In the article “ The Way We Live Now: 11-11-01; Lost & Found” by New York Times writer Colson Whitehead delves into life after 9/11 discussing how everyday life has changed. He approaches the crisis in a  balance of humor and pathos. He evokes emotion stating “ But look past the windows of the travel agency that replaced your pizza parlor. Beyond the desks and computers … you can still see Neapolitan slices cooling…” Whitehead explains how goodbyes aren’t a thing in the city. When you think about it you never really know how close you are to your favorite pizza spot being just a memory. The city is always evolving and thus the millions of perceptions every person in this city has. His humor comes into play when talking about what our old apartments would say if they got together “ 7J says, “ So that’s what happened to Lucy….3R says: Saxophone, you say? I knew him when he played guitar”. John Lewis’s powerful and important speech in “ Together, You Can Redeem the Soul of Our Nation” goes into detail about how the movement in our current generation relates to the one in his time.  His attitude is very motivating and emotion-evoking using pathos as well. He writes    “ Emmett Till was my George Floyd. He was my Rayshard Brooks, Sandra Bland, and Breonna Taylor.” It’s disgusting, to say the least how these injustices are tolerated. I firmly agree with Lewis that it is an obligation for everybody to “speak up and speak out” and it hit close to home thinking about how we currently live in this generation where most of us can unite and fight back. Lewis also uses ethos to prove his credibility going into detail “ In those days, fear constrained us like an imaginary prison, and troubling thoughts of potential brutality committed for no understandable reason were the bars”. He, at the end of the day, survived this dread and experienced what it resembled the need to carry on with life not realizing what could befall you. This is associated with present-day on the grounds that these occurrences have been going on for quite a long time and are still happening. At the end of each piece, both Whitehead and Lewis spoke in a way of hope for the generations to come. Though Whitehead ends off by mentioning how the city would never be the same “ The cement trucks will roll up and spin their bellies, the jackhammers will rattle, and after a while, the postcards of the new skyline will be available for purchase.” This may come off as negative but I think it’s just being real, everyone lives in a different New York, and for some their New York may become unrecognizable. This opposes Lewis’s ending in a way where he sheds more optimism in our generation who he has faith will  “ laid down the heavy burdens of hate at last…”. The themes in both pieces overlapped as both talked about awful times that in our society will one day view as the past. Both articles were truly really moving and written perfectly. I did find the article by Colson Whitehead to be very relatable because as a New Yorker the city I grew up in is not the same city that I’m living in. Reading the article made me dwell on the places I miss that are gone. I don’t think I realized before how since the city never sleeps it’s always watching. In a way it’s like the really old neighbor that has watched you grow up, it’s kind of bittersweet.

 

Both writings lend themselves strongly to change. Change within a community and even outside of it. How one day somethings are “normal” yet at a second, minutes, hours, days, etc. notice things can get worse. Both pieces eventually do signal a sort of hope that is within the community and gives examples of each. When Whitehead explains how the twin tower skyline will eventually fade from our memories and a new one will be erected in its place. “Naturally we will cast a wary eye toward those new kids on the block, but let’s be patient and not judge too quickly. We were new here, too, once.” This shows that although we may remember New York a certain way doesn’t mean that those who come in to New York will remember it and although there is skepticism, we were also those same people who came into this city after parts of it were destroyed or lost and we painted the city how we saw it not by what was there. This same method of thinking is in Lewis’ speech towards the end. “When historians pick up their pens to write the story of the 21st century, let them say that it was your generation who laid down the heavy burdens of hate at last and that peace finally triumphed over violence, aggression and war.” Again, the world the old generation grew up in is one that is slowly crumbling and dying and it is the new generation or the new people who will soon paint the picture of the future one without hate where everyone is equal and you are not judged solely on the color of your skin. Yet where I feel the points drastically differ is in the impact or scale of each situation. New York will always be viewed a certain way by those that visit and live there, but it is just that a city in which people live in. Racism is a much grander scale when it comes to change and justice. For change to occur in one, one must simply tear down and rebuild a concrete structure, one that has no emotions or feelings. The other requires to tear down a system that’s been in play and destroying the minds of millions if not billions of people and their thoughts and ideals that led to them treating others based solely on race. Between both pieces I feel the one that describes how others think and feel based on changes is whitehead which forms a basis or small look into how others may view certain things as opposed to how you may view them.