U.S. Rep. Barbara Lee's Lonely Stand Against War

[marmar]

from TomPaine.com:


A Lonely Stand Against War
Norman Solomon, TomPaine.com
August 07, 2007


Norman Solomon is a syndicated columnist. The documentary film "War Made Easy: How Presidents and Pundits Keep Spinning Us to Death ," is based on Solomon's book of the same title.

The problem with letting history judge is that so many officials get away with murder in the meantime -- while precious few choose to face protracted vilification for pursuing truth and peace.

A grand total of two people in the entire Congress were able to resist a blood-drenched blank check for the Vietnam War. Standing alone on Aug. 7, 1964, senators Ernest Gruening and Wayne Morse voted against the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution.

Forty-three years later, we don’t need to go back decades to find a lopsided instance of a lone voice on Capitol Hill standing against war hysteria and the expediency of violent fear. Days after 9/11, at the launch of the so-called “war on terrorism,” just one lawmaker—out of 535—cast a vote against the gathering madness.

“However difficult this vote may be, some of us must urge the use of restraint,” she said on the floor of the House of Representatives.

The date was Sept. 14, 2001.

...(snip)...

After speaking those words, Rep. Barbara Lee, D-Calif., voted no. And the fevered slanders began immediately. She was called a traitor. Pundits went crazy. Death threats came.

Lee kept on keeping on. And nearly six years later, she’s a key leader of antiwar forces inside and outside Congress. In her own way, she is a political descendent of Sen. Morse, whose denunciations of the Vietnam War are equally inspiring to watch today.

The pretexts for starting the wars on Vietnam and Iraq preceded the pretexts for continuing them. While antiwar activism took hold and public opinion shifted against the war effort, the Congress lagged way behind. Today, the need for a cutoff of war funding remains unfulfilled. To watch rarely seen footage of Wayne Morse and Barbara Lee is to see a standard of decency that few of our purported representatives in Congress are meeting. ......(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.tompaine.com/articles/2007/08/07/a_lonely_stand_against_war.php

[G_j]

1. Great Post, Highly Recommended!!

:thumbsup:

[marmar]

3. Thanks.....

Barbara Lee is a force of nature.

[MrCoffee]

2. k&r

[malaise]

4. I watched her that day

and will never forget her strength of character. Great post.

[Exiled in America]

5. She is the only kind of democrat we should be voting for. Period.

She represents what I believe the democratic party is about. I'm not a big tent democrat, if that analogy is used to excuse every form of equivocation and pandering about bedrock issues impacting this constitutional democracy or basic human rights.

[bonito]

6. K&R

:thumbsup:

[Mandate My Ass]

7. That is one gutsy lady. That vote took incredible courage

at the time and she never buckled under the pressure to recant.

I remember she said she prayed over it and was convinced she did the right thing. I like her god better than Bush and Blair's, who told them to go right ahead and shock and awe innocent Iraqis. :eyes:

We need more like her.

[fed-up]

8. I still have my "Barbara Lee Speaks for Me" button nt

[schrodingers_cat]

9. I love seeing the "Barbara Lee speaks for me" bumper stickers around town.

There are still many of them on bay area bumpers. And I'm humbled and proud to say that she really does speak for me - she's our beloved rep!!!
If you think she's great, you should meet her constituents.;)

[burrowowl]

10. She and DK are REAL DEMOCRATES

They are not DLC Blue Dogs!

[EFerrari]

11. K&R for Barbara Lee, person.

[marmar]

12. Barbara Lee, person. I like that.

Barbara Lee, HB-Oakland/Berkeley

HB being human being, of course.

[babylonsister]

13. I love Barbara Lee, but you have to read about some activists' conversation today:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x1533600

[EFerrari]

14. Brad is the cabbie from Barbara's district that organized the two

Impeach on the Beach actions.