March 10, 1996

CLIMBING into a sport utility vehicle can be a challenge, particularly for a short woman in a tight skirt. A colleague, with whom I was having lunch, politely held open the door of his Ford Explorer as I hoisted myself into the passenger seat in a not-so-ladylike manner. Just how much, I wondered in mid-climb, did my hiked-up skirt leave exposed? Sure, sport utilities have their advantages. Their high ground clearance and four-wheel-drive systems let them to go just about anywhere. They convey an active, outdoorsy image to their owners. And with most companies now offering one or more of these vehicles, they are available with virtually every convenience of a car.

Although Congress and President Clinton remain deadlocked on landmark legislation overhauling the nation's welfare system, states around the country, with conservative governors and legislators in the lead, have already cut billions of dollars from welfare programs and have won waivers from Washington enabling them to experiment with ways of cutting billions more. As a result of these initiatives, some of the most significant welfare changes contemplated by Congress -- limiting the length of time in which a beneficiary can receive assistance, for instance, and imposing work requirements on most recipients -- are already being tested at the state level.

In one of a thousand small chain reactions of democracy, Pamela Brathwaite, of Barbados, was in Brooklyn Federal Court taking the oath of citizenship one recent morning so she would be able to vote, just as a friend had done before her and just as her mother, sisters, uncle and cousin would do after her. They were telling one another that one more vote would make a difference. She and the hundreds of others crammed into the grand wood-paneled courtroom -- their voices an exotic murmur of Chinese, Spanish, English, Russian and other languages -- are part of a phenomenal increase in the number of immigrants who are becoming citizens and voters in New York City and across the nation.

DRIVING through a snowstorm last month on his way to Brookhaven Town Hall, Felix J. Grucci Jr. described his move from pyrotechnics to politics. In November, Mr. Grucci, chairman of Fireworks by Grucci, was elected as Supervisor with a 66 percent plurality, the largest margin in town history.

On a mild day last October, Patrick Ewing walked into the office of his new coach, arranged his 7-foot frame comfortably on a sofa and began his first serious conversation with the man who would possibly oversee the remaining years of his stellar National Basketball Association career. Ewing being the franchise player that he is, one of the first things that Don Nelson wanted to accomplish in his new job as coach of the Knicks was to gain the respect, trust and, most important, the support of the club's All-Star center.