Attacks seem unreal on other coast

SANTA CRUZ, CALIFORNIA, SEPTEMBER 18: SEALS bark in the sun and a light breeze nudges sailboats out to sea in this sleepy California coastal town, making it nearly impossible to believe this place is part of a country under attack.

There are only a few signs of the trouble on East Coast— someone taped an American flag to the arm of a cliff-top statue of a surfer looking out to the Pacific.

‘‘There’s definitely tension, but it’s not as intense here as in New York, because it’s unreal,’’ said surfer Skip Craig, climbing up the cliff from the ocean. ‘‘It’s like something we watched on television.’’

Californians talk about what will happen ‘‘if we go to war,’’ while New Yorkers, amid the death, smoke and panic in the streets, feel as though they are at war already. The difference is simple — for New Yorkers, the attacks literally hit home.

The plume of black smoke where the planes destroyed the twin towers of the World Trade Center could be seen from far-flung suburbs. Bomb scares went on for days. Jet fighters circled overhead. Grown men cried in the streets.

The fact that West Coast residents did not face the attacks personally could make a difference in the reaction to what President George W. Bush has promised will be a long struggle.

The lone dissenter in Congress to a House resolution Bill to allow the President to use ‘‘all necessary and appropriate force’’ against terrorists and those who support them was liberal Bay area Democrat Barbara Lee. ‘‘However difficult this vote may be, some of us must urge the use of restraint,’’ Lee said.

Anti-war groups organised at Berkeley, California, and callers into local radio station KPFA urged people who don’t want to go to war to wear black arm bands. Activists here said they have a perspective that may balance any demand for revenge in the East.

‘‘There is the distance from the immediacy from the attack itself,’’ said Madea Benjamin, founding director of San Francisco-based Global Exchange human rights group.

Not everyone in California is against striking back. One teenager, a member of a group meant to help kids stay out of gangs, was selling T-shirts in the Los Angeles beachfront community of Venice Beach — home to artists, surfers, and body builders — that read: ‘‘Osama bin Laden, Wanted Dead or Alive.’’

‘‘Excuse me ma’am, but would you help us to kill someone today?’’ was his sales pitch to a passerby.

By contrast, many in New York hunkered down with videos. Video rental company Blockbuster said it saw a greater increase in business in the North-east than in the rest of the country.

Business at stores in San Francisco and Los Angeles paused on Tuesday, but began to fill with shoppers later in the week. Offices in San Francisco and Los Angeles returned to business as usual in the days after the attacks, but for many New Yorkers, especially those working downtown, going back to work was an act of bravery.

‘‘I’m nervous but you can’t let it stop you, you have to get back to your routine,’’ said a Hoboken, New Jersey, resident rushing to get onto the PATH train to New York. (Reuters)