Both Authors are having conversations surrounding a community during a time of crisis but the two author approaches it in a different angle. Colson Whitehead uses a general and friendly tone in his approach. In the article “The Way We Live  Now:11-11-01; Lost and Found” Whitehead talks about how everyone has their own unique experience of New York City and how the city is always changing with or without us and even how we change through time. Whitehead gives many examples throughout his article one of the example is Over a lifetime, that adds up to a lot of neighborhoods, the motley construction material of your jerry-built metropolis. Your favorite newsstands, restaurants, movie theaters, subway stations and barbershops are replaced by your next neighborhood’s favorites. It gets to be quite a sum. Before you know it, you have your own personal skyline. Go back to your old haunts in your old neighborhoods and what do you find: they remain and have disappeared. The greasy spoon, the deli, the dry cleaner you scouted out when you first arrived and tried to make those new streets yours: they are gone. But look past the windows of the travel agency that replaced your pizza parlor. Beyond the desks and computers and promo posters for tropical adventures, you can still see Neapolitan slices cooling, the pizza cutter lying next to half a pie, the map of Sicily on the wall”. Whitehead shows that the city is always changing and that change is always bound to occur. Lewis on the other hand writes about his own life and his experiences. Lewis wrote about how he felt fighting through racism and injustice he states “I will never ever forget the moment when it became so clear that he could easily have been me. In those days, fear constrained us like an imaginary prison, and troubling thoughts of potential brutality committed for no understandable reason were the bars.” The imaginary prison is the society and their injustice towards African Americans and even though he had 2 loving parents and siblings their love could not protect them outside in the society. This article was very inspiring about how he fought through all the injustices and when he said “Ordinary people with extraordinary vision can redeem the soul of America” I also believe this and not only in voting ordinary people can affect a lot in helping out their society just by doing the right thing.

The two pieces talk about change and time. Lewis talks about his life experiences and how he wants the future generation to stand up for what we believe in and how nonviolence and the way of love is the more excellent way and whitehead talks about how we are slowly changing and to cherish what we have. The message i picked up from them is that to always cherish  what i have and to stand up for what i believe in and not what the community tells me to believe in.

I felt myself identify closer to is “The Way We Live Now” by Colson Whitehead i agree with how he says everyone has their own unique view  and that we always need to cherish what we have. Reading this reminded me of how i didn’t have the chance to say goodbye to my best friend who passed away 11 years ago and how much i regretted for taking what i had for granted.