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Editorial
Strangers everywhere, even in people we know
"Well, we all fall in love, but we disregard the danger. Though we share so many secrets, there are some we never tell. Why were you so surprised that you never saw the stranger? Did you ever let your lover see the stranger in yourself?"
These lyrics are from Billy Joel's song The Stranger, and although the song details a person discovering the other side of a loved one- and not necessarily a bad side- the words can aptly be used to describe Monday's major news story. Residents along Allendale Road were stunned to learn that a popular neighbor may be the long soughtafter "Bike Path Rapist." However, as Billy Joel points out, there are strangers in all of us.
How often do we read in news articles that neighbors were surprised to learn that the clean-cut man next door was involved in child pornography, or that the typical "girl next door" was arrested for prostitution. Some alcoholics and drug addicts are adept at hiding their "dirty little secrets."
Virtually everyone has a different side to himself that is generally kept from public. Many of those sides are harmless: the health nut who has a weakness for Twinkies or the tough guy who cries when watching "chick flicks." As innocuous as these strangers are, there is always an underlying possibility that a dangerous stranger lives right in your own neighborhood. Allendale Road residents may be asked to accept the latter possibility about Altemio Sanchez, a likable guy who coached Little League at Cleveland Hill and basketball at St. Aloysius Gonzaga Church.
If Sanchez is the Bike Path Rapist, it will be proven in court. While a guilty verdict against a notorious criminal would bring relief to thousands of Western New Yorkers, it will also leave many residents troubled that a person capable of such heinous crimes was living next door or on their block. In the meantime, most of us will carry on with our normal lives, understanding that the good guy is the norm and, thankfully, the evil stranger is still the exception.
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