From Midwest barbershops, talk of military action

As the town barber, Bill Steiner has heard just about everybody's opinion on the events of Sept. 11 - and there are plenty to be heard. One after another, the farmers of this quiet county seat enter his shop, remove their starchy mesh caps, and hold forth on issues from politics to air travel.

For all the different views, though, Mr. Steiner hasn't heard a peep about peace.

Yes, most people here think America should proceed slowly. Moreover, most trust the president completely.

But, without a single exception, all agree that military strikes must be a part of the solution.

Nationwide, opinion polls show that Americans strongly favor a military response to the attacks of Sept. 11, and nowhere is this more apparent than in the neighborhood barber shops of the country's heartland.

Here, where haircuts cost $7, and the red, white, and blue of swirling barber poles still stand porter on street corners, there's no discussion of whether the US should fight back, only when.

The voices from several boutiques across Kansas and Missouri are always emphatic, exclusively white, and mostly male. Yet from this limited sample rises a portrait of middle America, revealing, at least in part, the solidarity that has united this region in a call for action.

"We've got to do something," says Steiner, snipping at the silver hair of a customer as he talks. "If they [the Taliban] don't turn over Osama bin Laden and don't assist us, we have to blow them up. We can't just sit back."

The customer nods his head in agreement. Another, who strides in wearing his overalls and proclaims he's here to "have his ears lowered," promptly joins in. The three feed off each other, passing the conversation like a verbal baton. In this failing farm town of boarded-up windows and going-out-of-business sales, Steiner's Hair Salon can pass as a sort of town hall, where everything is up for debate.

Steiner knows each of his customers before they plop down into the row of connected orange plastic bucket seats along one side of the dark room, and he cuts their hair without asking a question.

Most of the time, he and his customers seem to be of one mind when they talk about Sept. 11. But he acknowledges that he's getting a little more antsy than others. "Patience is probably good," he says, pausing and looking up through his tinted glasses. "But if [President Bush] doesn't do something and show signs of aggression, he'll lose some of his support."

Out Route 54, heading east past the sedate rolls of the Kansas Flint Hills, the wide prairie vistas eventually contract to the winding and wooded roads of central Missouri.

At the Big 4 Barber Shop in Fulton, the personalities and perspectives differ from Yates Center as sharply as the landscape. Yet the unanimity on the issue of force is striking.

The two barbers on duty talk over the hum of their electric shears, rarely reverting to scissors. They speak warily at first, discussing potential solutions, from trying to cut off terrorists' money supply to rousting any questionable immigrants out of the US. But the thread of conversation inevitably turns to the need for military action.

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