Eyes Wide Open Exhibition

[AngryOldDem]

Tonight I went to a candlelight vigil at the Eyes Wide Open exhibition on the Iraq war, sponsored by the American Friends Service Committee, among other peace groups and religious organizations. On display on the lawn of the church were 966-plus combat and dress boots, a pair for every soldier killed since hostilities began. On another part of the lawn, about eight or ten rows deep, were pairs of civilian shoes -- men's, women's and children's -- representing Iraqi civilians who have been killed.

After walking through row after row of boots, touching them and reading the stories of how the soldier to whom they belonged died, I felt emotionally drained. The enormity of the both the losses and the senselessness of this overwhelm me. They are planning to read the names of each and every victim of this war during the course of the night.

I had the privlege of talking to a Vietnam-era vet who is one of the volunteers who will keep watch over the boots tonight, as he did last night. He was lamenting the apathy that is so apparent among a lot of late teens and early twentysomethings. He also said that twice early this morning he had to deal with people who wanted to argue, as they stood amid the boots of dead soldiers. One man called this vet a "terrorist" for taking part in this exhibit, having this display; another said it was "nothing more than pieces of leather on the ground" and that the proper tribute to these fallen were to be "on granite."

The crowd tonight was pretty sparse. As I left, I overheard one woman say, "You know, we just ought to pile people in the car and tell them we're going for a ride. And bring them here."

I don't know if most of America is really apathetic, or just in a strong state of denial.

If this exhibit comes anywhere near where you live, I recommend you visit it.

[mopinko]

1. i saw it in chicago recently.

i took the button wagon, and hung out.
here is my blog entry about the day.
yesterday, i visited eyes wide open, an exhibition of the iraq war. this moving exhibit of the human cost of the war features a pair of boots for each american soldier killed in iraq. a tag is attached with the name, rank and home town. there are also many pairs of ordinary shoes, of all types, to symbolize the civilians killed. large posters list the names of all known killed. names of dead are read, alternating americans and iraqis. it was heartstopping. i was there with the buttonmoblie. i am so used to peace rallies and marches, where good natured comraderie and righteous indignation are the order of the day. it was all i could do to fight back the tears, especially between customers. i didn't always succeed. i was not alone.

one of the really haunting things about the exhibit was thinking about the families who stood next to those boots, sometimes literally, and certainly figuratively. many pairs of boots had flowers, flags, or peace buttons. a few had candles, lit by crying relatives. several parents spoke at the rally, and carried signs with pictures of their loved ones, asking why they were gone. those thousand pairs of boots represented a thousand exploded families, and a wave of grief that will wear at this country, for a generation, and more.

but i had another lesson in the size of that wave. a reminder that no soldier comes home the same person, and few are better for their experience. a young woman started talking to me as she looked over the buttons. "my brother is in bahgdad." she said. "i am so mad at him. i don't know why he joined. i blame my uncle. he told him he was a loser, and would never amount to anything. the next day, he joined the army." she went on to tell me that he was in military intellegence, and had probably been involved in the torture at abu gharaib. she had seen him standing behind rummy in a speech from the prison. he had been sent home on an unexpected leave, a month after deployment, and a week later the scandal broke. she assumes he was being kept out of the trouble. we ended our conversation with a hug. she spent the next 2 hours crying on a bench at the edge of the exhibit, and sitting among the boots. i watched her tell her story to other sympathetic strangers. she feels her brother is as lost to her as the dead. certainly, the brother that she had, is. i hope they will find a peace of some kind. but the wave of grief unleashed by this foolish war will swallow up so many families.

so, if we want to talk about viet nam, instead of talking about friggin typewriters, let's talk about the walking wounded that we all know from that war. does anyone in this country not have a family diminished by the physical and emotional scars of that quagmire? oh, yeah, i forgot. the bush family.

[Eloriel]

3. Very nice, very moving, mopinko

Thanks for posting this.

[aaronbees]

2. great posts

Just astounding that vet is labeled a 'terrorist.' (Black is white, up is down, hate is love -- what an Orwellian nightmare.)

I wish it was coming down here to the South; people here really need to see it. AFSC site: http://afsc.org/eyes/default.htm.