Quotes.

• Position: About current events

"Today, America's families declare, `We will not be afraid, and we will be ready.'"--Secretary of Homeland Security TOM RIDGE, announcing a $1.2 million "ready campaign," a public-relations effort to give citizens easy access to information they need to know during a crisis of terror. He urged calm while still asking Americans to take precautions. (The New York Times, Feb. 20)

"Major concerns were raised. It's chilling."--JOHN M. LOGSDON, a space expert, on the contents of NASA e-mail messages sent in the days before the Columbia space-shuttle disaster. (The New York Times, Feb. 27)

"I don't think Somalia is my country because we Somali Bantus have seen our people treated like donkeys there. I think my country is [the country] where I am going."--FATUMA ABDEKADIR, one of 12,000 Somali Bantu refugees awaiting resettlement in the U.S. (The New York Times, March 10)

"Iraq agreed `in principle' to destroy their missiles. You know why they...