Eyes Wide Open: The Human Cost of the War in Iraq

Helena, Montana, July 19-20, 2006

2006-08-05T20:38:00.000-05:00

From a distance, Tammara looks like someone who talks to herself, pacing back and forth along the sidewalk and crying. I assume she’s upset to see the spreading field of empty boots growing on the Montana state capitol lawn in Helena. It’s not the first time someone has broken into tears as we set out the boots and shoes representing the thousands of soldiers, and the hundreds of thousands of civilians, killed in Iraq.

I know she feels these deaths deeply, not least because she’s a military spouse herself. Her husband is stationed just outside Baghdad, having joined the Army in 2003 to pay off student loans. He signed up for a job that was never supposed to take him into combat, but of course it did. Like every military family member, she has to wake up every day and deal with the reality that she may never see him again.

It’s only when I get up close that I realize that she’s talking on her headset cell phone. A moment earlier, I had heard the two guys yelling, “You oughta be put on trial for treason!” as they jumped back in their pickup truck and drove off. But it wasn’t until later that I figured out they were yelling at her, not believing her when she said she was on the phone to her husband in Iraq, and that she was doing this to bring him back alive.

“From a distance you look like my friend, even though we are at war…” So says the country/western song. But the people who seem to understand “Eyes Wide Open” the least are those who see it only from a distance, and shout or make obscene gestures as they drive by. Most of those who take the time to stop and walk among the boots and shoes, and read the names, have much less to say, other than “thank you.”

* * *

Tammara is a master at drawing people into the exhibit, engaging them as they pass by on the sidewalk. She has single-handedly gotten dozens, perhaps hundreds of people to stop and walk through the exhibit, and most of these have ended up writing postcards to Montana’s representative and senators asking them to bring our soldiers home from this senseless war. Tammara will be flying to DC and hand-delivering many hundreds of these hand-written postcards to Representative Rehberg and Senators Burns and Baucus, and I have a feeling she will make herself heard in their office.

She spent half an hour engaging a well-known local right-wing commentator in conversation about the war at the exhibit, and in the end they found they agreed on everything—the war was a mess, we never should have started it in the first place, etc.—except that he believes in following orders from the commander-in-chief, and she believes in helping the commander-in-chief make the right orders. Time will tell whether this man will change his rhetoric about anti-war protestors, or whether the Montana Congressional delegation will change its position on the war. But for today, Tammara has turned an enemy into an ally.

* * *

Tammara and Rick and their crew were waiting for me on the capitol lawn when I arrived for the 6 am set-up. They wanted to get a jump on the expected 100 degree heat, and they’d advertised this for days—with the first-ever “Eyes Wide Open” TV ads—as a 36-hour round-the-clock vigil for peace. Volunteers would provide overnight security, and the capitol groundskeeper came by to check which lawn sprinklers to turn off for the exhibit.

Soon there was a steady stream of people walking by or pulling up in their cars. Whether this was because of the advance advertising or the prominent location, I don’t know, but people in stores and restaurants would see my “Eyes Wide Open” t-shirt and say they’d heard about it. The noon ceremony has the most press of any stop on the tour, a tribute to the organizing abilities of the local sponsors.

The ceremony begins with a Native American drumming circle. Then a local United Church of Christ minister delivers an unwavering indictment of this illegal and immoral war which runs so counter to Jesus’ teaching to “love your enemies.” Tammara gives an impassioned description of the suffering the war is causing from the perspective of grieving families and wounded veterans. That evening an email goes out to the local peace network encouraging support for the two speakers, knowing they are both likely to be attacked for their strong stance.

Regional TV and newspaper media provide solid coverage of the event, but the local TV station claims that the Native American drumming group walked out when it turned into an “anti-war protest.” One of the drummers did leave, but the rest came over to the exhibit and went home with “War is Costly/Peace is Priceless” t-shirts.

The vigil at dusk draws the biggest crowd all day. As volunteers set out candles and luminaries around the boots and shoes, Rich and others play locally-written folk songs about the cost of war. Over 70 of us join hands in a circle around the shoes and offer our hopes for peace.

People are still coming by at 1 and 2 in the morning. The biggest excitement of the night is when the lawn sprinklers go off, setting off a scramble to cover them with buckets while capitol security rouses the groundskeeper, who apologizes profusely for the mistake. When the morning crew of volunteers arrives, the candles are still burning strong.

* * *

A community of sorts has been created around the exhibit. It has become a gathering place, made sacred by the encounters between those who gather, with each other and with those who have died. The guy mowing the lawn comes by on his break, tosses a donation in the bucket and apologizes for the noise of his machine. A high school student is reading “Lies My Teacher Told Me” and talking about how we need to talk to people who disagree with us, not just ourselves. Of course, Tammara is the one actually out there doing it.

She has every reason to have one of those “Support the Troops” bumper stickers, but the ribbon on her car says, “Support the Truth!” As I park my van with its “War Is Not The Answer” bumper sticker, I see the pickup behind me has a hand-written “Liberalism Is Not The Answer” sign on the back window, and I think: that could be an interesting discussion. I’ve heard more dialog across the political spectrum here than anywhere I’ve been.

A question follows the tour everywhere it goes: is “Eyes Wide Open” a protest or a memorial? Some see it as a disrespectful—even “disgusting”—use of dead soldiers to make a political statement, and if that’s all it was, it would be disgusting. But is it disrespectful to mourn for those who have suffered the most from war, and to say we want the suffering to stop? We need places where we can come together and seek healing. Perhaps “Eyes Wide Open” is best as just such a meeting ground.

Veterans & Survivors March for Peace and Justice

2006-03-19T23:59:00.000-06:00

Today starts regular posts from the Veterans and [Hurricane] Survivors March from Mobile to New Orleans. The AFSC Eyes Wide Open National Guard Memorial is present at the beginning.

Day 0: Mobile, AL

Already on day zero, before the march has even started, there is much to say about this effort to shift our country's priorities from a destructive war to helping reconstruct people's lives.

I could tell about the march base camp at the headquarters of SOS (Savin' Our Self, a hurricane survivors organization), a run-down warehouse on the outskirts of Mobile with pallets of canned goods stacked along its bare brick walls. Or about the t-shirts--“Until the philosophy that holds one race superior and another inferior is totally and permanently discredited and abandoned, everywhere is war” and “War, what is it good for? Absolutely nothing!”--worn by veterans who have first-hand experience of war. Or about the wheelchair symbolizing the thousands wounded in the war, added to the Eyes Wide Open exhibit by these same veterans, who know all too well the cost of war.

But just as Eyes Wide Open is not just about empty boots and shoes, but about real people who have died in the war, this march is about people. People like Vivian Felts of SOS, who takes me by the arm and welcomes me like a long-lost friend. People like Grumpy, the skinny cook who's taken on a new name because “there are too many Mikes around.” People like Jim Goodnow, who has a children's shoe--spattered with his own blood--hanging from the rearview mirror of his bus as a reminder of the cost of this war. The march is about the woman who introduces herself as an “angry citizen” from Mississippi, and about Iraq vet Geoff Millard who finds his friend's name among the boots of the fallen. It's about retired Col. Anne Wright, who anchors us all with her competent and classy presence. And it's about people like Stan Goff, who looks like he's just here for a good time at first, walking around shirtless with a bandana around his neck, but who turns out to be one of the spiritual geniuses of this movement.

Stan begins the orientation by encouraging some of the older vets to be mindful of the more recent vets just back from Iraq “with fresh blood on their hands.” We know how it is, he says--one minute you're here, and the next minute you're right back there and it's happening all over again. He reminds us that we're also going to meet people who have been through a lot right here in this country--as another speaker points out, post-traumatic stress syndrome has spilled over into civilian society along the Gulf Coast. This march is going to bring a lot of things up for people, and that's the whole point, he says, because this is a not just a march, it's a spiritual pilgrimage. And what we're doing is creating conditions where people--veterans and survivors alike--can tell their stories and be heard. Stan goes on to remind us that Americans haven't always fought in bad wars, and he invokes the spirit of those who have fought the good fight before us; the spirit of Crazy Horse, the spirit of John Brown, the spirit of Harriet Tubman. He recalls the spirit of rebellion in the history of this part of the country, while another speaker remarks how Katrina and Rita have politicized people in the Deep South in a whole new way. Suffering will do that to people, just as suffering--and not just their own--has politicized these warriors who now wage peace.

In this context, the gospel choir sounds booming over the speakers take on a whole new meaning. Veterans from several wars speak their truth in interview after interview, wearing t-shirts with Margaret Mead's quote: “Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world…” and the choir sings: “I can do the impossible, I can see the invisible, because I got faith!” The “Walkin' to New Orleans” march logo shows silhouettes of a GI and a hurricane survivor walking side by side… and the choir sings: “I need you, you need me…you are important to me, I need you to survive.” And as we hold candles together under a full moon, a mother, arms around her husband and her young son, joins in singing a song she's never sung before. And she sings it like she means it.

