| By VICTOR ELLIOT

ted out to walk 7a the U.S.; we are Boe both walking and dl Big SS the U.S.,” said Mace oe co-director of ‘ aa Marathon. The ; Sutskj Was walked into = Ms of Chicago at Vs pinday, Oct. 8, after i Nights of walking MEleayie 2CtOSs 2,500 miles, Miho, (8 San Francisco. The t: , ‘arted in Hiroshima nent in burns in the lt des he victims of the TUction. The flame ear? San Francisco . Marathon Torch was ©S journey to Wash- peor the Oct. 21 de-

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Illinois in time to address De- cator’s first, assembly of citizens concerned about peace. They met with 200 people; many of whom had walked 400 miles into Decator along with the Peace Torch. In Columbus, Missouri, two young people quit their jobs in order to continue along with the Marathon to Washington. One of the youngsters says, “‘this involvement has made me more committed than ever. When I think of it I wonder why I ever wasted my time at working at a regular job until this war has been ended. This has been a real learning situation.”

Ron Lambert who has been with the Marathon since it left California explained that “the torch has enabled us to talk to hundreds of Americans, high school students especially, who

want to know what they can do -

to end the war. I’ve been totally overwhelmed by the whole thing.”

The group’s other co-director, Lars Speyer, explained the pur- pose of the Marathon in this way:

“We wanted to show that be- tween the big cities on both the East and West coasts there exists a strong anti-war senti- ment. We intend to tell the Johnson administration, on Oct. 21, about the response which we have encountered.”

The group paraded for four hours through the south side of Chicago, on its way to the rally at the University of Chi- cago. Along the route they pass- ed out leaflets to passers-by, people waiting for buses and storekeepers. The response was very receptive and as this re- porter followed along he found himself engaged answering ques- tions from the people watching. It was hard not to get involved as the spirit seemed to follow the freedom song, “I’m gonna walk, walk, talk, talk, about freedom.”

The main speaker at the rally was Studs Terkel, author of Division Street America and a local radio personality. Terkel opened his remarks by saying “we are only a block away from Stagg Field where it all began,’ alluding to the site where the first atom was smashed during the Second World War. He also said, “behind the stands of Stagg Field there are the minds which can also provide warmth and welfare for all people through the sane use of nuclear power ... the choice is between sanity and insanity.” He called for those assembled there to go and confront the “pagan world” on Oct. 21 in Washington.

LETTER FROM PRISON

DENNIS MORA is one of three young Army privates who was jailed last year for refusing to go to Vietnam. The following excerpts are from a_ personal letter written from prison to his sister, Mrs. Grace Mora New- man.

At the time the letter was written, the 26-year-old Mora, James A. Johnson, 21, and David A. Samas, 21, were awaiting a decision on their appeal to the U.S. Court of Military Appeals. The court last week upheld the court-martial conviction, and the three-year senténces which the three are serving.

Dear Sister:

I should inform you that no- where in the Universal Code of Military Justice is there a pro-. vision for bail. Should you have more information than I have I would appreciate your letting me in on it. We had our Parole Boards last Friday and they will be returned to us within 45 to

'90 days. The outlook is bleak _while the case is before the

Military Court of Appeals, so there you have it. I’m sure any clemency will come after the appeals are over...

As to my duty, it’s never been clearer than now. The con- tinued escalation, the tax sur- charge, .the war of the cities, the military stalemates, the ridiculous attempt at “free elec- tions” all confirm and encourage my thinking and future action to a greater degree than was the case on July 7, 1966. Dr. Ap- theker wrote us back in the Dix stockade that the important thing was to be right. The more I think about it, the more I rea- lize that this is the best motiva- tion I have and the longer we’re in, the “righter” we are ... :

I should be honest and say that at first my dread of jail was inordinate compared to the “Hey baby, when did you get out?” or “How much time you got brother?” attitudes that I remember as a kid in Spanish Harlem. It is this reaction of a generally exploited and oppress- ed people to the violence, bru- tality and suppression of the establishment that gives that people its strength to endure what is necessary and explode when the limit is reached.

In other words, the thing I’m proudest of is that I have

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behaved according to my work- ing class roots and have become more class conscious than be-. fore. It has been in many ways a year of learning . . . more about the sons of the people who will lead this country out of its . moral, racist and violent quag- mire.

The comical point in all this and the one that puts everything in place is, of course, the larger- than-life heroism of the Viet- namese. To have merely resist- ed such an onslaught from the largest and most powerful -im- perialism in the history of the world for a few months would have been enough to mark them forever as glory bound.

When Giap or -Van Dong say they have risen as one man to resist the U.S. aggressioh it must be admitted that in the truest and nobles sense this is what they have done.

The Vietnamese don’t need to make propaganda. Our spectacle in warring against such a small country is its own touchstone. The knowledge that they’ll not live as slaves and will secure their freedom at any cost assures them of victory. This is the greatest contribution that has been made in my generation to peace and real social ideals.

I am only sharing an infinites- imal bit of it and it makes me happy to contribute a little. Those who vacillate or doubt, as indeed I often did, the justice of the cause and the part one must play in it as a consequence of that knowledge should only let their understanding lead them to its own logical conclusion and that is to resist, in every way all the timé, those who think people can be bought or whipped or fooled into becoming obliging slaves ...

‘For those who are still not sure about what to do regarding the draft and their personal commitment, I submit that the Detroits, Newarks, Spanish Har- lems should already have -re- moved much of their doubt. That cat Debray is wrong when he says we are never contem- poraneous with our present, I feel I am contemporaneous with the future and the winds from those tomorrows are blowing from Vietnam across the Pacific.

Love, | Dennis.