THE LAMPOON REPLITS

To the Editors of the CRIMSON:

The editorial which appeared in yesterday's CRIMSON about last Friday's counter-demonstration was not entirely fair.

As you pointed out the demonstration was intended as no more than a spoof of a march on an empty White House and a Congress which was not in session. The signs which said "On to Hanoi" were not made or carried by Lampoon members. Our signs were all absurd: "Don't Rock the Junk," "Save the White House Easter Egg Roll," and "We love you, LBJ."

At first the chants from the Lampoon steps were entirely unrelated to Vietnam: an LBJ echo cheer, "Happy Easter" sung to the tune of "Happy Birthday" and a stirring rendition of "My Country 'tis of Thee." As a finale we planned to stage a protest Easter egg roll in front of the buses. Unfortunately the buses had not arrived when the purely frivolous chants began to wear thin. An effort to play a tape of last week's "Shindig" to fill the gap failed because we did not have a loud enough speaker.

At this point people (some of them Lampoon members) began to chant absurd political slogans. The tenor of the rally thus far had not been even slightly serious and the political chants were not introduced in a serious vein. If one shouts "War! War! War!" in the same tone that he shouts "Here we go 'round the Mulberry bush" the obvious implication is that he is not to be taken seriously.

I agree that the demonstration would have been better had it remained apolitical and had it been more closely controlled. The obscenity from the student from Adams House was atrocious, as was the fight.

Some of the effects of the counter demonstration were indeed distasteful but I feel that the CRIMSON editorial presented a badly distorted picture.

In many places it was not clear whether you were describing Lampoon members or the crowd which gathered. I cannot speak for the crowd but no Lampoon member was drunk. For what it's worth only one had an impeccably dressed date, and none has a credo which allows no room for commitment.

The Lampoon is not a political organization, but most of its members have strong informed convictions. On the whole we have a certain amount of balance. One of the most disturbing sights of last Friday's demonstrations was a peace marcher, his face distorted with hate, stamping on an LBJ Easter egg which was rolling menacingly toward his bus.

It was absurd as you must realize to categorize everyone in the crowd as a "know-nothing who finds sincerity embarassing." The great bulk of the crowd was made up of people who had nothing to do, who came to a frivolous anti-protest protest. While the Lampoon was in control most of them were laughing. Ballooning the actions of one student into a "drunken rally," however, can only be construed as careless reporting or poorly couched slander.

Toward the end the protest ceased to be the harmless parody which we had intended but it was certainly not the insensitive drooling mob depicted by the CRIMSON. Richard A. Spencer '66   President, Harvard Lampoon