Day 1: Mobile, AL--Support

The march begins in the morning. We've already hit the front page of the local newspaper from our remote warehouse base camp, and now we're heading to the streets of Mobile. I go ahead to set up the Eyes Wide Open boots along the edges of Memorial Park facing traffic, and people stop me over and over again to ask what's going on. They nod in agreement when I tell them we want our troops rebuilding the Gulf Coast instead of dying in Iraq. As the march makes it way under the arching trees of Government Street, people honk their horns in support. A local veteran estimates antiwar opinion in this conservative town might be 20%, but it seems like more than that today.

At Memorial Park, recent vets from Iraq are out front telling their stories about deception and reality. One wears the best t-shirt I've seen most so far: "I went to Iraq to find WMD's and all I got was this lousy t-shirt." Another reframes the whole argument about supporting the troops: "Honor the warrior. Not the war." Then members of three different Gold Star families share their stories of losing their loved ones. Sgt. Mitchell's father says he used to talk about the number (currently 2314) of soldiers killed in the war, until he found his son's friend hanging by a garden hose, a death not counted among the war's official casualties. Casey Sheehan's aunt regrets that she didn't start speaking out against the war until it was too late for her beloved nephew.

As I leave to deliver the boots to Memphis, our march for sanity and NCAA "March Madness" are the top local stories on public radio news. AM radio has other concerns.

Day 2: Ocean Springs, MS--Seeking Redemption

Among the people I introduced on Day 0, I forgot to mention the hitchhiker I picked up on the way to Mobile. An unemployed construction worker from Pennsylvania, he's trying to turn his life around after years of messing up, and he's decided to start his life over by moving to the Gulf Coast to try to help with reconstruction. He has come, perhaps, seeking redemption.

I return to the march just as it leaves the Mississippi Vietnam Veterans Memorial. The vigil between the open-air walls of the memorial -- covered with photos of mostly young Mississippians killed in Vietnam -- has reaffirmed the veterans' conviction that they are doing the right thing in trying to stop the war in Iraq. The row of FEMA trailers in the lot behind the memorial are my first sign of things to come.

At the hurricane survivors‚ speakout in Ocean Springs, Victoria Cintra from the Mississippi Immigrants Rights Alliance reads from the UN Declaration on Human Rights -- to which the US is a signatory, she points out -- proclaiming human rights for all, regardless of legal status. We then hear from Javier, whose 12-year old son has been denied medical assistance to treat a respiratory infection caused by mold from the hurricane, because of his legal status -- "as if the hurricane discriminated between people." I am reminded of Jesus‚ saying that we should be like the one who sends rain which falls on the just and the unjust alike. It turns out Javier is the one who provided the flowers left at the Vietnam memorial.

Inside Macedonia Missionary Baptist Church, the sanctuary is full of well-dressed church members and this slightly ragtag group of veterans and survivors, clapping and singing together. Then Dave Cline, President of Veterans for Peace, gets up and speaks of how many veterans have, in the words of the psalm, "walked through the valley of the shadow of death." And some of them come home and find themselves stuck there, bitter and disillusioned. But others of them find redemption in standing up for peace and justice, and so for many this march is a march about redemption. Stan Goff goes on to tell how he and others like him missed the great social struggles for civil rights and equality because they were out making war on other people. They are grateful now to have a second chance, a chance to redeem themselves -- and, perhaps, their nation.

My hitchhiker is grateful to have a second chance, too. He wasn't into this activism stuff before, but now he's marching and chanting and carrying signs like a veteran. And it sounds like he's here to stay.

Day 3: Biloxi to Long Beach, MS--Waking Up

Day 3 begins with tension. We were issued a permit to march along Biloxi beach, but the police have no record of it and absolutely no humor about it. The march leaders get them to agree to allow the march to go forward, but they have to remind our folks that we're not here to engage in confrontation with these police. After all, they've been through a lot in the last six months.

We begin to get a sense of that as we march past ruin after ruin. Where once there were miles of fine beachfront homes, not a single one is intact, and most are not even standing -- nothing but bare foundations and piles of bricks, and sometimes not even that. Where once there were entire neighborhoods there is nothing but dirt-covered streets and dead trees, everything a monotone gray. Hotels, casinos, gas stations, fast food restaurants, even cemeteries lie in total ruin. Over and over the vets remark how much the area resembles a combat zone.

Our government didn't do this, and it probably won't be able to undo it. But as the vets know from Iraq, a country that can build an entire military base from scratch in a foreign country in 25 days could certainly do more than what's been done here in the last six months. They chant their call to shift resources from war to reconstruction in military cadence: "Hey, hey, Uncle Sam...we remember Vietnam...we don't want your Iraq war...bring our troops back to our shore..."

We're picking up supporters now from this unlikely recruiting ground -- the Deep South hardly being a bastion of liberalism. But over and over people honk their horns and wave fervently, as if they've been waiting for something like this. Some of us plant flower seeds in the sand as we march, symbolic of what we're trying to do. We've also picked up some opposition and the occasional half-peace sign, but it's the same two counterprotesters who keep leapfrogging ahead to meet us. One of them shouts out a challenge: "You didn't come here before you knew Cindy Sheehan was coming to New Orleans." One of our guys answers back: "I would have been here sooner, but I was in Iraq." Another t-shirt says a lot: "Don't tell me to go to hell. I been there."

As we march, I hear more stories. Ann Wright had watched people resign over different issues during her 29 years with the military and in the diplomatic corps. But when we invaded an oil-rich Arab country for no legitimate reason, it was all too obvious what was going on and what was going to happen, so she resigned her post as deputy ambassador to Mongolia. Stan Goff was serving in Guatemala during the last coup in the 80's, in El Salvador when the four nuns were killed, and later became a military advisor in Columbia. He credits his experience in special operations for helping him learn that people from different cultures are more similar than they are different, and that poverty is pretty much the same the world over. Geoff Millard's National Guard unit was mobilized within hours after 9/11, but as he watched from Baghdad what was happening in New Orleans, he saw a lack of response which he can only attribute to racism. Tina Gardenez learned from her experience as a medic what war really does to people, and went on to see similarities between what our country in doing to Iraq and what it's done to her own Navajo people. Rich Balthes was a "closet activist" quietly opposing the war until Cindy Sheehan stood up, and then he knew he had to stand up and make his voice heard as well.

All around the country, people are waking up. And it isn't coffee they're smelling.

Day 4: Bay St. Louis, MS to Slidell, LA--Community

More devastation. More interviews. Another negotiation session with the police. It feels like today is going to be a lot like yesterday.

And then the mood shifts as we enter Louisiana. We get a police escort. We pick up a 5-piece Dixieland marching band dressed in green. And we give Slidell, LA its first-ever St. Patrick’s Day parade for peace and justice. The response from young mothers, elderly couples and rugged construction workers alike continues to run about 10 to 1 in our favor.

The mood when we get to camp is a bit different, too. We’ve been hosted by pretty straight-laced Baptist churches in Mississippi, complete with some serious hellfire preaching. Now we’re camped out on a bayou with real alligators, and there are signs of a party to come. We set up in the middle of some ruined houses turned into a relief camp, and hear some more stories.

It turns out the vet yesterday wasn’t just being rhetorical in his response to the counterprotestors (who disappeared some time ago). Veterans for Peace were camped outside President Bush’s ranch in Crawford, Texas last August when Katrina hit, and they immediately came here in their buses to start helping out. They aren’t just about stopping war, they’re about building peace, which is why this march is so appropriate. They’re serious about wanting to rebuild the Gulf Coast. Sherwood Baker died in Iraq, but his father tells how his son’s favorite part of being in the National Guard was moving sandbags in a flooded area in New York. A vet with a “Homeland Security” t-shirt talks about being part of a community-building effort in Colorado Springs, complete with a community garden and a bike-recycling project. Another vet tells about No More Victims, an effort which raises money to bring wounded Iraqi children to the US for medical treatment. These guys know real Iraqi people far better than our government officials who make pronouncements about them. Michael McPhearson tells how Veterans for Peace has spent time listening to families in Iraq who have suffered the consequences of our country’s war, and they’re not talking about abandoning them. There’s plenty of money to take care of people both there and here, he says — but not if we’re trying to run the world.

They’re building community right here on this march, bringing together Bible-quoting Baptists and party-loving grunts, red-necked firefighters and bandana-wearing peaceniks, aging long-hairs and fresh-faced crewcuts. And as we kick back tonight over ‘gator gumbo and live Cajun blues, an unlikely combination of people is gathered under the stars. The nervous white woman from Mississippi is talking around the fire with her newly-found African American friend. Rich -- possibly the only Vietnam-era CO from Mobile -- is twisting and turning with an elderly black woman from Alabama. Cindy Sheehan is smiling for a photo with the raspy-voiced Cajun singer, while retired Col. Ann Wright is dancing with the lightness of a free conscience. And Jose the medic will lead Buddhist meditation in the morning.

