just realized i haven't quoted any good books since early September...i looked over some quotes i underlined in the book we read in comm 264 by chalmers johnson entitled, Nemesis: The Last Days of the American Republic. definitely one of my favorite books now. this is from the first page of the first chapter...
***Last week, filled with grief and sorrow for those killed and injured with anger at those who had done this, I confronted the solemn responsibilty of voting to authorize the country to go to war. Some believe this resolution was only symbolic, designed to show national resolve. But I could not ignore that it provided explicit authority, under the War Powers Resolution and the Constitution, to go to war. It was a blank check for the president to attack anyone involved in the September 11 events--anywhere, in any country, without regard to our nation's long-term foreign policy, economic and national security interests, and wihtout time limit. In granting these overly broad powers, the Congress failed its responsibility to understand the dimensions of its declaration. I could not support such a grant of war-making authority to the president; I believe it would put more innocent lives at risk.
--Congresswoman Barbara Lee ([Democrat from California], the only member of Congress to vote against the transfer of the war power to the president for the invasion of Afghanistan), San Francisco Chronicle, September 23, 2001
Sleep on that one.
sweeter dreams.
k
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Did you know that Representative Lee received death threats as a result of her vote against the war?
Also, you should have been in my US history class that fall when I read a Howard Zinn column against military aggression. My students were upset. Later, someone called me Un-american for attending a Rockford Peace & Justice meeting after seeing me on television.
Truly sad.
Duerk
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