In the 1920s, there were between 20,000 and 30,000 Klan members in suburban Long Island. Whatever the precedent, however, this is pretty shocking.

Awakened by a loud bang and the ring of their doorbell, an

interracial couple peered out the front window of their Long Island home at 3

a.m. yesterday and saw a cross burning on the front lawn.



They said they immediately called the Suffolk County

police, but by the time officers arrived, rain had doused the fire. The police

removed the cross, which was three feet tall and made from the slats of a picket

fence. By yesterday afternoon, the only remaining trace was a charred circle of

grass outside the building, a two-family house in the southwest corner of Lake

Grove.

Welcome to four more years.