Day 5: Slidell to New Orleans--Healing

At morning meditation, a thoughtful vet from New York offers a special prayer for Vietnam. Elsewhere, another vet is talking about the wounds every veteran carries deep inside, and about the connection between those wounds and the wounds of people in Iraq and along the Gulf Coast. I'm seeing a connection between the healing of those wounds as well. At morning briefing they announce that marchers have contributed almost half of the $2000 needed to keep SOS's hurricane relief warehouse open. Then a crew goes off to gut a house that needs to be rebuilt.

Today's march brings us into the outskirts of New Orleans, to a Vietnamese neighborhood where the trash has clearly not been picked up for months. The stench is overwhelming. As we arrive at our camp outside Mary Queen of Vietnam Catholic Church, some kids are playing basketball. They can't believe we're here to support them--“you're here for us?” We hear from a Vietnamese businessman who has lost everything and has yet to receive any help from FEMA. It turns out Veterans for Peace was on the ground in New Orleans before both FEMA and the Red Cross. My hitchhiker gets up to announce that he's found his life's work helping rebuild the Gulf Coast, and sets about recruiting volunteers and supplies to rebuild the roof of a woman's house along the march route.

The evening's poetry session lays bare some of the wounds I'd heard about earlier. One poem tells of a vet who came home whole in body but empty in soul, who sat in his daddy's lap like a child for 45 minutes, perhaps trying to recover what he had lost. He ended up killing himself anyways. The poem speaks the dead man's anguish and shame before his parents: “Maybe they would have been more proud of me if I'd come home in a flag-covered box…” The poetry is raw, but also healing.

There is more healing around the campfire tonight, our last night together, as the bayou band from Slidell jams on.

Day 6: New Orleans--Victory

We gather in a giant circle for our final morning briefing. Stan remarks that we haven’t just made it to New Orleans; we’ve created community. And when you create community, you’ve already won. We may not have stopped the war, but we have created peace.

As we march from Chalmette National Cemetery through the Lower 9th Ward, there are parallels with what’s happening in Iraq. Electricity is out over there; traffic lights are out in many places here. Water service has yet to be restored in Iraq; there are port-a-johns everywhere along the Gulf Coast. Garbage collection is stalled in Baghdad; there are mounds of trash everywhere in New Orleans.

Yet there are also signs of hope. Common Ground is a community-based relief organization gutting and cleaning out people’s homes so they aren’t just bulldozed and replaced. I wonder if there are community-based organizations in Iraq we could be supporting. After all, building peace is about so much more than “fighting the enemy.”

On the radio I hear that Americans are turning against the war not just because of its cost, but because of its futility. Perhaps that is why people are not turning out for demonstrations on this, the 3rd anniversary of the war, because they sense that it’s futile to try to stop the war, too. That our country has gotten itself into a bad situation with no good way out. And of course it is hopeless--unless we remember that building peace is about making sure people are fed and housed and able to find what they need. It’s also pretty hopeless unless you get involved in creating that peace.

War is often attractive because it gives us a sense of being part of something bigger, a sense of national purpose; as the book title suggests, “war is a force that gives us meaning.” The sense of being part of something ultimately bigger and more meaningful is here among this group of committed warriors for peace. This is no wimpy liberalism here; these are the kind of guys I have been afraid of earlier in my life, now with a hard-core radical compassion that goes way beyond “compassionate conservativism.”

The full-throated chants for peace and justice echo in the streets as we march into downtown New Orleans, joined by volunteers from Common Ground and others along the way. The turnout isn’t huge, but as Stan says, the community we’ve created--and the compassion some of us are turning into action in helping rebuild people’s lives here--are victories in their own right. As I leave to begin my 14-hour drive back to Chicago, the song expressing our outrage at both the cost and the futility of war reverberates from the rally: “War I despise, 'cause it means destruction of innocent lives..War, what is it good for? Absolutely nothing!” But it is the quieter theme song that began the march which expresses why we came together in this broken part of our world: “I need you, you need me, we’re all a part of God’s body…you are important to me…I love you, I need you to survive.”

Scott
AFSC Chicago

Comments from Visitors to Eyes Wide Open

2006-03-02T22:40:00.000-06:00

Today begins a series of entries on comments made by visitors after viewing Eyes Wide Open. The firs comes from a mother and her five-year-old child.

“My five-year-old son asked me to write this: he is very sad that all of these people died because of war. He says that he has seen parts of you here, and he feels like he knows you a little. I, as his mother, promise to do my best to raise him so that he values human life and peace – perhaps such senseless deaths will be avoided if future generations are taught that kindness, respect and cooperation are a priority.”

Vassar -- 2,069

2005-12-12T14:50:00.000-06:00

This is excerpted from columnist Danny Lanzetta

2,069 pairs of combat boots

“If there’s only one boot in this exhibit, it’s too many,” says Marq Anderson, EWO National Tour manager.

“Have you spoken with Celeste Zapalla?” he asks. “Her son died in the war,” he says. He then points behind me to a woman standing by herself in a corner of the chapel.

Celeste Zapalla appears to be in her mid- 50s. Her arms are crossed and she appears absorbed, maybe by the speaker, maybe by something else. She is wearing a long jacket that partially covers a memorial sweatshirt, something she obviously had made. Mostly, she looks tired.

I approach cautiously and introduce myself before asking her for a few minutes. She agrees, and we head toward the chapel vestibule, so we won’t have to talk over the anti-war speakers at the altar. We stand beneath a doorway as I take out my notebook and pen and ask Celeste to tell me her son’s name.

“Sgt. Sherwood Baker,” she says slowly, spelling it out for me to make sure I get it right. “He was 30,” she adds. She also tells me that her son was the first Pennsylvania National Guardsman to be lost in combat in more than 60 years.

I then ask her why it’s important for people to see the exhibit and Celeste becomes very emphatic.

“We mustn’t sanitize (the war) and pretend we don’t have to think about it because it’s far away,” she says, as if she’d been listening to my thoughts. Guiltily, I continue to write. “We have to acknowledge it, face it and deal with it if we’re ever going to have peace.

“I want people to remember my son,” she continues, the outlines of her eyes now becoming red, her tears restrained, and yet palpable, as if she has learned exactly how to control herself for interviews. “It wasn’t just our family that lost him. His country lost him, too.

“He had a great future. He was a case worker for mentally retarded adults. He was a musician. He was a father. Everything he would have been to the community is lost. Now multiply that by 2,069. And it’s going up as we speak.

“It’s important, no matter what people feel about the war, to remember that each pair (of boots) is a person, a family, a future. For the folks who say we have to stay the course, I want to know, what is your level of sacrifice? Some people don’t even want to pay taxes.

As she finishes, something in me can’t help but reach out and touch her arm. I thank her and watch as she walks back into the chapel.

The number 2,069 flashes into my head as I drive off.

It’s only later, hours after I left the chapel, that I understand what Marq Anderson was saying. For if it were only the boots of Sgt. Sherwood Baker that traveled around the country and landed in the Vassar Chapel on a chilled November afternoon, it would still be too many boots.

Far too many.

Epilogue: By Nov. 16, the second day of the exhibit, the number had risen to 2,072.

Copley Square -- Boston

2005-11-15T11:35:00.000-06:00

In New York an artist was willing to lend her over two dozen photos of Iraqis to Eyes Wide Open. Here is one of them standing among the shoes representing the 100,000+ Iraqis who have died due to the war. As the exhibit travels, more and more people, particularly with small children, find the shoes the most moving part of the memorial. Thanks to the blog "Off On a Tangent" for the photos. Correction: The artist of the photo represented is Lorna Tychostup. Please view her incredible work at Lorna Tychostup

More Amherst

2005-11-13T15:16:00.000-06:00

The combat boots had to stay out overnight, so a group of U. Mass students volunteered to camp out. It was a particularly cold night. A homeless man wandered over to where they were camped and told the students that as long as he had to stay outside overnight, he might as well help guard the boots. They put him inside one of the tents and encourged him to go inside one of the buildings to keep warm. Eyes Wide Open tends to encourage incredibly generosity from many unexpected places.

University of Massachusetts -- Amherst

2005-11-13T15:11:00.000-06:00

It was a week of thinking and talking about the war at the university, capped with a speech by Cindy Sheehan to an overflow crowd. What started in Chicago in January 2004 with 504 pairs of combat boots has now quadrupled in size. This aerial shot gives a sense of the enormity of the loss of this war. The shoes representing the Iraqi civlians who have died are now formed into a circular labyrinth where people walk in reflection. Each tiny dot represents a life lost.

