Here in Oakland there aren't that many flags. Most of the ones I've seen have been prominently displayed by minorities. I have also not seen any spontaneous pro-war demonstrations except for a small (24 people) gathering of Pacific Bell employees a few days ago. It was not clear whether the gathering was orchestrated by Pacific Bell or organized by the employees, but the fact that it was the only one and that everyone was carrying red/blue/white candles in identical paper cups suggests that it was more of an official than an ad-lib gathering.
The local chapter of the hi-tech firm for which I work is largely against the proposed vigilante justice with the exception of a few zionists. However, I note that they are being extremely quiet and are keeping their "I told you sos" to remarks about "now you see what the Israelis" have to put up with. This has not proved to be a very successful conversational gambit as most of the folks who work here do not wish to live in a country like Israel. For one thing, we're an extremely multi-cultural group with lots and lots of mixed marriages. For another, there was not that much support for our Middle East policy to begin with.
A few days ago I took a walk around the local lake with one of the engineers here. He is an evangelical christian and I was curious about his reaction, especially since he cannot be considered a leftist in any sense and is apolitical. I asked him what he was going to tell his 6 children (5 are adopted from Korea and Ethiopia). He said he was going to talk about "He who lives by the sword, dies by the sword" and also discuss what he termed our wrongheaded policy toward Israel. All in all no jingoism there. I was pleasantly surprised.
For myself, I have been navigating upon waves of anxiety attacks--not about the terrorists but about what Bush and company are likely to visit upon the world and ultimately upon us. In this context, thank you Yoshie for your sober, clearheaded missives.
The one bright moment this last week -- totally unconnected with the bombing -- was going to an Indian art film festival in Fremont (H1B country, 30 miles south of Oakland) and seeing a Bengali movie called Dekha (director Gautam Ghose) about a blind socialist/aristo poet and the efforts of those around him to get him to believe that there is anything left to write poetry about. Really great movie. As it was used to open the London Film Festival this year, I assume it is bound to come around to the big cities/universities eventually. Don't miss it. Very beautiful and squarely in the tradition of Satyajit Ray filmmaking with the exception that it's in color and Ray did his best work in black and white.
Cheers to all,
Joanna Bujes