California's anti-war stance doesn't reflect most of America.

Byline: Patrick May

SAN JOSE, Calif. _ This is a lonely place to be as the nation marches off to war. Steeped in a pacifist counterculture and long considered a peculiar population unto itself, Bay Area residents find themselves chanting in the streets and Bush-bashing their way through cocktail parties, while America boots up for battle.

In Washington, the president rattles a saber. In Northern California, people get naked.

Last month at Drake's Beach in Point Reyes, 94 women disrobed and spelled out ``PEACE'' with their bodies in the sand. It was a heartfelt stunt. Yet it had an air of desperation, as if the women were crying out for attention on behalf of everyone on this faraway coast.

To be sure, we're protesting in more conventional ways as well. Like others in cities around the nation, tens of thousands of marchers in San Francisco and San Jose are getting the same brushoff from the White House. But here, the rejection has a familiar sting to it. After ...