Boston

2005-11-09T11:51:00.000-06:00

We launched EWO’s visit to Boston by arranging to display the New England boots and a number of shoes in Nurses Hall in the Massachusetts State House (State Capitol.) Our plan had been to trumpet the coming of the full EWO by having the exhibit in the State House along with a press conference.

Even before we laid out our exhibit, we had our underwriting announcements running on the major NPR station and the Boston Globe gave us a great announcement and photo in the featured events section of their “Sidekick” section.

In addition to Jaime Lederer and me, speakers at the press conference included Andy Sapp, a very articulate Iraq vet who returned to the Boston area last week, Joyce and Kevin Lucey and Carlos and Melida Arredondo who lost sons to the Iraq war, Rep. Byron Rushing who arranged for the elegant State House space for us, and state Senator Pat Jelan.

Press who came included the Associated Press (the photograph went deep into the exhibit and told us that it was an AFSC staffer, who had returned from Southeast Asia in the late 1960s who turned him on to photography!), the Boston Globe, the Boston Herald, New England Cable News, Channel 5 T.V. and the Roslindale….. which is doing a feature article about Carlos.

View a short video of the memorial at Copley Square.

Stark New Hampshire Setting

2005-11-03T07:22:00.000-06:00

A local farm family in Rollinsford, NH lent their farm and their strong arms to set out and take down the whole Eyes Eide Open exhibit. Aiden Delgado, an Iraq war vet who was honorably discharged as a conscientious objector, plays the role of the soldier. Filmed on November 1, one day after the fourth deadliest month for U.S. troops in Iraq and one week after the 2,000th death, the music video captures a scene that is becoming tragically commonplace.

Eyes Wide Open in Music Video

2005-11-03T07:11:00.000-06:00

Five-time Grammy award winner and blues artist Robert Cray filmed a music video to his song "Twenty" in New Hampshire with 2,027 pairs of combat boots from the Eyes Wide Open Memorial. The song speaks of of a young man who goes to Iraq and then comes back looking through the rows of boots for a name. It seems at first that he is looking for his buddies, but suddenly he finds a pair and puts them on. He was really looking for his own boots because he has ben killed. Look for it to be released early next year.

Eyes Wide Open on Good morning America

2005-10-29T18:36:00.000-05:00

A brief shot of Eyes Wide Open at Holyoke Community College appeared on Good Morning America to introduce the story on the 2,000th U.S. military death in Iraq. The photo at right shows the crew setting up.

2000th Death Commemorated in Chicago

2005-10-29T08:50:00.000-05:00

250 people filled federal plaza with 2,000 placards each containing an image of a pair of combat boots with the name, rank, age and home state of a fallen U.S. military person. A sister of one of the 44 women who have been killed in the war spoke while holding a portrait of her sister. Two other mothers spoke. One has a son in Iraq and the other’s son has two purple hearts and one bronze star for bravery and will be returning shortly to Iraq. They both spoke eloquently about bringing the troops home now. The president of the Council of Islamic Organizations also spoke holding up all of our humanity. People commented afterward that it was a spiritually renewing experience even though it was commemorating a tragic milestone.

Death Toll in Iraq Mounts

2005-10-17T06:37:00.000-05:00

3,663 Iraqis have been killed in war-related violence in the last six months, according to an Associated Press count. This nation is also nearing the 2,000th U.S. military casualty of the war. Given the 'stay the course" policy of the Bush administration, that tragic milestone could be reached before the end of October.

The American Friends Service Committee, Gold Star Families for Peace, Military Families Speak Out and Iraq Veterans Against the War have joined in issuing a call for public actions the day after the 2,000th death is announced. The day will be marked with memorials, vigils and other public events that parallel the theme: Not One More Death, Not One More Dollar.

Please go to the AFSC website to sign up to host an event in your community or to RSVP to one that is already planned. Today we are at 132 events in 36 states nationwide.

Ithaca

2005-10-09T22:08:00.000-05:00

Ithaca is the home of the St. Patrick's Four. They went into a military recruiting station on St. Patrick's Day in 2003 and poured their blood around to protest the war in Iraq. A jury just acquitted them of the most serious charge of conspiracy. Two of the military officers present when they poured that blood came to Eyes Wide Open.

The officers spent about 15 minutes looking at the names and thanked us for doing it. They would not say whether they were for or against the war. Their point of view is that the people of the United States get what they ask for. One of them left saying that "quite a few chunks of my soul are left here."

The Ithaca Journal is one of the few newspapers to run a photo of the 1,000 shoe representing the 100,000 Iraqi civilians who have died because of the war. [see above]

Minneapolis-St. Paul

2005-10-02T09:11:00.000-05:00

1,933 pairs of combat boots covered nearly a football field of space at St Catherine's College in St. Paul, MN. On the first day, as scores of volunteers helped lay them out at 6:30am, they found out by the end of the day that another five had been killed.

The shoes representing a portion of the Iraqis killed formed a labyrinth and at least 10 schools from the area sent students to walk through them and see the memorial. On Sunday, people stood 38 deep just to pass by the 14 pairs of real boots donated by the families of U.S. military killed in Iraq.

Nick Coleman, journalist from the Minneapolis Star wrote one of the best, if not THE best articles about Eyes Wide Open in the past year and a half entitled Woeful Footprints of War. It appears on the front page of the Metro section with a huge photo of a woman weeping besides the boots.

He profiles the family of Matthew G. Milczark, age 18 who died in Kuwait in 2004. Matt's father and two aunts slipped a rosary on his boots that Matt had kept on his bed. Two flags, left over from his funeral, had been just sitting in their house, and they didn't know what to do with them. One they left with his boots and another with his best friend's boots, who was killed within a month of Matt's death. The aunts moved all three pairs of boots of the "Carlton County boys" side by side -- so that they could be together.

Nick Coleman came back the next day as well, "when he wasn't working."

Young AFSC EWO Peacemakers on Public Radio

2005-09-26T17:26:00.000-05:00

WBEZ, Chicago Public Radio, featured two young people working on Eyes Wide Open. Erin assists local EWO sites with media and Megan has helped organize and itinerate Eyes Wide Open -- Illinois.

You can hear how their lives have been changed by the war and their peace work at WBEZ;s special series of War Stories entitled Young Peacemakers from September 22.

Erin pictured at right.

Message of Thanks from Lancaster

2005-09-26T14:18:00.000-05:00

"The exhibition was so moving, I found it hard to converse with the living, when surrounded by the presence of so many who had died. With an event like this, I come away having received so much more than I could ever give. "

More Franklin and Marshall Photos

2005-09-26T12:48:00.000-05:00

Aerial shot of the Memorial in Lancaster.

Franklin & Marshall College

2005-09-26T09:47:00.000-05:00

Thousands of people flocked to Eyes Wide Open in Lancaster, PA last weekend. Many people from the demonstration in Washington D.C. stopped by on their way home. It was even visited by hot air balloons that came down very low for a good look at the field of boots and labyrinth of shoes, representing Iraqis killed in the war.

The university had special Iraq studies going on the week before we arrived. They also brought a cherry picker over to get some aerial shots.

The security guards at the college volunteered their time watching the memorial overnight so that it would not have to be taken down and set up each day. College officials were totally supportive during the whole weekend and did a wonderful job organizing the whole venue.

The U.S. death toll is now at 1,918 and the 26-foot truck carrying EWO around the country is packed to the gills.

Eyes Wide Open Permanent Display

2005-09-21T17:49:00.000-05:00

Thanks to the creativity of some local peace activists in Highland Park, IL just north of Chicago, the Eyes Wide Open Memorial has been made into a semi-permanent display.

For a month the display has been in a downtown park area. It consists of 27 pairs of boots at different levels -- each boot representing a different state or U.S. territory. Behind the boots are two panels of names of the fallen. On the floor of the display are shoes representing the Iraqi dead.

Each week for four weeks the ;pcal peace activisits have read the names of the newly fallen and added them to the display. In the month the memorial was displayed, they added 47 new names.

Lessons from New Orleans

2005-09-19T17:16:00.000-05:00

The lessons that this nation can learn from the New Orleans tragedy are legion. One certainly is that a nation, no matter how wealthy, cannot spend $200 billion to prosecute a war half a world away, without contributing to the suffering and dying of its own people at home. According to the national Priorities Project, the state of Louisiana has siphoned off over $1.7 billion of its own federal taxpayer dollars for the war in Iraq. New Orleans alone anted up over $170 million. That would have bought a lot of rebuilt levees, rented fleets of buses for the evacuation of the most vulnerable and still would have left funds for an emergency communications system. See National Priorities Project Site

Louisiana had 3,000 National Guard members deployed in Iraq and unavailable for duty during the flooding. That state has lost 22 National Guard members in the war, nearly ten percent of the national total of Guard losses. None of them were available to help when the floods came.

