- Feb 8, 2001
- 35,461
- 4
- 81
[Gomer Pyle]Surprise surprise surprise[/Gomer Pyle]
A standing ovation even...
<<
BERKELEY, Calif. - Rep. Barbara Lee, the
lone vote against war following
the Sept. 11 attacks, continued to
sound a drumbeat of dissent as she spoke Monday at
the University of California.
"Peace must be a policy option. It's got to be on the table
at all times. It should be really ... our only option if we
want to turn over to our children a world that is less
dangerous and more secure," she said.
After her Sept. 14 vote against a resolution giving
sweeping war powers to the president, Lee was bitterly
criticized nationally and even faced death threats.
But from the prolonged applause that prefaced her
speech to the standing ovation that followed it, it was
clear that Lee, who earlier this month won the
Democratic primary in the district, remains a local hero
in the liberal San Francisco Bay area.
"She voted her conscience in Congress," Berkeley
Chancellor Robert Berdahl said as he introduced Lee.
The Oakland Democrat was on campus to deliver the
first lecture in a series named after her political mentor
and predecessor, former Congressman Ronald V.
Dellums and much of the speech focused on Dellums'
work for peace.
She also talked about her own efforts in that direction,
including her Sept. 14 vote.
"The lifeblood of democracy is really the right to
dissent," Lee said. "I believed that then as I believe it
today. Casting a 'no' vote was the right vote."
Lee said that when she went to the floor that night, "I
really didn't know that I would be the only person to
stand in opposition to this resolution, but I also knew
that others had stood alone, virtually alone, in the past."
Lee, who has a master's degree in Social Welfare from
Berkeley, called the current federal budget "a disaster"
that spends too much on the military and not enough on
domestic problems.
Security must be improved and terrorists "brought to
justice," Lee said, but "we cannot let the terrible events
of September derail our efforts to contemplate and
complete the unfinished business of America. We still
live in a country where more than 44 million people
have no health care," she said.
Lee urged against expanding the war on terrorism to a
war on Iraq, designated part of an "axis of evil" by Bush
in his January State of the Union speech.
The real danger in the post Sept. 11 political
atmosphere, Lee said, is not dissent but the lack of it.
"What has happened since Sept. 11 is people have been
fearful, naturally, they've been scared and that's
probably why we don't hear an overwhelming amount of
questioning at this point and that is a very dangerous
place to be," she said.
Outside the friendly lecture hall, Berkeley junior Kelly
Nordli offered a dissent of his own, holding up a sign that
read in part, "Drop Barbara Lee."
"She's not willing to defend America and American
lives," he said. >>
A standing ovation even...
<<
BERKELEY, Calif. - Rep. Barbara Lee, the
lone vote against war following
the Sept. 11 attacks, continued to
sound a drumbeat of dissent as she spoke Monday at
the University of California.
"Peace must be a policy option. It's got to be on the table
at all times. It should be really ... our only option if we
want to turn over to our children a world that is less
dangerous and more secure," she said.
After her Sept. 14 vote against a resolution giving
sweeping war powers to the president, Lee was bitterly
criticized nationally and even faced death threats.
But from the prolonged applause that prefaced her
speech to the standing ovation that followed it, it was
clear that Lee, who earlier this month won the
Democratic primary in the district, remains a local hero
in the liberal San Francisco Bay area.
"She voted her conscience in Congress," Berkeley
Chancellor Robert Berdahl said as he introduced Lee.
The Oakland Democrat was on campus to deliver the
first lecture in a series named after her political mentor
and predecessor, former Congressman Ronald V.
Dellums and much of the speech focused on Dellums'
work for peace.
She also talked about her own efforts in that direction,
including her Sept. 14 vote.
"The lifeblood of democracy is really the right to
dissent," Lee said. "I believed that then as I believe it
today. Casting a 'no' vote was the right vote."
Lee said that when she went to the floor that night, "I
really didn't know that I would be the only person to
stand in opposition to this resolution, but I also knew
that others had stood alone, virtually alone, in the past."
Lee, who has a master's degree in Social Welfare from
Berkeley, called the current federal budget "a disaster"
that spends too much on the military and not enough on
domestic problems.
Security must be improved and terrorists "brought to
justice," Lee said, but "we cannot let the terrible events
of September derail our efforts to contemplate and
complete the unfinished business of America. We still
live in a country where more than 44 million people
have no health care," she said.
Lee urged against expanding the war on terrorism to a
war on Iraq, designated part of an "axis of evil" by Bush
in his January State of the Union speech.
The real danger in the post Sept. 11 political
atmosphere, Lee said, is not dissent but the lack of it.
"What has happened since Sept. 11 is people have been
fearful, naturally, they've been scared and that's
probably why we don't hear an overwhelming amount of
questioning at this point and that is a very dangerous
place to be," she said.
Outside the friendly lecture hall, Berkeley junior Kelly
Nordli offered a dissent of his own, holding up a sign that
read in part, "Drop Barbara Lee."
"She's not willing to defend America and American
lives," he said. >>
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