In Memoriam: Donna Howard

On July 31st of this year, our community and the world lost a champion of peace, justice, and loving kindness, Donna Howard. I first met Donna when she and her then partner, Tom Hastings, came to speak to my class on “Nonviolence: Theory and Practice” in the mid-1990s.  I was a bit in awe of this woman whom I had admired from afar as someone who walked her talk as an advocate for the homeless and oppressed and an activist for peace.  As Barb Kass of the Anathoth Community[i] said of her, “For Donna, nonviolence was a way of life. Her connection with the natural world, her commitment to live simply so others may simply live, her commitment to create safe space for women and children at Olive Branch and Bread and Roses, gave context for her public witness for peace and justice.  Donna was not afraid to speak truth to power in the world arena knowing that it often meant sacrificing personal freedom.” [ii]    I could think of no one better to speak with my students about the practice of nonviolence. I was so impressed with Donna’s deep commitment to the practice of nonviolence, and her activism in establishing the Olive Branch, a house for women and children, part of Loaves and Fishes, a Catholic Worker[iii] community devoted to providing short-term housing and hospitality for the unhoused begun here in 1989. Tom and Donna at that time were planning a Plowshares[iv] action to cut down poles of a transmitter at the US Navy facility, Project ELF, in Clam Lake, Wisconsin, in hopes of disabling the antenna used to transmit extremely low frequency (ELF) messages to the Navy’s fleet of nuclear submarines and launch a first strike. They spoke of their commitment to nonviolent civil disobedience, and of their plan to invite the press to their planned action and to turn themselves in to authorities, because a significant aspect of nonviolent disobedience is to accept responsibility for one’s actions, as well as the consequences.

On Earth Day, 1996, Donna and Tom along with two others cut down the poles, decorated them with photos of children and international law treaties, and turned themselves in to security personnel. Both were charged with felonies – sabotage and interference with government defense, as well as destruction of government property, a misdemeanor, carrying the possibility of fifteen years in prison and a $20,000 fine.

Donna well knew the risks of imprisonment before deciding to engage in the Plowshares action.  Years later, she spoke with my students in “Women, Peace, and War” about how this had been the right time in her life for this action.  As a mother and a daughter, her first priorities were for her children and her parents, and her commitment to taking care of them. But at the time of their action, her children were grown and her parents were alive and well.  Indeed, Donna’s children were her motivation for her actions. As she said to my students, and later to a reporter for the Duluth News Tribune, “Those first moments when they lay the child on your chest and you realize you'd do anything for them. In there somewhere, I realized we have to be willing to do that for all children. That led me to a lifestyle of nonviolence and activism that's not just action or going to a march in Berkeley. It was about who we need to be in relationship to all beings on the earth and what kind of lifestyle that requires of us.”[v]

Donna and Tom used their trial as an opportunity to tell the judge, jury, and the public of how Project ELF, being a system to enable first-strike nuclear weapons, was in violation of international law and US law, and as such their actions were legal.[vi] The two ultimately were found guilty of destruction of government property, but unlike so many involved in Plowshares actions, were acquitted of the felony charges.  Donna was sentenced to three years in prison, of which she spent one year in prison and the other two on house arrest in Duluth. Donna used the time she was in prison to befriend the other women there, listening, caring, offering support.  She was very much a modern-day Emma Goldman in that regard.

A few years later, Donna would go on to help found the Nonviolent Peaceforce[vii], an international organization dedicated to de-escalating conflict and protecting civilians through nonviolent strategies and peace-building.  Hearing about the prospect of creating the Peaceforce, Donna said, “I have spent the last few years destroying things on behalf of peace. Now I want to build something on behalf of peace.”[viii] As Donna explained to my students, governments have been raising and equipping armed forces for millennia using violence to end violence.  Why not raise and train thousands of nonviolent forces to end violence through nonviolence?  That was her aim and her work for many years. She stressed that the Peaceforce only intervened in those places where those involved in the conflict invited them. She shared about her time providing accompaniment for her colleague in Guatemala, knowing full well that her presence as a white woman from the United States offered her colleague safety and protection simply due to her visibility and status.  Her presence would also guarantee coverage by the Western press, which offered an additional layer of protection. She shared as well of her time in Sri Lanka, where the Peaceforce had been invited to de-escalate conflict between the Tamal Tigers and Sri Lankan government forces. She told my students of walking unarmed into the camp of what were considered to be very dangerous and violent extremists, treating them with dignity and kindness, listening to and communicating their concerns, and for a time successfully achieving a ceasefire. Her words and actions inspired my students so deeply.

