The Mail EGO TRIP

To the Editors of the CRIMSON:

The two reports on Washington in the CRIMSON of November 20 reflect an attitude which I find very disturbing. I had thought people would march because they deplored the Vietnam situation, the death of two nations and two peoples. The march did not end the war and Nixon ignored it anyway. But he couldn't deny that a quarter of a million people were there in protest.

Yet Sandy Bonder says he went because he was fascinated. He says he wanted to "watch." He tells how he laughed, sang, danced, smoked, ate. He was so pleased to see all the "freaks" that went I don't think that matters and I think besides that it ignores the tragedy and the horror of the war which the march was supposed to protest. It just isn't a time to be self-conscious and self-centered and self-gratifying. It disgusts me because it seems amoral. Considering what is happening today, what we need now is involvement and concern. Otherwise, when Mrs. John Mitchell says all those kids went to Washington for a lark and became the dupes of Communists. too many people are going to agree with her.

Thomas Southwick's article is equally blase. I disagree on principle with his contention that action is more important than achievement, but the crowning arrogance was his statement that "Those who stayed home might as well be dead." Many of those who stayed at home were concerned and many acted and many more wore symbols of peace in individual protests. And those for whom last weekend in Washington was no more than an ego trip-I don't think they deserve any recognition for that.