By IAN HILL

By IAN HILL
and PATRICIA MEADE
VINDICATOR STAFF WRITERS
YOUNGSTOWN -- Two men approach security at an airport. One of the men has dark skin, dark hair and a black mustache. The other is white, with blond hair and blue eyes.
If you were an airport security officer, which man would you keep your eye on? Which man would you pat down?
Nellie Gonzalez knows you'd probably pick the dark-skinned man because he might be Arabic. The blue-eyed man, meanwhile, most likely could get on the plane without a second glance from security officers.
Even if he were carrying a bomb.
"They're not going to stop the other guy because he doesn't look the part," Gonzalez said. "That's racial profiling. You know what I mean? And [the blue-eyed man is] the guy you have to worry about. If they're going to stop, stop everybody.
"My husband's Hispanic but he looks Arabic. If they stop him because he looks Arabic, it's wrong."
Wait is OK: Gonzalez added that she doesn't mind waiting in line at an airport so that security officers can thoroughly search travelers.
"It might be a little inconvenient, but I'd rather be alive, then, you know, not inconvenienced and dead," she said.
The Vindicator talked with Gonzalez and three other Hispanic women about racial profiling, security and other topics related to life after the Sept. 11 attacks. The women were: Gonzalez, 38, Fran Wilson, 65, both of Youngstown; Virginia Hernandez, 55, of Campbell and Elba Navarro, 56, of Boardman.
Wilson said she feels relieved when she is stopped and questioned by security officials at airports.
"If someone stops me, I say, 'Thank you so much for questioning me, because that means you're going to do it to the next guy, and to the next guy,'" she said.
Navarro noted that some of her friends have said airport security in other countries is much more thorough than in the United States.
"They said in England, you're put in a room, and you are searched. And Germany, I understand that's the same thing," she said.
Some of the women also said that before Sept. 11, they felt security in other countries was tougher than in the United States. They wondered why American airports waited until the terrorists attacked to increase security.
"When you go to the airport, before they didn't check your luggage, you know what I mean?" Navarro said. "They don't know what you're carrying in there.
"Now they're more alert. Now they're doing it. They should have never taken that out."
"In Puerto Rico they've always done that," Gonzalez said. "They've always checked your luggage. You go to the airport an hour earlier, because you know."
"You know they're going to search your luggage," Navarro said.
Closer to home: The women, mindful of the increase in security for airline travelers across the country, also reflected on security in the Mahoning Valley. Gonzalez said she feels local security officials must remain vigilant, even though the Valley may not seem to be a target for terrorists.
"They can make a statement, that we can come in and get this small town and wipe them right out," she said. "Our security here cannot grow lax, because of us being a small town, we'd be a prime target to set an example, if nothing else."
Wilson added, "I find myself reminding people, 'Thank God it was New York and not Youngstown.' And then they'll go, 'What?' I said, 'Think about that.' And that kind of wakes them up."
Gonzalez also stressed that Mahoning Valley officials should be concerned about the possibility of an attack by a local resident.
"This is the type of town, that the people from those countries would come to. They don't want to be in a New York and LA where they might be a little bit more seen," she said.
"We have a lot of people from Arab descent here in Youngstown. So we can't just say, 'It'll never touch us.' It's all the way around us. Everywhere you look.
"[The terrorists will say] 'Who's going to watch us there, Traficant? Please. Who's going to watch us in Youngstown?' So I think we have to be more alert in Youngstown, and in this area, in the Midwest. That's the prime area for anyone, I would say, to hide out, to plan, and then take their plans elsewhere and put them into action.
"So far, we haven't had any problems. But those people that came, those terrorists, they were hiding low. They went to Florida, they were in Kissimmee, they weren't in big cities."
Who sees it being over? Other wars had an end date.
Wilson doesn't see an end, no way.
"Afghanistan has been fighting for so long, it's pathetic and if you go back and you read about Israel and Palestine, they've been fighting forever," she said.
