“Peace had higher tests of manhood than battle ever knew” –
There are many wonderful people in WAMM and the peace movement. Regrettably, there is not space or time in the WAMM newsletter to honor them all, so this is representative of the unique character of one such person. Charles Johnson is what WAMM refers to as a “like-minded man” when it comes to issues of war and militarism. Together with Ava Dale, his wife, he pursued peace while living in a militaristic country and culture.
An active member of the peace and justice community, he was known for the twinkle in his eye and the love he demonstrated for individuals and humanity. A serious intellectual and activist, he was so filled with boyish delight and joie de vivre that a friend eulogized him in his memorial service as a “pixieish” character. He delighted in each person he encountered as though they were a wonderful gift to the Earth—a “star fallen from the sky,” as one of his granddaughters so eloquently put it. Others thought of him as someone who would be, if he could be, “skipping in the rain,”—an apt metaphor for one whose joyful spirit could not be extinguished by awareness of the dark clouds overhead in the political world in which we live.
Charles worked diligently against militarism and injustice, always seeking out and disseminating important information. The articles he and his wife Ava Dale collected and clipped daily they shared with other WAMM members in a chain that reached from neighbor Don Christianson to Don Irish, eventually to reside in the WAMM office, where they are kept and used as valuable resources.
Leading up to and during the war and occupation of Iraq, Charles, together with his wife Ava Dale, met with his congressional representative to lobby against war and occupation. Even toward the very end of his life, he participated in the Occupation Project, holding faithful vigil with Ava Dale in his congressional representative’s office for weeks to demand that funding for war be cut off and all U.S. troops be brought home from Iraq immediately, without excuses for delay.
Passionate about education, Charles envisioned youth as the hope for the future of the world. Earlier in his life with Ava Dale, he taught in the Belgian Congo, returning home before the revolution in 1959. He then taught on the Navajo reservation. His experiences caused him to seek root causes of injustice. He went on to earn a PhD in French and joined the staff of the French Department of Macalester College in 1969. He took students to study in France and developed new courses. Aided by French-speaking Hmong interpreter Se Yang, he researched and produced bilingual primers, plus a full anthology of unrecorded Hmong literature and culture—books still widely esteemed and used.
Retiring as associate professor emeritus in 1988, he focused on issues of peace and social justice while active with the Twin Cities Friends Meeting, WAMM, and the peace and justice communities. A conscientious tax resister, he protested in front of the U.S. Post Office on April 15, Tax Day, handing out literature about the misuse of tax money for war and militarism.
To give reparations to Native Americans for land confiscated by the nation and the state, many years ago, he and Ava Dale bequeathed their St. Paul residence to the White Earth Reservation. In fact, Charles gave away everything he had in the material world, even leaving his bodily remains to the University of Minnesota Medical School for research. But the memory and example of his wonderful spirit remain.
Charles will be missed by many who loved him and whose lives he touched. There are also those who never had the pleasure of knowing him, but whose lives also will have been touched by the presence he had on earth.
Submitted by Mary Beaudoin |