In Des Moines last July, the Eyes Wide Open -- National Guard Memorial was present at the National Governor's Conference. The governor's officially commented that they were concerned about the deployment of National Guard troops in Iraq when they were needed for disaster relief at home. It seems that the president did not hear them.

Johns Hopkins University

2005-09-19T17:07:00.000-05:00

In last week's edition of the Balitimore Sun, columnist Michael Olesker speaks of Eyes Wide Open turning the grassy area "into a kind of spiritual graveyard..."

Of the shoes representing the Iraqis he writes:
"On one pair of shoes, a tag says, 'First niece of Rabah Hassan. Age. 2.' On another: '15th family member of Malik al-Kharbit family. Age unknown.' On a pair of little sneakers: 'Tabarek Talab. 4 months.' In another spot, there are a dozen pairs of shoes from the same family."

And, row after row after row, there are the American boots. In front of one pair, a man kneels on the grass with his arms around his little boy. Near another, a woman stands with her hands folded in prayer. A couple hold hands, looking slightly awe-struck. And still the roll call of the dead goes on.

John Dornheim, the chaplain at Johns Hopkins Bayview Medical Center says,
"This is a holy place. The spirits of these people are with us, and we need to end this thing. If Iraq needs military support, it should be a U.N. force, not us. This is not about lack of support for our troops, it's about a government policy that put us in Iraq, and told us we were there to defend the U.S. And knew that a segment of the population would go along with that."

Today we just passed 1900 U.S. military casualties. The reading of the U.S. and Iraqi dead now take over 4 hours.

Baltimore and 9/11

2005-09-15T11:00:00.000-05:00

Eyes Wide Open appeared at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore over the anniversary of September 11th. With the help of the organization September 11th Families for Peaceful Tomorrows, the memorial remembered the Iraqi civilians and U.S. military personnel killed in the Iraq War.

The Peaceful Tomorrows folks are relatives of those killed in the World Trade Center and Pentagon tragedies. But they are totally against the war in Afghanistan and Iraq. They do not believe in vengeance and killing more innocent civilians in retaliation for 9/11.

Johns Hopkins is also a perfect location because its School of Public Health issued a report last December concluding that 100,000 additional deaths of Iraqis occurred due to the war. That is, of course, over 30 times the number of deaths that this nation suffered on 9/11 in a country 1/12 the size of the U.S. And their 9/11 is not one day, but continues now.

For more Baltimore photos.

Gold Star Mother Speaks from Camp Casey

2005-08-26T12:59:00.000-05:00

My last day in Crawford, for this visit, began at 6:30 a.m. with a radio interview on the Bill Press Show and later at 7:10 for Air America, and 8:10 for KSOW in Oregon.

I had met up with some great folks from Colorado, Tony & Kimberly who agreed to drive me from the hotel. We headed off to Camp Casey II, and we had to drive by Camp Casey I. The Pro Bush/ Pro War people have grown their site, I believe, in preparation for the large crowds of both sides expected to arrive for the weekend. The first evidence of this expansion was the increased number of canopies/tents and a portapotty. Previous to this time, we had let anyone use our facilities (so don’t let anyone say that we were anything but downright friendly) Until Wednesday, I hadn’t ever seen more than a handful of people, and at sometimes only 1 person holding vigil at their site. It seems like the more vociferous, rowdy people are already in attendance across the street from our Camp I. They have also added a lot of signage. Beginning exactly where the white crosses start across the street, they have placed Pro Bush signs, the campaign kind, very slick, very business like and very much a contrast to the crosses, which just seem to fit standing proudly, representing the sad human cost of this war. I will miss being in Crawford this weekend. If they think we are looking to engage the Pro Bus/ Pro War crowd, they won’t find that from anyone who I met.

I do want to remember some of the people who traveled to Crawford. As people sadly headed home, there were plenty who came to fill their places. I would say about 50 or more new people arrived every day. I would ask people where they were from and why they came. One petite woman, who I recall was from Texas said she *had* to be there, although she had no one in her family in the military. She pulled up her shirt to show me the rubber gloves that were tucked into her jeans pocket. She told me she brought her rubber gloves in case she was assigned to scrub toilets; she just * had* to come and she would do anything to help the camp run smoothly. A family traveled from Ithaca, NY. They had 3 children including a 6 week old baby, but they *had* to come, too. One person was very sad to leave. He got all the way to the airport in Dallas- 2+ hours away, was standing in line to turn in his rental car heading back to Los Angeles. He was overcome with sadness at the thought of not being in Crawford and got into his car and headed back. It really is hard to explain the pull to Crawford, but it is there.

A press conference was scheduled at 10:30. The Blue Star Moms/ Wives would speak to the press followed by the Gold Star Moms/ Wife. Basically, the message was, I am so and so from this place, I believe as Cindy does and want to know what the noble cause is, etc…. The Gold Stars were allowed more time to speak, and this was the first official time that Cindy spoke to the press since she had returned to TX. Marq Anderson from AFSC in Philadelphia flew in on Wednesday to bring Casey’s actual boots and 50 other pair of boots to represent the loved ones of members of Gold Star Families for Peace. Marq is a good friend from when the exhibit Eyes Wide Open was in SF and Sacramento. I also flew out to Philadelphia for 4th of July to participate in the exhibit there as well. Marq presented Casey’s, Ken’s and John’s boots to Cindy, me, and Melanie & Susan House. We walked over to the crosses with our son’s names and placed the boots beside them. It was very emotional. The press took photos and video. Many of my new friends were very nearby for support. I gotta tell you; these peace people know how to give real, “I mean it” kind of hugs! As emotional as it is to be in Crawford, there is always a soft place to fall. I will be eternally grateful for that.

As we left Crawford, the home of the Crawford High School Pirates, I knew I would return shortly. It will be hard to leave next Wednesday for the final time.

Karen Meredith- Gold Star Mom
Proud Mom of Lt Ken Ballard- KIA 5.30.04
www.ltkenballard.com
Mountain View, CA

National Guard Memorial In Buffalo, NY

2005-08-26T11:42:00.000-05:00

In the meantime, the National Guard Memorial consisting of 255 pairs of boots was displayed in Buffalo, NY. Massive TV and radio coverage as folks on their lunch hour in downtown Buffalo came by to read the tags, mourn and cry. Even a fairly conservative talk show host said that people have the right to see the human cost of the war.

One woman on vacation with her family said that as somber as the memorial was, it was a profound way for the family to be together and talk about the war.

For print coverage

For TV coverage

Casey Sheehan's Boots to Crawford

2005-08-26T10:16:00.000-05:00

Marq Anderson yesterday delivered Casey Sheehan's boots to Cindy in Crawford, TX. Cindy had given Eyes Wide Open the boots in Philadelphia on July 4th. He returned them to her and she posed with them by the cross that bears his name.

Marq appeared on CNN live yesterday morning.

The scene at Crawfors is one of amazing cooperation and generosity. A whole truckload of mail, checks, t-shirts and even a ham arrives almost every day. The cooking, clean-up and entertainment is a group effort.

Woodstock 2005!

Grounds Crew at the University of Michigan

2005-08-07T16:07:00.000-05:00

The Ann Arbor Friends Meeting led the way to set up the full Memorial on the "Diag" of the University of Michigan campus. Quite a bit of back and forth negotiation occurred during June and July as to the requirements for the Memorial.

First, university officials only agreed to the cement and brick area in front of the library. The grounds crew did not want the boots on the grass. When they were told that many of the boots would not be put out, they reconsidered and allowed us to place the boots in the grass.

But because the grounds crew insisted that the grass needed to be watered each night, the boots had to be put away and set up again each morning. The Friends agreed, knowing that it would require many extra volunteers. The other piece of added work included hauling all of the materials about 100 yards from the truck to the actual location.

After the first day, as people in the city and at the university saw the display, a surprise happened on the set-up on Friday. All nine members of the grounds crew came out early to help set up the Memorial. They told one of our organizers that usually they hate the time the Art Fair is in Ann Arbor, but this year they felt that they were participating in something extremely meaningful.

Searching for "Buddies"

2005-08-01T11:18:00.000-05:00

Iowa City -- Two boys barely teenagers, and one young man -- near the end of his teens or the beginning of his twenties—walked slowly through the rows of boots. The older one never looked up. I made eye contact with the younger ones in an offer of help. The scowl made clear they did not want any assistance. They eventually stopped before a pair of boots – not from Iowa. It was clear to me the young man who would not look up was looking for a “buddy.” After pausing for some length of time the three sat down on one of the benches.

A volunteer asked me if I thought he should talk with them. I thought it was perfect – who better to connect with a working class kid returned from war than a labor historian.
Yeah he had lost some buddies. He wants desperately to believe it was for a good cause. Their mom joined the group – after signing the petition calling on the governors to “bring the guard home.”

