Class Readings

During this class, we have read several books and articles and most of them are centered around the idea of one person making big changes in their communities because they decided to fight for what they believed in in order to make a change for themselves and for the people around them. Usually when these people decided to stand up for what they believed in, they began to make a following and then the people who followed them would help to get their message to be heard. Just one person can have the power to spark a change in a community and we have seen so many examples of that happening around the world. Martin Luther King Jr. was one of the most influential people in the world during his time in the spotlight. With his opinions, he was able to get African Americans around the United States to get together and fight for what they believed in. Without him standing up for what he believed in, the United States could be a completely different place. There are several more examples of people who stood up for what they believed in and by doing that, they made big changes in their communities. For example, there was Mandela and Bhutto who both fought for what they believed in so that they could make their communities a better place. But then there’s the issue with the book Amazing Grace by Jonathan Kozol. In this book, it talks about all the poverty that goes on in the South Bronx and just how terrible the living conditions are for the people who are stuck there. But then it goes and talks about the people who live just a few blocks away in the city of Manhattan. These people in Manhattan have more money than they could ever need but what do most of these people do for the people who live in the South Bronx? The answer is sadly nothing, many of these people just choose to believe that the people of the South Bronx do not even exist. The saddest thing about this is that these people in Manhattan could really help out the problems in the South Bronx and make a change for the better in their community but they decide to sit back and do nothing while the people in the South Bronx suffer.