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Protest Has The Nod Of This Shop's Crowd

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By TOM JACKSON, The Tampa Tribune

Published: February 7, 2008

LAND O' LAKES - If a recent unscientific survey, conducted over the course of a mid-afternoon in a solitary (but noteworthy) barber shop, is any indication, the peace-at-any-cost folks of the Nature Coast Coalition for Peace and Justice could come away from their very first central Pasco demonstration kicking themselves for waiting so long.

Whether they thought America's military adventure in Iraq was a proper response to a radically changed post-Sept. 11 world that subsequently was desperately mismanaged, or they are charter members of the fractional minority who thought deposing Saddam Hussein was ill-conceived from the get-go, virtually everyone inside Mel's Barber Shop - clients and clippers alike - now holds the opinion that the sooner Yankee troops are out of Mesopotamia, the better.

Which is pretty much how the coalition's deep thinkers, led by Socialist Party USA presidential candidate Brian Moore, sees it, too. They will demonstrate from 10:30 a.m. to noon Saturday at U.S. 41 and State Road 54.

Not that Mel's is a hotbed for Barack Obama, the Democrats' "come home yesterday" presidential hopeful. But for Bill Johnson, an 86-year-old World War II vet who never voted Republican, ever, the sentiment in the shop tilted, counter-intuitively, toward John McCain, the prickly GOP frontrunner whose idea of ending the U.S. involvement in Iraq approaches "Surge II: The Blitz."

Nonetheless, given the choice between staying under current conditions (the best efforts of the brilliant and resourceful Gen. David Petraeus notwithstanding) and leaving, our small sample wants to see bags packed and a fleet of C-130 Hercules loaded.

Eye Off The Bin Laden Ball

Odessa's Tom Mora, a John Deere rep and an Army interrogator in Vietnam, Class of 1967, illuminated the room's intellectual conflict: "Think of all the wars we've been in. Korea, Vietnam, Desert Storm, Afghanistan, Iraq - not one win, and how many deaths? How many deaths?"

The bright line dividing Mora's thinking is not uncommon. Wage war to win and to serve America's best interests - $35 oil, anyone? - or get home. Mora would rather full attention was paid to nailing Osama bin Laden: "Get him, torture him, harm him. ... We could bomb a thousand countries, but until we catch bin Laden, we will have no restitution for 9/11, no closure."

Waxing Conversational

Oakstead's Ed Watson, manager of a Tampa FedEx shop and a 1990s-era Navy veteran, second-guesses strategy while musing that the demonstrators "should set up on the railroad tracks." Having served aboard vessels that supported Desert Storm air strikes, his opinion then and now is that American might over there prevents having to engage Islamist radicals here.

Port Richey Olive Garden manager Kelly Barnett, 51, says those who triggered the invasion "didn't do their checks and balances" on prewar intelligence. Anna Garcia, daughter of Cuban immigrants, both Republicans, lacks the interior incandescence of her parents. "Politics stress me out." Nonetheless, she would alert her husband, anti-war Adrian, to the protest. "He would be all over that."

Finally there's Karen Dugart, 35, the barber at the far end. While withholding her opinion on the war, she came out foursquare for Saturday's demonstrators. "We need more protests. It awakens thinking, it gets people talking."

Nothing but good could possibly come from that.

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