After a mind-numbing four-hour meeting that moved through the Tuesday agenda like molasses in the Arctic, the Lompoc City Council moved like lightning to vote 5-0 proclaiming support for undocumented residents of the city and the existing state laws impacting them.
Applause by the remaining audience, a bare remnant of the standing-room-only crowds that had jammed the chamber during the last two council meetings, was modest, but emotion-laden.
When this proclamation was open for public comment during two earlier council sessions, lines of people waiting to speak stretched the length of the chamber. In different ways, everyone told councilmembers about the lives of field workers, cleaning ladies, and their neighbors. Many were in tears.