Since casting the lone vote in Congress last Friday against a resolution authorizing President George W. Bush to use “all necessary and appropriate force” in the country’s war on terrorism, Lee has received death threats, not to mention thousands of insulting e-mails and phone calls from around the country. But the heavy-duty protection was installed years ago by Lee’s predecessor, Ronald Dellums, an outspoken pacifist who represented the district for nearly 30 years. “We used to have to deal with angry veterans coming in to complain and who knows what,” says an aide. “It just seemed like a good idea to have some kind of barrier.”
It comes in handy these days. Risking violence in the name of peace is a concept that makes sense perhaps only in this notoriously liberal district, where Lee, 55, a former psychiatric social worker and aide to Dellums, won re-election last year with 83 percent of the vote. From Oakland’s poorest neighborhoods to the posh hillsides of the University of California, Berkeley, campus, there is no safer territory for a liberal Democrat than this, California’s Ninth Congressional District. When it comes to military action, Lee has a history of dissent. In 1999, she was the only member of the House to vote against a resolution of support for U.S. troops in Yugoslavia. In 1998, she opposed the Clinton administration’s bombing of Iraq. But voting “no” this time, says Lee, was much harder. Her chief of staff lost a cousin who was a flight attendant aboard one of hijacked airliners. “In a time of grief someone has to step back and show some restraint,” Lee told NEWSWEEK. “It’s very lonely. But it’s a vote cast as a good American who doesn’t want to see any more lives lost.”
More disturbing than the threats, says Lee, is the public perception that she is unpatriotic. Lee and her aides go to great lengths to point out that she voted for the $40 billion package to rebuild New York and fund the administration’s antiterrorist activities. Lee says she voted against the use of force resolution out of concern than in the haste to punish the terrorists, Congress was “handing over” its constitutional authority to declare war to the president. “When you are talking about authorizing war, there has to be a deliberative process,” said Lee. “Against whom? Where? There have to be checks and balances.”
Lee went so far as to compare her dissent to that of Wayne Morse, one of only two U.S. senators to vote against the Tonkin Gulf Resolution of 1964, which gave Lyndon Johnson authority to expand U.S. involvement in the Vietnam War. Announcing her vote last week, Lee paraphrased Morse’s now famous comment, “History will record that we have made a grave mistake.” But Lee’s critics say she’s exaggerating the significance of her action. “This was essentially a feel-good vote, not an appropriation,” says Nelson Polsby, a professor of political science at UC, Berkeley. “It was a chance to show solidarity with the people who died.”
Some of Lee’s constituents agree. “I’m sick and tired of what’s going on,” says Ed Kapellas, 70, a retired firefighter and Korean War veteran from Alameda. “She just did this to bring attention to herself.” Alameda, the site of a former naval air station and home to many military retirees is, relatively speaking, the most conservative community in Lee’s district. But even here, among the flag-draped Victorian homes that line the island, there is plenty of support for Lee. “All of us would like to go out with a gun, a baseball bat or whatever,” says Audrey Lord-Hausman, a city employee in Alameda. “But the response should be thoughtful and not John Wayne-ish.”
Further north, in Berkeley, Lee has become a heroine of the newly revived antiwar movement. Earlier this week, more than 1,000 people responded to a summons by KPFA-FM, a community radio station, to attend an impromptu rally against U.S. military action, just as they did during the Vietnam days. “Every time we mentioned Barbara’s name, people cheered,” says Barbara Lubin, a peace activist who runs an organization that provides aid to children in Iraq and other countries affected by United Nations sanctions. “She’s a hero, as far as I’m concerned.” Lubin’s group has already raised money for a full-page ad in The New York Times next week, congratulating Lee for her lonely vote. Lee says she’s gratified by all the support, but more concerned that people understand the reasons for her dissent-“to make sure we don’t allow the cycle of violence to spin out of control.”