Grandparents Pay Their Respects

2005-08-01T11:15:00.000-05:00

Iowa City - An elderly man and woman were looking through the boots, and I showed them where the Iowa boots were placed. They found what they were looking for -- their grandson’s name. They stood quietly then brought a flower to place alongside one already in there.
They took pictures from many angles. They made eye contact with me, inviting me over.

“These boots aren’t the real boots are they? These would never fit on his big feet.” The grin suggested Seth’s feet may have been a bit of a family joke. It was OK with them that they weren’t the real boots but were only representing their grandson. They asked me if I had anyone represented here and seemed relieved when I said I did not. When I said I have a grandson currently in the Air Guard and currently in Iraq – they embraced me.

They left – only to return later with computer print outs of all the Iowa men and women killed in Iraq. Each print out had a picture and story—they thought I might want to place it with the respective boots. They thanked me and left.

Des Moines

2005-07-22T14:42:00.000-05:00

This note comes from Celeste Zapalla, a mother who lost her son Sherwood Baker in the Iraq War. Sherwood was the first National Guard soldier from Pennsylvania killed in war since WWII.

"I was in Des Moines, Iowa with other military families during the National Governor's Conference. The American Friends Service Committee sponsored a display of the empty boots of the 233 National Guard who have died thus far.

The hope of the event was to get the Governors to focus on the terrible conditions the Guard are experiencing and the fact that these decent people who signed up as the homeland guard are being used up by this war based on deception. Good and decent people, all ages, races, men and women young kids and grand-dad -- their names attached to the silent boots spread on the nearly treeless side walk
in unforgiving heat.

A Mom and her two daughters, aged 8 and 17 whose Dad is in Iraq from Military Families Speak Out was there, the little girl braved the heat all day, with such devotion to the picture of her Dad that she carried, alternating between her little girl courage and her deep sadness. Kids should not be in such a position, her wonderful Dad has made it very clear that the pretenses and conditions of war in Iraq are betrayal to him and his fellows. Little Mary was his witness.

We had invited the Governors to join us during the two day event, to pay respects or to read the names of the fallen. We were grateful for the fine people who came out to support us and the press coverage was pretty thorough.

However, the only governor who attended was our Pennsylvania Governor Ed Rendell. I was surprised and grateful that he came on Saturday to pay respect, and to tell us that no matter how anyone feels about the war, the consequences -- represented by those boots -- have to be recognized, reckoned with and accounted for. We stood together and stared at the boots with Sher's name and the last picture of our family with him alive. In that hot silence the anguish of all the families was overpowering -- and All of us are witnesses to that great sadness..."

with peace and hope
Celeste

This is the story from the Des Moines Register, with Mary's picture.

Reflections from Iowa

2005-07-17T22:33:00.000-05:00

An AFSC staff person writes hurriedly from the road:

The boots display is awesome and inspiring. I wish I had the time now to tell you about the wife, grandparents, "buddy" and cousins who stopped by the display in Iowa City - the tears, the "thank yous", the questioning looks.

Strangers came by throughout the day and sat and listened as the names
were ready, occasionally dabbing at tears. Those who were there at the
end of the day, as we started placing the boots back in the bags to
transport to our next stop, came forward with offers of help: "Give me a
bag", I can help.

This display touches deeply and seemingly calls people into supportive
actions.

National Guard Memorial in Iowa City

2005-07-16T11:26:00.000-05:00

As the National Guard Memorial stopped in Iowa City, a local volunteer writes this account:

"The most heart felt moment for me was a Canadian Native American who knew nothing about the exhibit until he and a friend passed by. He was moved to go back to his living quarters and bring back a drum and asked if he could sing a lament for the dead and a blessing song for those still in Iraq. It was a beautiful Native American chant-song that he sang as he accompanied himself on his drum. The only words that I could recognize were " Soldier boy, soldier girl" that came through as a refrain, the rest being in his native language.

I could hardly speak as I thanked him, I was so choked up. Others who heard it were deeply moved.

We have had many verbal and written words of thanks . The last being a neighbor here at my retirement residence who sent me a clipping of the event from the paper and the words "Bless you" written across the bottom."

National Guard Memorial in Iowa Debuts

2005-07-16T11:17:00.000-05:00

A memorial of 230 pairs of combat boots each tagged with the name, rank, age and home state of National Guard soldiers who have died in Iraq made its debut in Iowa this week. AFSC staffer from Des Moines took the memorial to Devenport, Cedar Falls and Iowa City before ending at the National Governor's Conference in Des Moines yesterday.

The Memorial is drawing attention to the high rate of loss among National Guard troops in Iraq. These men and women signed up for domestic duty and their families do not have access to the same kinds of health benefits available to reserve and regular military.

Pierrette Wolfe of Clinton, one of the peopke attending the Memorial in Des Moines, has a 40-year-old son who's a career member of the Guard. She believes her son will eventually be called to active duty in Iraq. Right now, he's in Iowa City, training Guard members who work in ambulance crews that she says "will go over and mop up the carnage." Wolfe says she's "O.K." with what her son's doing, but she worries that it's just a matter of time before he is sent to Iraq. Wolfe accuses President Bush of using "trumped up" evidence of weapons of mass destruction to go into Iraq. "We had no legal right to go in there and invade a country," Wolfe says. "There's no way that you can bring democracy through the barrel of a gun." [from a report on Iowa radio]

Missing Deaths?

2005-05-13T23:58:00.000-05:00

During the Eyes Wide Open tour at least three families came looking for their loved ones names and boots but could not find them. All three said their sons were killed in Iraq and all three were in the special forces.

None of their names appear on official lists. Have the U.S. deaths in the Iraq War been undercounted?

Thank You from San Francisco

2005-04-22T09:56:00.000-05:00

Here in San Francisco, I saw the boots & photographs of US soldiers who died in this war in Iraq. I also saw the shoes of the civilians representing Iraqis who were murdered by US soldiers. I walked through the labyrinth. This mobile Eyes Wide Open is both a painful and beautiful necessity. It is bringing education to the ignorant and hope to us all. I saw parents leading their children around the display areas. That was beautiful!

Thank you!
Domo Origato!
Specebo!
Grazi!
Gracias!
Merci beaucoup!
Asante!
Vielen dank!

Thank You from Sacramento

2005-04-22T09:47:00.000-05:00

We will be publishing some of the thank you notes we have received or were submitted to newspapers in the wake of the western tour. Here is one from Sacramento:

I live in Sacramento, CA. I saw the exhibit shown on TV and thought wow!!! Then I saw in the newspaper that is was coming to Sacramento. I made a promise to myself that I would visit it. I got off work and hurried downtown, afraid that I would miss it. After driving around and around trying to park, I finally found a spot. I walked briskly to the site. Oh my gosh....how breathless I was. To see and feel the impact of the boots displayed and the maze of shoes. I was not only speechless but scared. I felt scared for the people of Iraq and the military we have serving over there. The emotions of people that knew of fallen soldiers and the look on people's faces. As I walked around, the music of the young girl playing the Chloe and the silence was amazing. I do not know of anyone that has lost their lives but I do know a few young men over there. I cannot even imagine viewing their boots. What a wonderful addition to the day was to hear the prayer presented by the Muslim leader and how he said it in two languages. The man that presented the closing ceremonies brought tears to my eyes. The whole 45 minutes was so worth the effort it took to get there. Thank you so much for the enlighting experience....Rene

Status of Tour

2005-04-11T09:02:00.000-05:00

The present tour will end this week in Tacoma, Washington. Due to the continuing and regular loss of life in the Iraq War, the memorial has grown to over six tons of material, mostly combat boots.

Eyes Wide Open will be displayed in about ten cities over the next year. A schedule will soon be available. Sneak preview: look for Eyes Wide Open on Independence Mall in Philadelphia over the July 4th holiday. Plans are underway for a Fall tour on the east coast including Baltimore, New York City and New England.

This blog will continue with regular comments about the war in Iraq and what we can do to stop it here at home.

Seattle

2005-04-11T08:57:00.000-05:00

Stacy Bannerman of Kent, Washington says she is glad Eyes Wide Open is coming to the South Sound area of the state. Her husband, Sgt. Lorin Bannerman, a Washington National Guardsman, returned last month after 13 months in Iraq with the 81st Brigade Combat Team.

“By understanding the human cost of war, we’re less likely to go to war in the future,” she said.

According to Stacey many Americans are sheltered from the conflict in Iraq. There’s no draft, no ration, no Liberty bonds, no all-out war effort back home.

“This is the first war of its size and duration in which the whole of this nation isn’t sharing a part of the burden,” Bannerman said. “I think that makes it easier to turn away.” That is why she has been supporting Eyes Wide Open throughout its Northwest tour.

