Herald staff
EVERETT — While cruise missiles and laser-guided bombs rained down on Afghanistan Sunday, the only items falling from the sky in Everett were the first leaves of autumn.
TVs were tuned to ball games. There were lawns to mow, errands to run and cars to repair.
Still, the military strike against a terrorist network on the other side of the world was on the minds of people here.
"I think it is wonderful. I hope they bomb the (expletive) out of the Middle East," Everett resident Roy Johnson, said as he and other teens gathered on the sidewalk outside Jimmy Zs nightclub on Hewitt Avenue, where an all-ages rock show was in progress.
A companion, David Phillips, also of Everett, had a different view.
"In terms of fighting violence with violence, I can’t say I agree with it," said the young man, his lower lip pierced and a battered acoustic guitar in hand.
If the case can be made that terrorist mastermind Osama bin Laden is behind the Sept. 11 attacks on the World Trade Center and Pentagon, that needs to be done in a court of law, not a battlefield, Phillips said. The United States government should be doing all it can to capture bin Laden and bring him to trial, just like it has done with other terrorists, notably Oklahoma City bomber Timothy McVeigh, he said.
Eric Cederstrand, a Realtor from Tacoma, watched his children playing on the slides at Forest Park. He was most impressed with news that U.S. warplanes also were dropping food and medical supplies into Afghanistan, a mission that mixed humanitarian aims with military goals.
"I really feel like we are doing the right thing," Cederstrand said.
He urged people who want to support efforts to combat terror to remember a strong economy gives the U.S. a strategic advantage, and "the most important thing we need to do is to keep spending money."
Gurjeet "Dolly" Kaur, who moved to Everett a year ago from her native India, said the U.S. had no choice but to use force against bin Laden and the Taliban ruling council of Afghanistan. As she pushed her young son on a park swing, she detailed the failed diplomatic efforts to force bin Laden from his refuge in Afghanistan.
"I think it is good," Kaur said of Sunday’s bombing. "We had to do something."
On Everett’s waterfront, a lone blue heron took advantage of a low tide to wade across the mudflats in search of a late-afternoon meal.
Nearby, Cathy Jolliff of central Montana was spending time with her son, who declined to be identified. He’s is in the military, and stationed in Everett.
"Whatever is going to happen is going to happen," Jolliff said of Sunday’s military strikes.
Elsewhere in Washington, emergency workers remained on alert, and military bases maintained tight security while Gov. Gary Locke praised Sunday’s military strikes in Afghanistan.
"I strongly support President Bush’s decision to strike terrorist bases and military facilities in Afghanistan," Gov. Gary Locke said in a statement. "Washington state stands ready to support the President and the nation in every way possible."
State emergency management officials were already in a heightened state of alert and have been since the Sept. 11 attacks in New York and Washington, D.C., Locke spokeswoman Dana Middleton said.
Several ships based at Puget Sound ports have been deployed in support of military action in the Middle East, including the Everett-based USS Ingraham and the USS Carl Vinson and USS Sacramento, both based at Bremerton. A 250-member army special forces unit from Fort Lewis, near Tacoma, also had been deployed.
Operations continued as normal at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport, said airport spokeswoman Rachel Garson. The airport, at the request of the airlines, resumed curbside check-in Sunday, although vehicles left unattended at the curb would immediately be towed, she said.
Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., tried to reassure residents worried about more attacks on U.S. soil.
"Today’s action is necessary in our ongoing struggle against terrorism," she said in a prepared statement. "It is important to note that this is not a struggle between the U.S. and Islam or the U.S. and the Afghani people. This is a struggle between freedom-loving people and those who would do us harm."
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