You know that we are confronting one of the momentous issues of our time if the Berkeley, Calif., city council weighs in. Last month, it voted 7 to 0 with two abstentions to lift sanctions against Iraq. The director of the Middle East Children's Alliance, Barbara Lubin, was sanguine about this development. She recalled that Berkeley was among the first cities to come out against the Vietnam war, and among the first to call for the divestment of American business in South Africa. Sure, these causes may have seemed like losers at the time. "But history," Lubin said, "has proved Berkeley right time and again. I am sure last night's vote against sanctions in Iraq will be another of those times."
Does the Berkeley city council really feel like making a splash? Does it want to be in the vanguard of revolutionary change? Well, Bay Area Castroite Ron Dellums is retiring from Congress this year. Maybe the council should endorse a Republican.