to my children.
I have to do it. I’m the one who made it
through. I’m a stronger person now. I guess
that I was always stronger than I knew.”
Amid other poignant stories, Kozol gives a
particularly touching account of Jeremy who
was 12 at the time of their first encounter.
His mother was born in Puerto Rico and did
not speak English. She, Jeremy and his older
brother lived “on the sixteenth floor of a
badly rundown twenty-story building.” Jeremy
loved books and reading. He was an aspiring
writer. Because he was mild mannered and
introspective, Jeremy was the target of
bullies. Fortunately he became friends with a
local Puerto Rican poet “who welcomed him
into his home and talked with him for hours
at a time about the books that lined his wall,
immersing him in conversations about Greek
and Roman history and reading him some of
the famous British authors - John Milton,
for example - and others he revered.” With
the kindness of people like the poet and the
help of Kozol himself, Jeremy’s story is one
of hope and triumph.
However, Kozol cautions: “Charity and
chance and narrow selectivity are not the
way to educate the children of a genuine
democracy.” A steep price is exacted upon
too many poor kids whose dreams are denied
long before they reach adolescence. In “Fire
in the Ashes,” Kozol reminds us that it is a
steep price ultimately paid by us all. For the
sake of our society and common humanity
the time is long overdue to right this
pervasive wrong.
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Meet Your Local Branch Manager:
Rally begins 10am
at the VOZ Worker
. Center (MLK & NE
Everett).
From there, we
march together
across the river.
«
Communities aren't ju st streets and build
ings, Communities are thriving places
where cultures, commerce and souls grow
stronger together ”
- M ary
We’ll march to Right
2 Dream Too to learn
about the work being
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Then it’s on to Sisters
for hot soup and snacks,
music and more!
Mary Edmeades
Social im pact Banking
For more details and to rsvp, visit the
Facebook event at http://on.fb.me/w9o8v09.
SISTERS
OFTHE
ROAD
At Albina Community Bank the most ordinary
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impact on our local community.
503.4452155
XX
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rnedm eades@ aibinabank.com
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