BARBARA LEE: SPEAKING TRUTH TO POWER – Review by Lois Alter Mark
This documentary about Barbara Lee, the highest ranking Black woman in Congress, is so inspiring, I fully expect a future President of the United States to one day say she was motivated to run for office after watching it.
Directed by Peabody Award-winning filmmaker, Abby Ginzberg, the film features an eclectic group of celebrities, including actor Danny Glover, CNN commentator Van Jones, Pulitzer Prize winning author Alice Walker, and politicians from the late John Lewis to Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Cory Booker, all singing the praises of the California Congresswoman who has been fighting for racial and economic justice for more than two decades.
“The laws of this country have stacked the deck against women and people of color,” Lee says in a speech at the beginning of the film. Determined to change that, we watch her tirelessly work toward equality for all, unfazed when her opinion is unpopular.
Nowhere is this more apparent than after a 2001 request by then-President George W. Bush for Congress to pass the Authorization for Use of Military Force bill, which would grant the President unlimited power to go to war. Because the vote took place just days after September 11 and anger was the prevailing mood of the country, the bill passed unanimously – except for one lone opposition vote. Lee’s.
She stood in front of Congress and warned, “As we act, let us not become the evil that we deplore.” For this, she received death threats and was criticized as being unpatriotic but remained undeterred. “Central to democracy is the right to dissent,” she said.
Over the years, many of her colleagues have regretted their own decision to vote for the bill. Some are interviewed for this documentary, applauding Lee’s courage and admitting they wished they had shared it. Continue reading.
