Walking for Peace

Long before the Galley conviction ignited new pain and anger over the Viet Nam War, Louise Bruyn, a diminutive teacher of modern dance and mother of three, fretted over her inability to express forcefully her opposition to the war. She is not a fiery speaker, felt no urge to organize. But she is a physically fit 40, with strong legs, and so she decided to walk--all the 450 miles from her home in Newton, Mass., to Washington. She carried some theses, `a la Martin Luther, to deliver to the Capitol.

Bearing a 14-lb. orange backpack and wearing an orange windbreaker, Mrs. Bruyn trudged along lightly traveled roads, stopping each night at the homes of prearranged hosts. While her husband, a sociologist at Boston College, stayed home to keep house and be with their children, Mrs. Bruyn quietly explained her feelings about the war to friendly truckers, construction workers and schoolchildren along the way. "The vast majority of the people were with me," she reported. "I was called a traitor only three times."

Last week, shivering and footsore after 45 days of hiking, Mrs. Bruyn reached the Capitol steps in a chilling rain. She handed the peace theses, one of which urged an immediate withdrawal of all U.S. ground and air personnel from Southeast Asia, to two of her home-state legislators: Senator Edward Kennedy and Representative Rev. Robert Drinan. She prayed silently for peace. Her walk, she explained, was just "a personal act of commitment. So many people feel that there is nothing one person can do."

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