By KEITH GRANT
The local couple had spent months trying to stop the war in the Persian Gulf, which had just begun before their eyes. They took part in every protest, filled the Herald with letters, and joined a lawsuit filed by other Long Islanders hoping to block the first President Bush from initiating the war.
"You have to do whatever you can to stop war," Vic Scutari told the Herald at the time.
Today, the couple lives in Wendell, Mass., a small town of some 900 people, where they own and operate the local General store. The store has become a gathering point for locals who stand as opposed to war in the Gulf as the Scutaris were then, and are now.
"We're very frustrated," Pat Scutari said. "We live in a town where almost everyone agrees with us. Everyone comes in and is so frustrated, so upset. It's a very different climate than Long Beach was."
The Scutaris left Long Beach 10 years ago after a decade of operating the local soup kitchen. They had visited Wendell several times on weekend vigils and came to like the area.
"We thought maybe we needed a change. We had four young kids then," Pat said.
While Pat says she misses Long Beach "tremendously"--the couple visited as recently as last summer--they seem to enjoy an environment that they feel is more open to their points of view.
"It feels better to be able to talk with people more openly, with more people that share our opinions," she said. "Even people here that are more conservative seem to be a lot more open to hearing another point of view. It seemed like we were just getting death threats or things thrown at us on Long Island. It was kinda scary sometimes."
"Scary" is also how they define the current world crisis. The Scutaris believe the precedent about the set by the U.S. and its allies is an awful one for the world.
"I never thought I'd live to see the day we'd attack another country," Mrs. Scutari, said. "I don't believe Iraq poses any kind of imminent threat. I don't know how we've sat back and let this happen.
Thousands of children have died from the sanctions. It's not even a war. It's a massacre."
Vic Scutari, now 70, said, "We're horrified. The '91 thing was nothing compared to this. It's starting a whole new ballgame. If we can do it, other nations will, too."
The couple believes that politicians are too afraid to stand up and disagree with the administration. "Since 9/11, it seems it's become unpatriotic to disagree with the president," Mrs. Scutari said. "Sept. 11 was a horrible, horrible thing. But it changed the climate in being able to disagree with the president."