San Francisco II

2005-04-01T07:15:00.000-06:00

An uncle of a soldier killed in Iraq came bearing flowers to place in the boots with his nephew's name. He also came to speak at the press conference, telling of his opposition to the war, one of so many families who have publicly spoken out during the Eyes Wide Open Tour.

When he looked for the boots, he found that the name had been removed at the request of the mother. Since that was his sister, he called her on his cell phone and told her that he was there to speak and honor her son, his nephew.

She had been called by a Marine mother, who had given her false information about the Eyes Wide Open Memorial and our purpose. After talking with her a few minutes, she told us to put his name back on the boots.

last week we received 17 more new requests for the memorial, bringing the total of new requests to over 150.

San Francisco

2005-03-31T16:57:00.000-06:00

Eyes Wide Open was on the front page of the San Francisco Chronicle last Saturday showing the combat boots in front of Civic Center Plaza. An inside story told of Ariane Alexander, a psychologist and counselor for veterans. She said that she had to contain her emotions during counseling sessions, but as she walked among the pairs of 1,525 boots, nothing could keep the tears from flowing.

She has three sons in the military and she had to fight back the thoughts of one of the laminated tags bearing one of their names. She told the Chronicle reporter: "Every day of the war, I've read about someone dying. And then you look down at the boots and you see a symbol of them."

Cindy Sheehan whose son, Casey was killed in Iraq last April said: "Behind all of these boots is one broken-hearted family."

Trauma of War

2005-02-24T14:40:00.000-06:00

I met Debbie Lucey in Washington DC when the memorial was there. She said that when her brother Jeffrey returned from fighting in Iraq, he had to go through an intake process in the states. He was asked if he had seen any dead and who they were.

He answered that he has seen dead people. They kept refusing to discharge him and they kept asking the same question. He kept saying dead people.

Finally someone came by and said that if he wanted to get out, he would have to respond "dead soldiers."

Since he wanted to go to his sister's wedding, that's what he answered. A few months later he committed suicide, distraught over the fact that he had killed people.

Austin, Texas

2005-02-22T07:22:00.000-06:00

Columnist Brad Buchholz wrote Sunday in the Austin Statesman:

"Zilker Park felt a lot like a grieving field last week. And though "Eyes Wide Open" is gone now ˜ packed up and on its way to Dallas ˜ the American Friends Service Committee's exhibit left us with an enduring gift.

In this divided America, there is something that unites us when it comes to the Iraq war, transcending red state or blue state, Republican or Democrat. It's the pull within all of us to grieve the dead."

An anthropological study of a Pacific Islander culture that was experiencing an exorbitant amount of suicides found that there was no word for grief in their vocabulary. So Brad's point about grief was right on target. We are in this nation, in less dramatic ways, destoying ourselves if we do not grieve and then act to stop this insanity of war.

More Boots Given in Little Rock

2005-02-17T17:38:00.000-06:00

We also were given a pair of boots from a Vietnam veteran, who had kept them in a closet for decades, perhaps waiting for just this occasion. Here is what he said at the press conference in Little Rock:

More than four decades ago, I left Little Rock for Parris Island, South Carolina. I was off to join the Marines, expecting exciting adventures and hoping to be of service.

After boot camp I was stationed in various parts of the United States, then in Japan and finally, in 1966, I was sent to Vietnam. When I arrived there, I was issued a .45 caliber pistol, a camera and these boots. Then I went to work. Every step of the way, through sand and mud, on helicopters and aircraft and jeeps and trucks, through fear and fellowship, these boots helped get me through. Then in 1967 the boots carried me home – back to civilian life. Three million of us served there. 58,233 of us died. No one really knows how many were physically injured. Most of the rest of us are damaged in secret, unspoken ways.

As I became a husband and a father, the boots stayed in the floor of my closet, year after year, a sturdy, silent reminder of those days. Through all the joys and sadness of life, through career changes and thousands of miles of relocation, these boots somehow were always along in a box somewhere, always finding a place on some closet floor. Just like the memories, they were always with me.

After coming home I joined the American Legion, the Veterans of Foreign Wars, the Vietnam Veterans Organizing Committee, the Governor's Task Force on Veterans and finally the Veterans for Peace. When I heard that this exhibit was coming to Little Rock, I knew there was one more job to do.

Yes, these old boots served me well when I needed them. So I have brought them here today, on behalf of the Veterans for Peace, in hopes they might take their place in this exhibit. Our intention is not that they will represent another sacrifice by another American family although they might well serve that purpose. Our heartfelt wish is that these boots be taken as a reminder from those of us who been to war, that the only real answers, the only true resolution, the only real future, is in peace. The coward runs away, the soldier stays to fight, but the most courageous among us is the peacemaker who stands before the mighty engines of war, armed and shielded only by the belief that killing is wrong.

Gifts of Boots

2005-02-17T15:58:00.000-06:00

Over the past month we have been blessed with the gifts of combat boots from the families of five soldiers who were killed in Iraq. These are such precious offerings from families who have lost so much.

These gifts reaffirm that this memorial, while it represents the death and loss of the Iraq War -- it really, at root, is a testament to life. It reaffirms the sacredness of life and reminds us that the loss of any human being is a tragedy.

The combat boots, worn by the fallen, now traveling with Eyes Wide Open bring to us anew that spirit of life.

Greensboro, NC

2005-02-03T08:41:00.000-06:00

Greensboro was an incredible success as over 3,000 people viewed the memorial. One TV station shot live coverage at 5pm and 6pm one evening. The memorial was front page news with large photos and an editorial about Martin Luther King and Eyes Wide Open was printed on the front of the opinion page.

One anecdote shows the appreciation of the folks in Greensboro. Marq Anderson, our AFSC staff person who travels with the exhibit, was in a Greensboro coffee shop when he heard a whisper behind him, "That's the Eyes Wide Open guy." He got up to pay for his coffee and when he turned around fifteen people stood up and applauded.

More from National Cathedral

2005-02-03T07:10:00.000-06:00

This comes from the clerk of the board of AFSC:

One woman told me she had come from Anchorage to DC and found the exhibit the only comforting experience she had had before and after the election. She is completely alone in her views, she said, so it meant everything to know she wasn't alone here. She then broke into tears, and we stood with our arms around ech other, amid the boots, for a couple of minutes. That must happen over and over again, as the exhibit travels.

National City Christian Church

2005-01-31T21:39:00.000-06:00

Washington DC. Inauguration Day -- an inauguration dedicated by the president to the troops. We spent it inside the church walking amid the pews, reading the momentoes left behind by loved ones. Music is playing and the memorial has one of the most contemplative environments ever.

Several boots have a small hand written paper tag that say simply, "You are not forgotten." There seems no rhyme or reason to where they are placed. Several states are included. But that is the theme of so many pairs of boots. One pair has two type-written pages telling of the life of the person. Another has 6 pages printed from a memorial placed on the internet. Photos, badges, even a bullet all tell a story of the lives lost. They become more than a name, age, rank and location. The loved who have visited want the life of their soldier to be known by other visitors. They want the fullness of that life to be known.

It is as if all of the mementoes say one thing -- "You are not forgotten."

Delayed Report from Tallahassee

2004-12-13T14:03:00.000-06:00

This first appeared in the Apalachee Tortoise and is excerpted here.

“Eyes Wide Open” Visits Tallahassee to Remind Us About the Human Cost of War

by Kitty Kerner

When the moving truck pulled up at 6:15 a.m. it was still dark. Despite the early hour, volunteers arrived in a steady stream to help unload the truck and its unusual cargo: bags and bins full of shoes and boots. Dead people’s shoes. At least, that’s what they symbolize – the victims of the Iraq War, both civilians and soldiers. Over the next several hours, Lewis Park was transformed into a vast memorial, a place to come eye to eye with the insanity of war.

For some reason, I felt compelled by the call for volunteers to help set up this ambitiously designed exhibit. And I was pleasantly surprised to see so many others also came, old and young, regardless of their political or religious background. People who, on this day, didn’t care if you were from one side or the other – we were all there to take part in the solemn ritual of setting up the thousands of boots and shoes that represented the fallen soldiers and civilian victims of the Iraq war.

It took almost four hours of steady work from many hands to finish the task. Though the comparison is not entirely precise, being involved in the creation of this specific version of Eyes Wide Open felt a little like making a Mandala. As I bent and crouched over and over to arrange the heels of the boots along a line strung across the grassy park and then measured the spacing between the pairs, the repetitiveness emptied my mind of all other thought.

I tried to connect briefly with each pair of boots I handled, each fallen soldier. Sometimes a name caught my eye, or the young age, or perhaps one of the mementos tucked into a boot by visitors before me: a photo, a plastic flower, a peace button. My hands turned dirty and dry from touching all those boots that had seen plenty of action. Though most of them never touched Iraq’s desert sands (they were mostly army surplus I later learned), it was easy to imagine that they had.

