Unless the airlines are going to require all passengers, pilots and crew to fly naked with no carry-on luggage, keeping weapons off planes is a pipe dream.

But while Mr. Schundler was pouring forth with proposals for tax and toll cuts, a complicated overhaul of the public education system, and other ambitious measures, Mr. McGreevey said little that was specific and less that was controversial.

We have an unusual opportunity to show these kids about helping one another, about showing that we have a responsibility to take care of each other.

Mr. Saad says that reports of widespread harassment of Arab-Americans following the September 11 terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon have been exaggerated.

"This talk about Arab-Americans being harassed is a big misconception," he said. "I have had a great reaction. I hear all of this, and I thought, 'Well, maybe my suppliers won't work with me any more.'

"But I have had well wishes from all of them, and all of my customers, Italian, black, white," he adds.

Jeff Youssef, standing in the market gabbing with anyone who walks by, says the same thing.

"The harassment has been inflated," he said. "The media has decided that is the story. But we are mostly left alone. Most people, no matter what color, get hassled at some point."

Adds Angela Harb, a West Bloomfield woman of Palestinian descent: "These communities are very tight, and in some cases, some don't even see others."

Growing up in Livonia, Miss Harb, 41, never went to school dances.

"Instead, our community had its own affairs. Even when I go away, I miss seeing my culture everywhere," she said.

Tim Attalla has three children ? Omar, Yusef and Allie. Mr. Attalla feared initially that they would be subject to the anti-Arab insults that were so widely reported by some media outlets. He lives in Northville, an affluent upscale suburb.

"They have had no problems at all," Mr. Attalla said. "I think the media does more harm than the other kids."

While the Arab-American media has also protested loudly about racial profiling and attacks on U.S. Muslims, most will, under direct questioning, say the incidents are isolated.

When the Rev. George Shalhoub told media callers that he had received no threats following the September 11 attacks, the conversation was over.

"They didn't want to talk to me at all if I wasn't being threatened," said Mr. Shalhoub, a Syrian immigrant who presides over St. Mary's Antiochian Orthodox Church in the suburb of Livonia.