Once again, President Reagan's favorite speech writer has woven a delightful, if ominous, web of informed opinion for the Wall Street Journal. The article may be found at:[url]http://www.opinionjournal.com/columnists/pnoonan/?id=95001349[/url]

[size=4]Profiles Encouraged[/size=4]
[b]Under the cirumstances, we must be wary of young Arab men.[/b]

It was Sept. 14 at 9 p.m., and I was on Fifth Avenue, directly across the street from St. Patrick's Cathedral. I was standing, that is, directly in front of the statue of Atlas holding up the world, at the entrance of Rockefeller Center. I was with my 14-year-old son. We were waiting for friends who were going to accompany us downtown to see the memorials that had sprung up in Washington Square and other places.

Our friends were a few minutes late. We waited together on the quiet, near-empty street. New York had been attacked only days before, and our city was quiet; people were home.

Suddenly to our right, on the sidewalk, we saw two "Mideastern looking men," as we all now say. They were 25 or 30 years old, dressed in jeans and windbreakers, and they were doing something odd. They were standing together silently videotaping the outside of St. Pat's, top to bottom. We watched them, trying to put what we were seeing together. Tourists? It was a funny time of day for tourists to be videotaping a landmark--especially when the tourists looked like the guys who'd just a few days before blown up a landmark.

We watched them. After a minute or so they finished taping St. Pat's and turned toward where we were. We were about 20 feet away from them, and we eyeballed them hard. They stared back at us in what I thought an aggressive manner: a deadeye stare, cold, no nod, no upturned-chin hello.

They stared at us staring at them for a few seconds, and then they began to videotape Rockefeller Center. We continued watching, and I surveyed the street for a policeman or patrol car. I looked over at the men again. They were watching me. The one with the camera puts it down for a moment. We stared, they stared. And then they left. They walked away and disappeared down a side street.

Let me tell you what I thought. I thought: Those guys are terrorists.

And then I thought: Whoa, wait a minute. I must be experiencing what people experienced after Pearl Harbor, when all of a sudden they'd see a young Asian guy with a camera and get all excited. You can get paranoid. You can get unfair.

I thought: The guys I just saw weren't breaking the law, in any case there are no cops around, and if I drop a dime to overburdened 911--"I saw two Mideastern men taking pictures!"--they'd brush me off.

So I just filed it away, as did my son.

But neither of us could shake it.
*          *          *

See remainder of the article at above address.

Eric The(Yes,I'mAfraidIt'sComeToThis!)Hun[>]:)]

Great Article, BTT

I second that...It was a very well thought out, decisive, and most importantly, correct op-ed.  Peggy Noonan does a great job!


Go Go Go

[shotgun]

I know this is off the subject, but I would just LOVE to "DO" Peggy Noonan! The next time we have a babes thread, she gets my vote!