You go! Barbara Lee: going against the tide - now! - Brief Article - Statistical Data Included

Unbought and unbossed, Congresswoman Barbara Lee, 55, is resolute in her convictions. Citing her reliance on "my moral compass, my conscience and my God for direction," Lee, a Democrat from California's Ninth Congressional District, cast the lone vote against the use-of-force resolution granting President George W. Bush the unrestricted power to launch military action against anyone associated with the September 11 terrorist attack that killed thousands of innocent people at the World Trade Center and the Pentagon and in southeastern Pennsylvania.

"I am convinced that military action will not prevent further acts of international terrorism against the United States," Lee said in her historic speech from the floor of the House on September 14. (Visit essence. com/features/blee for full text of her statement.)

Her principled but controversial stand made it necessary for her to have a Capitol police escort because of death threats and other hostile reactions among the more than 50,000 E-mails, faxes and telephone calls that flooded her office. However, 73 percent of the feedback has been encouraging. Ironically, such calls were fielded by her staunchly supportive chief of staff, Sandre Swanson, who was mourning the loss of his cousin, a veteran flight attendant who died working on the hijacked United Airlines flight that crashed in Pennsylvania.

While the furor Lee faced this time may be unparalleled, this is not her first principled stand for conscience and rational judgment despite a rising drumbeat for war. In 1999, during the Kosovo crisis in Eastern Europe, this daughter of a retired Army officer--whose Bay Area district includes Oakland, Berkeley and Alameda--was the only House member to vote against authorizing President Clinton to bomb Serbia. In both these votes, Lee was voting her conscience and following the will of her traditionally antiwar constituents, as well as the example of her predecessor and mentor, Ron Dellums, whose 28-year service in the House included long-standing dissidence regarding the Vietnam War. Lee was introduced to the workings of Capitol Hill as an intern on Dellums's staff. She rose to become his chief of staff before she left to run successfully for California's State Assembly. She was first elected to Congress in a 1998 special election to fill the seat of the retiring Dellums.

The El Paso, Texas-born Lee moved to California in 1960. "When I was a student at Mills College in Oakland in 1972, Shirley Chisholm encouraged me to register to vote and get involved in politics. I ended up working on her presidential campaign," said Lee, citing the influence of the Brooklyn congresswoman, who was the first African-American woman elected to the House in 1968. Lee maintains, "We have a chance to demonstrate to the world that great powers can choose to fight on the fronts of their choosing, and that we can choose to avoid needless military action when other avenues to redress our rightful grievances and to protect our nation are available to us."

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