Charity Isn't A Good Substitute

Many Of Us Regard Ourselves As Mildly Liberal Or Centrist Politically, Voice Fairly Pleasant Sentiments About Our Poor Children, Contribute Money To Send Poor Kids To Summer Camp, Feel Benevolent. We're Not Nazis; We're Nice People. We Read Sophisticated Books. We Go To Church. We Go To Synagogue. Meanwhile, We Put Other People's Children Into An Economic And Environmental Death Zone. We Make It Hard For Them To Get Out. We Strip The Place Bare Of Amenities. And We Sit Back And Say To Ourselves, "well, I Hope That They Don't Kill Each Other Off. But If They Do, It's Not My Fault.

If You Grow Up In The South Bronx Today Or In South-central Los Angeles Or Pittsburgh Or Philadelphia, You Quickly Come To Understand That You Have Been Set Apart And That There's No Will In This Society To Bring You Back Into The Mainstream.

I'd Love To Go Back And Teach Primary School. I Used To Teach Fourth Grade And Fifth Grade. I'd Love To Spend Several Years Teaching Kindergarten Or Maybe Third Grade.

False Hope Is Worse Than Despair.

I Write Books To Change The World. Perhaps I Can Only Change One Little Piece Of That World. But If I Can Empower Teachers And Good Citizens To Give These Children, Who Are The Poorest Of The Poor, The Same Opportunity We Give Our Own Kids, Then I'll Feel My Life Has Been Worth It.