"Amazing Grace" Kozol

“Amazing Grace” by Jonathan Kozol

The personal stories told by Jonathan Kozol help us see the issues that less privileged people have to deal with in everyday life. He describes the locations these people live in, Drug and alcohol many of these communities deal with and job opportunities and schools they attend.

As I was reading this these stories and heard him talking about the locations these people live in it reminded me of when I used to work at PSC environmental services as a receiving chemist. PSC is a Hazardous waste transfer station, and stores many kinds of Hazardous chemicals and waste. As I would drive to work it is easy to see the neighborhoods and community’s change as I got closer to PSC. Like the Kozel piece many disadvantage people are forced to live in areas that are not as appealing to the more privileged. 

He listens to stories of communities who live near

landfills or dumps. He also tells a story about the incineration plant and how it was built in their area even with objections from the community. These plants burn hospital waste such as limbs, fetal tissue, bedding, and syringes that can be harmful to health. Nobody should be forced to live next to places like these but in many cases the under privileged have to. At PSC Environmental Services it is not an Incineration plant but, transfers hospital waste and other very hazardous waste to plants that do exactly that. The locations of these incineration plants were mostly in run down places when sent within the United States. The main places we sent waste to be incinerated were places in Detroit or New York City and what we are not allowed to incinerate in America gets sent to Canada. I can guarantee that privileged people do not live around these incineration plants. Even in Providence around the Hazardous waste transfer station it was clear that the underprivileged lived all around this area. One of the reasons I left PSC Environmental Services was because I learned about the potentially hazardous ways we get rid of dangerous waste, But I never really focused on which communities would be effected the most until I read  the stories written by Jonathan Kozol. The neighborhoods we live in affect have very strong connections to the health of communities and the ability to live successful lives and the underprivileged should not be expected to live in areas especially if there are health concerns related to that area.