VOTING FOR HHH

To the Editors of the CRIMSON:

I have to take issue with Richard Betts' letter which appeared in Wednesday's issue of the Crimson. I think the letter is typical in many ways of the very emotional and sometimes irrational manner in which the Humphrey campaign has been conducted--especially that part which has sought to "bring back" the dissident McCarthy group.

To say that by refusing to support HHH Dr. Peretz and other McCarthy supporters "destroy any pretensions they have had to sincere concern for social justice and human rights" is simply asinine. In the first place, it is anything but obvious to me that a "sincere concern for social justice" necessitates a vote for Hubert Humphrey, whose sincere concern for that war in Vietnam has seriously impaired the domestic programs for social justice in the United States. What ever happened to the Poverty Program, the OEO, and countless other programs promised to the poor and Black Americans by the Johnson-Humphrey Administration? The war is making a mockery of social justice and human rights here at home by eating up all the funds which could and should have been provided for the grave internal problems that face this country. In Vietnam the war takes a more direct and more tragic blow at social justice and human rights as the killing and bombing continues. How does a vote for HHH show a concern for "social justice and human rights" when this man has voiced unequivocal support for the policies which divide and cripple us at home and shame us abroad? To say that "Affluent intellectuals can afford to care about nothing but the war" is to overlook the fact that the war encompasses a number of issues--the most obvious of which are the concerns of social justice and human rights which Mr. Betts seems so troubled about.

Mr. Betts is standing on shaky ground when he lectures the McCarthy supporters about social justice and human rights. He seems to forget what happened in Chicago, what is happening in Vietnam, and what has happened in this country to the concerns of social justice and human rights since the beginning of the war. Just what was Hubert Humphrey doing when this war destroyed the hopes of social justice in America and violated the human rights of thousands in Vietnam? Karl O. Rohlich '70