It is difficult to believe that the
recent attempt of CID agents to
investigate the activities of certain
officers of the Virginia Veterans for
Peace was not simply a bald intimidation
of these officers and, implicitly,
of the rank and file members
of that organization. It would be
unfortunate indeed if an organization
dedicated to establishing
through constitutional means peace
abroad and a democratic society at
home were to retreat from the first
onslaughts of America's supra-constitutional
government, that
is, the government of the seemingly
autonomous, omnipotent, and omnipresent
institutions which, for
better or worse, now comprise part
of the national scene
Rather, it is time for its members
and for other interested citizens
to examine for themselves the
notion that the citizen has the right
to assemble peaceably and to ask
themselves if they are not witnessing
a violation of this right at the
present time. If this should appear
to them to be the case, then they
ought to come forward to decry
this violation of rights and to defend
the Constitution against those
who ignore it.
