Born Blue by Han Nolan - Essay Example

They have access to health care, educational opportunities and decent food and lodgings. The poor are not so lucky. If you are born into poverty you are likely to have to fight for your right to have a roof over your head and food to eat. Healthcare is a joke and many of the schools in the poor districts have become urban ghettos where drive by shootings, muggings and fear rule the playground. Is this a bleak prediction for the future of America? Are things just going to get worse? Not necessarily.

The problem is that the initiatives that are put in place by the government to help the poor in terms of affordable housing, access to health care and a decent education are aimed at the masses; when in fact it is on an individual level that things have to change. The baby born into the slums needs to be encouraged that they can better themselves. They need to be encouraged to dream and dream big. Because although the opportunities to succeed are a lot more hidden than they used to be, they are still there.

"The whole time I lived with Patsy and Pete and Harmon and the babies that come an go, I loved Harmon and the ladies most, and almost everyday I lived there, which lasted almost three years, wed go to the basement and listen to the ladies sing. But Harmon didnt dance and I didnt sing. We was too scared to get the strap. Wed lay on the sour rug and dream we was singin and dancin, and I had me a stack of bread on a plate by my side for when I got so hungry I thought I would die". (Janie, aged 6, p.

6, Kindle edition) Dreaming – it is the one thing in life that is free. When Janie was little and living in the foster home she met up with her only friend, Harmon, who had old cassette tapes of some of the old time singers – Aretha Franklin and women like that. Janie and Harmon used to listen to the tapes to help them escape their reality – little food, harsh caregivers, neglect and drugged up parents. The problem is that