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A FOURTH OF JULY SALUTE TO LADY LIBERTY %u00b1The Spirit o f Liberty Still Shines:To Greenpoint At Gunpoint: Solidarity Leader ExiledFrom Homeland Fights For Freedom From Brooklyntimes. Not because I was incompetent, but because I didn%u2019t have a %u201cgodfather.%u201d In Haiti, if yon don%u2019t have a %u201cgodfather%u201d in the government you couldn%u2019t do what youU **.%u00ab*%u00ab% T a a i i I/1 Ka n r k f iiA im w T n f Q n tt u lwr %%u00bb* n %u00bb v v i %u00ab Jk. w w m s w m w %u00bb%u00bb m m w %u00abto be.%u201dWhen Marie and Christian both left Haiti, rumblings against the government were but a distant call. %u201cI did not leave because it was so terrible for me there,%u201d she says.%u201cBut I knew that America could offer me more opportunity.%u201d%u201cWe knew America was the land of opportunity,%u201d adds Christian. %u201cHere you could work and make a living, and raise a family. That is what I wanted.%u201d%u201cIn Haiti you would see people from New York come and spend lots of money,%u201d says Marie. %u201cIn Haiti there wasn%u2019t a lot of money. So many Haitians wanted to come to America. It was not a bad time there when I came. If you kept a low profile the government would not bother you. But there was not the freedom that there is here.%u201d Marie and Christian met soon after Marie came to this country, introduced by a mutual friend who knew them both in Haiti. Christian jokes that he wanted to marry Gisele, the friend, but said that instead he would m arry one of her friends. %u201cWe met at Gisele%u2019s wedding,%u201d says Christian. %u201cAnd Marie wouldn%u2019t talk to me. Wouldn%u2019t give me her phone number. Wouldn%u2019t go out with me. But I knew right away that I wanted to marry her.%u201dHE WAS A STRANGER %u201cI was just arrived in a new country,%u201d says Marie. %u201cAnd he was a stranger to me.I didn%u2019t know a lot of people, and I didn%u2019t trust him.%u201d%u201cNow she says she would have been sorry if she hadn%u2019t married me,%u201d says Christian, breaking into a full-bodied laugh at Marie%u2019s sour expression. %u201cAnd together we worked to bring our family up.%u201dHard work, long hours and an unyielding fix on their goals gave them the strength to save money to put their children in private schools and buy their home in Midwood.%u201cWe came here for a better life,%u201d says Marie. %u201cAnd we knew we would have to work for it.%u201d In Haiti, she adds, hard work did not always mean success. %u201cIn Haiti you learned to keep your mouth shut and nek make any trouble.%u201dThey have raised their three children to continue their dreams of prosperity tempered with love and discipline. Carine hopes to pursue the biological sciences, Sabine wants to teach disabled or disadvantaged children and Reggie wants to become a computer engineer. Aside from speaking two languages in the home, Carine says she does not feel different than other American children.UNTIL PROBLEMS STARTED %u201cMy parents may be a little more strict,%u201d she says, %u201cbut I think that is good. In a moral sense they have tried to give us better values. I never really thought too much about liberty or freedom until the problems started in Haiti.%u201d When Duvalier wasousted from power in Haiti, the Barometres watched the violence on their television set in Brooklyn, thousands of miles away from the revolution.Now, Christian is planning to travel to Haiti in the near future to see his father %u2014 a relationship that has been severed for 15 years. With tensions eased, the trip is now possible, but the Barometre children are not happy about the plans. %u201cIt%u2019s too scary down there,%u201d says Sabine. %u201cI don%u2019t want to go.%u201d Her sentiment is echoed by her brother Reggie, who adds, %u201cI don%u2019t want my father to go there.%u201dBut the trip is a certainty. %u201cThe last time I saw him was in 1971,%u201d says Christian. %u201cI would want him to come to this country, butnow he is sick. I don%u2019t think anything will happen to me in Haiti. The worst is that the plane I want to take back will be cancelled. Everyone is striking in Haiti, now. But I am not afraid of violence.%u201dNEVER THOUGHT ABOUT %u201cThey hear about Haiti, and read about the violence maybe more than other kids,%u201d adds Christian. %u201cAnd they know they have relatives in that country.%u201d%u201cWatching that helps me to realize what freedom is,%u201d says Carine. %u201cBefore this I never really thought about it.%u201dHer parents, however, have thought about it a lot. Their beliefs, though different, build on each other. %u201cI believe that the education in America is better. You can learn and beBY LIZ KOCHIt was just after midnight%u2014five strokes past the hour%u2014when police broke down the door of Zbigniew Nieoczym%u2019s home in Chelm, Poland, and, placing a gun to his head, took him into custody. That night, December 13,1961, throughout Poland, 50,000 people were arrested and martial law gripped file country. Nieoczym was a lawyer representing members of the Solidarity movement in a town 10 miles from the Soviet border. He was sent to jail even though no charges were brought against him; no trial was held but still an indefinite sentence sent him to Polish prison.On June 15 this year, Nieoczym and some three hundred other Poles protested at the Polish Consulate in New York City in defense of political prisoners still interned in Poland and marched to the Russian and Polish U.N. Mission protesting human rights neglect in their country. %u201cWe organize demonstrations to show that not everywhere are human rights realized,%u201d Nieoczym says sitting in his home in Greenpoint. On the wall are political buttons declaring the message %u201cRenounce Yalta,%u201d and %u201cSolidarity,%u201d and among his belongings are the official papers informing him he could go into exile in the West or remainContinued on Page 26It wasn V exactly a choice.The secret police said youcan live in Poland, but yourplace in Poland is only injail. Or you can go tothe West.what you want. You can make your dreams come true here.%u201d%u201cLiberty, freedom make all things possible,%u201d says Christian. %u201cNow we try to do the best for our children, and make their lives better.%u201d%u201cHey, is this picture going to be in full color?%u201d Sabine asks the photographer who is snapping pictures as we talk.%u201cNo, it%u2019s for a newspaper, silly,%u201d says Carine. %u201cI swear you are so dumb sometimes.%u201d The two sisters bound up the stairs teasing each other, like thousands of siblings across America do every day.%u201cI%u2019ve never wanted to go back to Haiti,%u201d says Marie. %u201cMy children will find a much better life here in Brooklyn.%u201dHave a H appy & H ealthy4th o f JulySka m m a d^ d o o d _9 n c .197 A tla n tic Ave. 855-2455BELANTHI GALLERY142 COURT STREET %u2022 BROOKLYN NY (718)855-2769The Classical American LandscapeCongratulations To The Statue of LibertyWe wish our customers a very healthy and happy 4th o f July. We are happy to serve you in our store and cafe.LADIMA GROCERY (AIELLOS LATTICINI)a n dCAFEELANA335-337 Court St. 624-1439STOP IN FOR A BREWAND CELEBRATE THE FOURTH107 Montague St. 858-1200DAVID BROW NLicensed Real Estate Broker255 Kane Street(corner Court Street)Cobble Hill, Brooklyn(718)797-3003H ap p y Fourth o f July!from the Staff atJ.F.C. Paint Corp;Large Selection of ShadesLevalore Blinds and Paints285 Court St.Free Delivery6 2 4 -8 7 6 4858-9681 H ud of til* Statu* of Llborty at tha Pari* International Fair, 1S7S(Library o f Congress)July 3,1986, TH E PH OENIX, Paga 23