Support for Rep. Barbara Lee
Re: “Alone on the Hill”

We’ve received an overwhelming amount of mail in response to our Sept. 20 interview with Barbara Lee — most of it supportive of her decision to vote against authorizing President Bush to use force against suspected terrorists. Thanks to all those who wrote in, and our apologies that we can’t publish all of your letters.

9/25/01

Declaring war on terrorism is not unlike declaring war on poverty or declaring war on drugs. The target is so amorphous and perhaps so pervasive that we may never win.

Being reflective — rather than reactive, based upon our hurt and anger — will enable us to decide whether each action would likely make us more or less safe as a nation. Giving up the right for Congress to review such major issues makes it unlikely that proper weight and consideration will be given to those decisions.

Thank you, Rep. Lee!

Gregory Tarver
Baltimore, Md.

9/23/01

I stand and applaud Rep. Barbara Lee. I feel great sadness for those members of Congress who lacked the courage to fulfill their elected obligation. Once again they put individual careers over national need.

Walter Fields

9/23/01

Barbara Lee eloquently and thoughtfully addresses the concerns I have as an American.

More American citizens will begin to see the wisdom of her dissenting vote when the first emotional rush of anger and frustration has passed. At that point, how much will we all have given up? And how many other lives — including the lives of innocent Afghans — will have been sacrificed?

As for being labeled “un-American,” those of us who take our civil liberties to heart know that being a citizen of America requires us to voice our differing opinions. It is essential!

Joyce Kosinski

9/22/01

I agree with and salute Barbara Lee for her decision to vote her conscience. Her thoughtful soul-searching is most certainly “American.” I only wish that more of her congressional colleagues had reflected in such thought before jumping on the bandwagon — which is likely to turn into a runaway train.

Tom Orvosh
Saunderstown, R.I.