"If you look at Mexico, they've been fighting forever. You take any one of those countries, because the biggest problem, like everyone said, go in and take out Saddam Hussein. So what? Who's going to run that country? Who do you choose? Who do you choose to run that country?
Third World: "It gets back to the Third World, those worlds, and trying to educate those countries, and putting a plan in place that will help them. We've given them so much help now, it's just, 'Here's my hand' type of thing," Wilson said.
"There's a big worldwide problem. They made their statement, those groups made their statement, they have nothing to worry about now. And if that little fella [Osama bin Laden] is out there running around looking like Clark Gable, they won't care about that either any more than they cared about Saddam Hussein."
Gonzalez has found it difficult to explain the war to her children. When she hears, "Mommy, who are we at war with?" she has to explain it's not a war against another country, it's a war against terrorism.
"Which they understand, but at the same point, when does it end? Well, you know what, terrorists have been around since God knows when. So, it will never end," she said.
"They're asking if, 'Poppy's going to be,' that their dad's [a military reservist] never going to be safe from being called to duty? Or their friends, you know, parents, or whoever? I said, 'Well, you just have to take it one day at a time. I mean, we don't know.'"
Hernandez added that the threat of more attacks also has caused her grandson to question the future.
"It's affected my 9-year-old grandson, definitely. Because, he's wondering, 'Are we going to go to war? Are we going to die? What's going to happen?'" she said.
Hernandez noted that she was baby-sitting her grandchildren when the Sept. 11 attacks occurred.
"My sister started calling me and said, 'Turn the TV on, turn the TV on!' I said, 'Why?' And you know, I said 'Why?' And they said, 'Because it's the end of the world!'" she said.
"And I said, 'The end of the world? Then I don't want to know what's going on!'"
Effect on kids: Yet, the women also stressed that fear and uncertainty in the post-Sept. 11 world haven't paralyzed all children. Gonzalez said the attacks and war on terrorism have led her daughter to learn more about the world.
"My daughter's gotten into this women's rights now," Gonzalez said. "She could not believe that they don't let women do these things in Afghanistan. 'What do you mean they don't let them go to school? That's ridiculous, mom.'
"We've watched the specials that they've had, the women behind the veil, and things like that, and they had a good special on Oprah, and they showed all that, the women of Afghanistan. My daughter was outraged. She's 10. She's like, 'Mom this doesn't make any sense. Why don't they just come here?' I said, 'Honey, it's not that easy.'
"And she says, 'Oh, I'm thankful that I'm here in America because I would hate to be there.'"
Navarro, who is a Spanish teacher at Chaney High School, noted that some of her students have become more patriotic since Sept. 11.
She noted that in the past students would say the Pledge of Allegiance and would act as if " 'oh yeah here we go, every morning we say the Pledge of Allegiance, stand up and say the pledge.' Well, I've noticed they do pay attention, and they look at the flag, where before it was just like ... high school, so we have to say the pledge.
"Now it's like, I've noticed a lot of them are like, 'I do want to say the Pledge of Allegiance.' And you know what's amazing? I teach Spanish. And some of the students asked me if they could learn it in Spanish. So my first period, they take turns, somebody says the pledge in Spanish."
Other local residents also have been demonstrating their patriotism, the women said.
"We almost had a brawl at one of our socials that we had because this fella is waiting to become a United States citizen, and one of the Mexicans made a smart remark about, 'I don't know why they're all upset about that, we live with that in Mexico, all the revolutions and everything else that have occurred. Why the big deal?'" Wilson said.
"Oh man, [the fellows] got all blown out of shape and just carried on. 'I'm waiting to be a citizen. This is a great country, and if you don't like it, go on back.'
"That would've never happened previous to [Sept. 11]. I said, I can't believe these guys are fighting over, over, you know, what happened September the 11th."
"We used to be more patriotic," Gonzalez said. "We got away from all of that and the terrorist attack brought us back to that.
"No matter what nation we were born in, we all live here in the United States. I myself was born in the United States, but my parents weren't.
"But no matter where you're born, you have that connection because we live here, we were raised here."
hill@vindy.com
meade@vindy.com