Sean Donahue '96 told an audience at the Panarchy undergraduate society yesterday how he had been arrested four times in the two years since he left the College.
Donahue spoke out against American involvement in weapons manufacturing as he told the story of his involvement with civil disobedience.
"It comes to a point where you have to say you're not going to be a part of that," Donahue said. "It's good to write letters to Congress and circulate petitions," but that is not enough, he said.
"It comes to a point where you can no longer simply protest, but you have to resist," he said.
Donahue recounted the turning point in his own life. "I was pretty scared," he said, evoking a chuckle from the audience when he added, "I was the kind of kid that never even disobeyed the teacher in elementary school."
Donahue's opportunity to test his self-reliance came when he was part of a Peace Action Conference in Washington, D.C., last year -- he was approached by a woman taking part in a demonstration outside the Indonesian embassy.
After hearing her tell of the Indonesian army killing 200 people at a funeral ceremony with U.S.-supplied weapons, he decided to take part in their protest efforts.
The protesters, each holding a card bearing the name of a victim, lay down in the driveway of the embassy, blocking the entrance way. Donahue was the first of the group to be arrested. "When they put the handcuffs on, I freaked out at first," he said. "It was the first time since I was about two years old that I found myself entirely under someone else's control."
But when he realized he was not alone in his plight, he said, "I felt a kind of freedom I've never felt before."
After initially crossing the line, "it was pretty easy," Donahue said, though he did not believe he would be arrested again for engaging in civil disobedience.
He was wrong.
As it turned out, when he visited two men in a Portland County Jail for vandalizing a U.S. Marine Aegis Destroyer at Bath Iron Works in Portland, Maine, he became involved in another demonstration.
Waiting outside the courthouse the next morning, he found himself joining other demonstrators by preparing to chain himself to the gates of Bath Iron Works. Though he was almost immediately carried away by four policemen, he said he realized the importance "of acting without expectation."
"Great changes in our country happen not because of strategy, but by holding to the truth," he said. Even though it might not spark great change, "you have to take a step toward truth and take action" because it holds the possibility of change, Donahue said.
Citing social emphasis on the importance of politeness and "obeying the rules," Donahue said the "instinct is for people to go along, even when we don't think its right."
But Donahue said he always believed he had the inner strength to resist conformity in society and avidly stand by the truth. "I always said to myself that I was willing to be arrested if I believed in something strongly enough."
Donahue first became involved in anti-arms efforts as a freshman in high school. After telling a friend's mother about his fear of nuclear war, he found himself at a meeting in a Unitarian church basement. "I've been involved in the peace movement ever since," Donahue said.
Though he is now facing a jail term for refusing to pay a $2,400 fine for dumping ashes on the sign of a weapons plant in Nashua, he said he is only doing what he believes to be right. By serving possible jail time, he said he hopes to show it is possible to resist government policies.
