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fell of mber strict When the first booming drums and clarion trum- pets could be heard, my heart quickened. Down Main Street the marchers came, and you had to stir to the panorama of it -- bands and fire trucks, bright flags carried aloft, the proud veterans walk- ing stiffly, the floats decked in bunting, the glcam- ing restored automobiles, firefighters stepping out in their dark dress uniforms, the scout troops. From the sidewalks, onlookers called out to familiar faces among the marchers. It was the Fourth of July parade in Port Jefferson, and for me it was a homecoming. Last year, I'd missed the parade for the first time in some 30 years. I spent last year's Fourth at a rodeo in Arlee, Montana, on the Flathead Indian Reservation, watching a cowgirl race around the dusty ring on a spirited paint horse, a huge American flag streaming out behind as a scratchy public address system played The Star-Spangled Banner. That, too, had quickened my pulse. West of the Mississippi, a rodeo on the Fourth of July is about as American as it gets, but east of the great river nothing beats a small-town fire department parade for genuine Americana. Montana was exciting, but it was good to be back in the town where I've spent nearly all of my life, from high school onward. If the Fourth of July is about roots, and it is, Port Jefferson is where mine Ite. For most of these years of Fourth of July parades, I've watched from the broad front porch of a friend's law office in a historic building down- town. It is a splendid setting for parade viewing. The parade marches on, as time flashes back He provides coffee, doughnuts and chairs for a cast of old friends. All of us, we must realistically say, are of a certain age, though we still hold the illu- sion that we're younger than our calendar years. America today is the place where 70 is the new 50, or so we liketo think. During the parade, visitors tothe porch came and went, while we regulars sat in our chairs, ban- tering in the way of men who have known each other a long time, and remarking that this year's parade was excellent, more floats and music than in recent years. Hats off tothe Port Jeff Fire Department! Tagging along with one visitor was a studious, dark-haired boy of 11 in a blue shirt, who assayed the sight of us spectators seated in a row along the porch and wondered aloud, \Is this a retirement home?\ The woman who'd brought him tried to hush him up, but the damage was done. Our heads swiveled round at the stinging implication. The impudent lad then compounded the felony by try- ing to apologize. \Gee I'm sorry,\ he said. \I just saw all the gray hair and thought....\ So much for lingering illusions of youth. You can fool yourself, but an 11-year-old kid will bring you down to earth in a sentence. The magic of parades is that they cast you back in memory, back to parades you saw as a child, and sights in them that astonishedyou. I recall a parade I watched in Freeport in the 1940s, a Decoration Day parade (as Memorial Day used to be called). Signals So much for lingering illusions of youth. You can fool yourself, but an 11-year-old kid will bring you down to earth in a sentence. What astonished me was a group of veterans of the Spanish-American War, which, as school had taught me, belonged to another century. That such men could still march, let alone breathe, was hard for a 12-year-old boy to grasp. Yet I realize today they were probably only in their 60s. On that long-ago morning they seemed as ancient to me as, last week, my friends and I on a porch in Port Jefferson seemed to an 11-year-old Patterns of terrorism: a perplexing anomaly Have you heard about the martial arts expert from the Bronx who inspected a warehouse on Long Island for use as a training facility in his efforts to recruit ive terrorists who would be loyal to al Qaeda? Can you believe that, right in our back yard? As the birthday of our nation is celebrated, and patri- otism tends to rise in the public consciousness, I read about two seemingly successful men who have been charged with conspiring to train and provide medical assistance to al Qaeda, and I feel deeply betrayed. I also am deeply puzzled. We Americans feel that democracy and a free eco- nomic system are criteria for happiness. Yes, more than a modicum of nationalism accounts for those beliefs. After all, those are parts of the American Dream, name- ly that anyone can set up shop anywhere, work hard, send their children tocollege and ultimately advance economically and socially while enjoying personal