I learned about an extraordinary woman, Congresswoman Barbara Lee, who refused to be intimidated by those who would silence themselves and others when the dogs of war were about to be unleashed on Sept. 14, 2001. One of her comments that day was particularly foreboding…and accurate. She said, “…let us not become the evil that we deplore.” She took a stand and was the one lone voice out of 535 Congresspeople who cast a vote against “the gathering madness.” Her words of attempted restraint have frighteningly come true. James Baldwin is incredibly accurate when, in the quote that ends the piece, he speaks of our collective and individual need to demand more of ourselves. Congresswoman Lee reminds us that this is not only possible to do, but essential for us to preserve our moral center, especially when so many remain caught in the misrepresentations and manipulations of our government.
Here is the article about the Congresswoman, THE LONE VOICE, which was published in the VALLEY ADVOCATE (www.valleyadvocate.com) of August 16-22:
Between the Lines:
The Lone Voice
Let us now praise an infamous woman.
By Norman Solomon
GETTY IMAGES PHOTO
Congresswoman Barbara Lee
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 heard another 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.
She went on: “Our country is in a state of mourning. Some of us must say, ‘Let’s step back for a moment, let’s just pause just for a minute, and think through the implications of our actions today so that this does not spiral out of control.’”
And, she said: “As we act, let us not become the evil that we deplore.”
With all that has happened since then—with all that has spun out of control, with all the ways that the U.S. government has mimicked the evil it deplores—it’s stunning to watch and hear, for a single minute, what this brave congresswoman had to say (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nf1N-y9Mbo4).
After speaking those words, Rep. Barbara Lee voted no. And the fevered slanders began immediately. She was called a traitor. Pundits went crazy. Death threats came.
Barbara 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 descendant of Sen. Morse, whose denunciations of the Vietnam War are equally inspiring to watch today (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JiLV-Xeh8bA).
I was so busy making calls and trying to stop the war from starting that I didn’t pay much attention to who voted for what – except our Congress people – though I was calling all over the country. It is just recently that I realized that Barbara Lee stood so clear and so alone.
It increases ten-fold my respect for her. Thank you for sharing this, Tom.
~ Diane Clancy
http://www.dianeclancy.com/blog