better days

I've nearly completed Jonathan Kozol's Amazing Grace. The book, by depicting the lives of residents in the South Bronx (and particularly Mott Haven), covers the gamut from employment to drug turf warfare to environmentally-induced asthma to whether hope can exist there. In many ways, the problems encountered are so entrenched as to be nearly overwhelming.

A quick look at articles addressing many of these issues are not exactly hopeful. Drug use? NYC hopes that methamphetamine usage won't catch on because, as two people surmise, cocaine is widely available and meth is the poor white trash's drug of choice. Health care? Besides the oft quoted statistic that 46 million Americans lack health insurance and that 38 million are on Medicaid,

Medicaid, Medicare and other publicly financed health care, such as that for ex-servicemen, and the public sector already pays for 45% of American health care. (The total is nearer 60% if you include the tax subsidies.) (Economist, 26 Jan 06)

Perhaps it's an oversimplification, but I'm reminded of an old argument between K and myself. From where does change occur? Yes, like deepening democracy by entrenching political values within a society, enacting change among the residents of the neighborhood would ideally be the most sustainable solution, but where do the rest of us fit? By changing policy in a top-down approach, working to better implement policy, or to "work on the ground?"

Quite a few of my friends have been mulling over the merits and drawbacks of the Peace Corps and Teach for America lately. In many ways, I think this first hand experience is the way not only to influence lives and also to influence our future actions in the area of social justice. And maybe I'm just leaning too heavily on my current emphasis and desire to enter the field of public health and how societal issues intersect.