lib- erty and protection of basic human rights. We also have theidea that if only others experienced __ the same opportunities, they would understand that our Between you and me = [AJt this point, the f authorities do not feel they have the leisure to slowly pursue these people and see if they really carry BY LEAH S. DUNAIEF one of the best medical schools in the United States, and finally to set up shop in a privileged community like Boca Raton, go on to offer help to those who would annihilate us? senior cardiologists stopped going to work. Some left the country. This is the latest in a pattern of killing or scaring off the country's intelligentsia by the insurgents in Iraq, whom we assume are at least linked at this point to al Qaeda. How, then, can a man like Dr. Rafiq Sabir take the best this country has to offer, then identify with the people who would bomb Iraq back to the Dark Ages. while killing hundreds of innocent bystanders, in order to rule? Mr. Shah is accused of introducing Dr. Sabir to an informant and an undercover agent and offering their services as a \package deal.\ Dr. Sabir was to provide medical services to wounded jihadists when he was to visit Saudi Arabia later this year. In an effort to infiltrate groups of terrorist sympa- thizers, the FBI is using agents who are posing as oper- atives. Among some defense lawyers and civil rights advocates, there has been criticism about possible entrapment \of people who pose no real danger but are way of lifeis the best - far preferable to totalitarian or - oligarchic or theocratic regimes. So here two men, Tarik Ion Osman Shah of the Bronx, who is a martial arts expert, and Rafiq Sabir, of Boca Raton, Florida, who graduated from City College and Columbia University Medical School, accused of allegiance to al Qaeda. I don't know where the martial arts expert trained, but I do believe that a medical degree from Columbia University virtually assures some success in the medical profession. How, then, can someone who is meritorious enough to carn a freecol- lege degree in New York City, then to win a place in T guess I am asking, how could anyone take our best opportunities, realize his potential, then turn around and work for those who would bomb hospitals and kill doc- tors for political purposes. Because that is exactly what the insurgents are doing in Baghdad. On the same day that the news broke about the men arrested in a sting operation by the FBI for swearing allegiance to Osama bin Laden, another news story told of a handwritten letter threatening top doctors at Baghdad's main cardiac hospital and warning them to leave their jobs immediately. Given the backdrop of unremitting violence, four of the top surgeons and six lured into make-believe plots at the government s urg- ing,\ according to a recent article in The New York Times. But at this point, the authorities do not feel they have the leisure to slowly pursue these people and see if they really carry out their words, and so these two were arrested on the basis of their words alone. From outward appearances, we don't understand our enemies, and that poses an additional danger. All we can see is that, by at least one man at the highest rung of our society's ladder, our values have been rejected. Is this one man typical of others in the same position, and if so, what motivates them, or is he simply mad? TIMES BEACON RECORD - spfon arp EDKTORIAL \ \ Leah S. Dunaiof Katherine Consorte We welcome letsers, comments and story EXECUTIVE Eprron mum“ ideas. Send your items to PO Box 707. Setauket, NY Marie Murtagh Peter C. Mastrosimone 11733 or email to timesapt@ibraewspapers.com. Or drop by EDITOR Charles Morgan our news office at 67 Main Street, Northport. The opinions Patricia Proven Kathy O'Sullivan of qur columnists are not necessarily those of the paper. LEISURE EDITOR Patricia Proven Times Beacon Record Newspapers are published Elen: Barcel W Address: PO Box 707, Setauket, NY 11733. Alysea Cutler ohn Westerman Telephone: (63!)7$l-1744IWeb timesofnorthport.com mm PHOTOGRAPHY Robert O'Fourk Mary Chirichella ART AND PRODUCTION Janis Greene DIRECTOR Lois Hovic Dand R. t Boosh Laenig ASSISTANT ART Directon Diane Lisborwitz Linda Teto saw-4m ART ANO PRODUCTION Laura Renee Ajboreli Lynn Tunney Vincent CLASgIFIEDS pirecton Janet Fortuna Elen Sega! Karen Glick BUSINESS MANAGER Beth Heller-Mason Mary Fiorentino Anne Mure Hewitt CIRCULATION MANAGER Karen Paok Diane Wekttecampe ADVERTISING DinECTOR BUSINESS OFFICE ADVERTIBING \ Barbara Newman Butcher ”WWW, MANAGER hw e toe a a woe won m e e e tot e a # wie e noe trm e t w woe e a e
