Writers: Part Way with Thoreau

One thing about Henry David Thoreau, when he talked about civil disobedience, he wasn't kidding. Because of his opposition to the Mexican War, he refused to pay a tax and was hustled off to jail. To express their own hostility to the Viet Nam war, 448 contemporary writers and journalists went along with Thoreau last week—or rather part of the way. Quoting Thoreau's ringing challenge to the state, the signers* announced in full-page ads in the New York Post and the New York Review of Books that "1) None of us voluntarily will...