 After several years in the Peaceforce, Donna returned to Duluth and the Loaves and Fishes community she loved, continuing to work on behalf of the homeless, politically and practically, offering hospitality, kindness, and support. Our lives would intertwine again through her many visits to my classroom, in the local chapter of Grandmothers for Peace, in marches for peace and justice, and as peace marshals at various protests.  As a peace marshal, I always felt secure when Donna was among us, knowing her skill in returning hostile encounters with kindness and love, and de-escalating any potential conflict.

 I recently attended Donna’s celebration of life, a community-wide event, where I learned even more about her life. Remembrances were given by beloved niece; a mother and daughter who came to the Olive Branch when the now young woman was just a baby and remembers Donna as a beloved grandma who continued to check on them all those years later;  a young member of the Loaves and Fishes community for whom Donna was a mentor; a member of the Anathoth Community who had participated with Donna in the Project ELF demonstration; and Nelsie Yang, the daughter of a Hmong family whom Donna and Julie and Tom Morgan chose to sponsor after their church community declined to do so. Nelsie said of Donna that she made her family’s life possible. In January of 2020, Nelsie was sworn in as the youngest and first Hmong American woman elected to serve in the St. Paul city council, living out Donna’s legacy working to dismantle systems of oppression. Everyone remembered Donna for her authenticity, her dedication to peace and justice, her infectious smile and mischievous fun, and for making them feel loved and cared for. She was one of the people I most admired on this earth.  She lived a truly authentic and loving life, living simply and sustainably, always with an open hand and heart to any and all.  

I learned that Donna was a weaver in a way I have only dreamed of being. She sheared the sheep, spun the wool, dyed it, and wove it into wall hangings that still adorn the homes of loved ones.  But more than that, she was a weaver of people and communities – all those to whom she offered shelter and hospitality through Loaves and Fishes, the Hmong community, the Nonviolent Peaceforce and those around the world to whom she brought witness and conflict resolution, the Plowshares movement, Grandmothers for Peace, the Echoes of Peace choir, and the many who remembered her as their “guardian angel,” their “grandma,” and their friend. As Kate Young, a member of Loaves and Fishes, reflected, “I still continue to be shocked by the number of folks I've met that have homes in Donna's heart. It was a ripple effect of radical kindness and Donna was an important guide."[ix]

Toward the end of celebration, on what was a bright, sunny day, a few scattered drops of rain fell, the clouds gently weeping, joining the mourners who had lost a mother, friend, mentor, and an inspiration to all who knew her.  A few hours later, a rainbow appeared, a fitting tribute and farewell of hope, inclusion, and love in honor of a life well-lived.

Notes

[i] The Anathoth Community in Luck, Wisconsin is a Catholic Worker intentional community and farm, dedicated to ending the use of nuclear weapons and to peace.

[ii] Barb Kass, from her Remembrance at Donna’s Celebration of Life, September 25, 2022.

[iii] The Catholic Worker movement was founded in 1933 by Dorothy Day. It is best known for houses of hospitality, providing food, clothing, and shelter to those in need. Since its founding, Catholic Worker communities have sprung up throughout the United States.

[iv] Plowshares is a Catholic Worker movement begun in 1980 by Daniel and Phillip Berrigan and six others to follow the command in Isaiah to “beat swords into plowshares.” They have engaged in mostly symbolic actions against nuclear armaments, pouring blood, beating them with hammers, hanging banners, etc. to call attention to ending nuclear proliferation.

[v] Grandmothers for Peace embraces activism - Women are happy to promote their perspective, Duluth News Tribune (MN), November 14, 2020, pC1 (newsbank.com)

[vi] Tom and Donna’s efforts contributed to the Navy shutting down Project ELF in 2004.

[vii] The Nonviolent Peaceforce continues to this day and currently has 500 people in 35 countries, with the newest project being in Ukraine.

[viii] From Barb Kass, “Remembrance.”

[ix] Duluth remembers activist - Community honors Donna Howard, founder of Olive Branch house, Duluth News Tribune (MN), September 27, 2022, pA8 (newsbank.com)