Politics

Lone Dissenter Explains Her Position

September 16, 2001 / 5:54 AM EDT / AP

The only member of Congress to vote against using force on terrorists was Rep. Barbara Lee, a former social worker who was also the lone House opponent of using U.S. troops against Serbia two years ago.

Lee, who represents overwhelmingly liberal Oakland and Berkeley, was elected to Congress in 1998 promising to trim defense spending. The Senate voted 98-0 and the House of Representatives voted 420-1 authorizing President Bush to use force.

Many in Lee's district said they couldn't agree with her decision, which she said she reached after relying on her "moral compass, my conscience and my God for direction."

"She thinks it's giving `the man' too much power, and it probably is," said George Odom, an incense salesman near the University of California, Berkeley campus. "But if that's what it takes, then we have to do it."

On the House floor, Lee explained her dissent as an appeal for restraint.

"There must be some of us who say, let's step back for a moment and think through the implications of our actions today - let us more fully understand its consequences," Lee said. "Far too many innocent people have already died."

She referred to the Gulf of Tonkin resolution, which effectively gave President Lyndon Johnson freedom to wage the Vietnam War. The only dissenters then were Democratic Sens. Ernest Gruening of Alaska and Wayne Morse of Oregon, who predicted that "history will record we have made a grave mistake" in Vietnam.

Lee served in the California Assembly and Senate after working for Rep. Ron Dellums, D-Calif. She replaced him when he retired.

Some constituents said Lee was representing her district's feelings.

"I'm so glad she did that for me," said street vendor John Jastrebski, in Berkeley's People's Park. "I celebrate peace. And of course retaliation is the barbaric way to solve this. We should slow down and be humane."

Many compare the attack on the World Trade Center and Pentagon to Pearl Harbor, which prompted Congress to quickly declare war on Japan in 1941.

That vote also had a lone dissenter: U.S. Rep. Jeanette Rankin, who also voted against the nation's entry into World War I. A Republican from Missoula, Mont., she was a lifelong pacifist who believed violence could not solve human disagreements.

Rankin left Congress in 1943 and Gruening and Morse were not re-elected. Many of Lee's constituents said they respected her for taking a stand even if they disagreed with it.

"It took a lot of moral courage for her to stand up like that," said Angela Nevin from behind the counter of an upscale jewelry store in Oakland. "Even if it's to be devil's advocate, someone needs to have a sane voice."