Gradually, as we unpacked and set up row after row of boots and shoes, the numbers really sunk in. At that point, 1122 U.S. soldiers had died in the Iraq War, one pair of boots for each of them. The civilian side is much harder to represent, there are so many… and the numbers are conflicting. The exhibit chose to spread out 1000 pairs of shoes symbolizing the much larger Iraqi losses - a sea of sneakers, loafers, flip-flops, winter boots, sandals and much more. The tiny children’s shoes were the hardest to look at. This was not “collateral damage;” these were real people that had died in a real war.

When I returned to the park just before sunset, there were still many people lingering among the rows of boots. A somber, reflective mood hung in the air, much like a cemetery – which is of course what the whole arrangement is meant to evoke. As dusk settled in, only the white name tags continued to glow in the growing darkness, and yet people seemed hesitant to leave, or to start packing all those boots into their bins again.

I’m glad I went. Eyes Wide Open brought me directly in touch with a war that’s waged far away, that had been filtering into my life only through radio broadcasts and newspaper headlines. Now I don’t ever want to close my eyes again.

Story from Copley Square

2004-12-07T13:17:00.000-06:00

Stories keep coming in...this one from Marcia:

I felt a little hand tugging at my leg. I turned to see a girl clutching some flowers, and pointing her small finger at one pair of boots, her face filled with sadness.

"That was the man who took care of me. My babysitter," she said. "I want to do something special for him."

As I saw this girl cautiously move forward and caringly place her flowers inside the boots, I couldn't stop the tears from welling up. The empty boots, the soldier's dog tag; that was all that was left. He was gone from her life, leaving only memories. One question burned in my mind: "Why?"

1000th US Soldier Killed Since "Mission Accomplished"

2004-11-11T13:30:00.000-06:00

Symbolically, this week in Fallujah, during the largest U.S. assault since the occupation began, we passed the tragic milestone of 1,000 U.S. soldiers killed since "Mission Accomplished."

On May 1, 2003, President Bush donned a flight suit and landed on an aircraft carrier a few miles from San Diego to declare major combat over and bask in the victory of a "mission accomplished."

During that mother of all photo ops, the president's handlers made sure that news cameras took shots of the president with the ocean in the background. If they had turned the cameras the other way, they would have seen the San Diego skyline and would have discovered that the ship stayed at sea an extra day so that the flight suit portrait could take place.

The battle for Fallujah is the same smoke and mirrors photo op, the same Vietnam mentality of destroying the city in order to save it. While the Marines take Fallujah, the insurgents have slipped off to other battles. The real winners are destruction and chaos.

Humanitarian aid groups like CARE, Doctors Without Borders and my own group, the American Friends Service Committee, have had to leave. Independent humanitarian aid is virtually nonexistent. But the official line is that things are going well in Iraq and freedom is on the march. Sounds a lot like the mission accomplished message of eighteen months ago.

Now 1,000 more U.S. troops will not come home alive and a likely 100,000 Iraqis have died due to the war, according to a study by the School of Public Health at the renowned Johns Hopkins University.

On November 2, fear trumped hope and Americans once again refused to change presidents in the midst of a war. We can say then, that President Bush's mission indeed was accomplished, the one he really cared about most: re-election.

Toledo

2004-11-11T13:28:00.000-06:00

Shelly Bryant returned a tiny angel to her dead cousin yesterday.

Kneeling outside the Lucas County Courthouse and blinking against tears and the cold, the Toledo mother of four quietly slipped a small round angel medallion through the laces of an empty pair of boots. The combat boots represented the life and death of Pfc. Nicholaus E. Zimmer, a former Toledoan. He had handed the tiny piece to Ms. Bryant two years ago to comfort her as her mother battled cancer.

"I carried it with me all the time," she said, standing and glancing around at the 1,134 pairs of empty black boots. "This is where it belongs now."

People are drawn to the momentoes that family members, friends and others have tied to the boots. One of the most poignant is a note from Mrs. Rosas, the mother of a 21-year old soldier from Lansing. She wrote on the note that "wherever these boots travel, my broken heart will follow."

Post-election Hope

2004-11-04T14:48:00.000-06:00

On November 2, fear trumped hope.

Our task in the days and weeks ahead is to make hope triumphant again.

The one thing that those in power want us to do right now is step back, let down and give up.

We at the American Friends Service Committee refuse to stop because we see a way forward that will propel people to act on their best hopes, not their worst fears.

We are in a struggle for the soul of this nation. What is at stake is whether we define morality in the narrowest of individualistic terms, or whether we hold to a higher standard of genuine care of all of our sisters and brothers in the world community. Will the moral standards of this nation be exclusively personal, or will we hold up the beloved community?

As much exposure as we have had with Eyes Wide Open, studies tell us that 3 out of 4 Republican voters still believe that weapons of mass destruction are in Iraq and that Iraq had ties with al qaeda. A recent University of Maryland study tells us that only one in ten people in the United States know that over 10,000 Iraqi civilians were killed in the war.

So we are keeping Eyes Wide Open, our memorial the the human cost of the Iraq War, traveling throughout the United States. We are booked through mid-April in the South and West Coast with scores of requests for next spring and summer in the Midwest and East Coast.

Whatever the meaning of the November 2nd vote, it was not a mandate for war.

The election is over, the war is not , and our resolve has just begun.

Our struggle in the longer arc of history is to make hope ascendant again. That long arc of history seldom bends for long toward deception and lies. The proud are finally brought to their knees and military might, no matter how great, is not the final arbiter of ultimate victory.

In this post-election period, the struggle now passes from the political parties to civil society, organizations like the American Friends Service Committee that are here day in and day out educating, organizing and speaking out about a reality that too often stays hidden from the eyes of our nation. The struggle now passes to you and I to build the infrastructure for peace that government and political parties refuse to do.

Remember, over 50 million people voted against the Iraq War. That, in a nation saturated with Fox News type reporting and a nation blanketed with reactionary talk radio, is quite an accomplishment. That still remains an amazing number of people who were not fooled. Remember, we have more power than we think, but a little less than we need.

We continue forward, with eyes wide open, creating new openings as others close behind us. That, we feel, is the nature of this work. Obstacles lead to opportunities if we dig in and accept them as problems to be solved, not insurmountable barriers that deter us from moving forward. And we will...keep on moving forward.

Tampa

2004-11-02T09:31:00.000-06:00

Tom Goodwin, one of the founders of Iraq Veterans Against the War visited Eyes Wide Open in Tampa. He will be joining us again on Veteran's Day in Toledo, Ohio. Each time he comes he walks through the boots and reads every name tag. And then at the end, he is overwhelmed with emotion. He knows that is what is going to happen, but he has to read all of the names before he can leave.

What's the Matter with Florida?

2004-10-14T11:07:00.000-05:00

A popular new book just out is called What's the Matter with Kansas? A sequel might substitute Florida for Kansas.

Eyes Wide Open volunteers have been having a difficult time securing public space in Florida for the memorial, raising questions about the state's commitment to freedom of speech.

Here is some history:

In Tallahassee at the end of September we received a verbal denial to be on the steps of the Old Capitol building. On October 6th, we received a letter denying the application because of space considerations. Volunteers measured the sidewalk and gave them the facts that indeed the space was sufficient. The next day on Oct 7th, we received a certified letter giving planting flowers as the reason for the denial. They offered an alternative space on top of an adjacent parking garage. That space is unacceptable because it is not readily accessible to the general population. Stay tuned for the outcome.

In Orlando, our volunteer has been working since early last summer to secure a location. She has been turned down several times. At the Art Center at Loch Haven she was told flat out the Art Center board would never give approval. She went before the Parks board to get funding for Lake Eola amphitheater which wanted $3600 for 2 days and they unanimously turned her down. The application for the courthouse was stalled on the 2nd tier and never went to the 6th tier let alone the top tier. The 6th tier said it could be taken as political and any one of the elected officials could reject the project. Turns out to be untrue. She was denied by one particular official for every venue under him. We have finally secured the county courthouse after intervention by a legal team.

In Jacksonville, everything was going fine with the public park space. The cost was $100 for three days. Then, just a few days ago the park district officials said, "Oh, didn't we mention, there will be a $1500 security cost."

This exhibition has been in the most heavily security-conscious locations for months: NYC for the Republican National & Boston for the Democratic convention; Independence Mall for July 4th; and upper Senate Park outside the capitol in Washington DC. None of those locations gave us the run around or charged us exorbitant security fees.

What the matter with Florida?

Yom Kippur Comment

2004-10-03T05:33:00.000-05:00

This is a comment from the guest book that we keep at the Eyes Wide Open events soliciting people's reflections on the memorial:

To Smo, Jimmy, Little Joe,
Friday 9-24-04 is Yom Kippur, Day of Atonement, and the anniversary of your deaths on that trail in the central highlands of Vietnam. As I sit and look over the 1,000+ boots here representing another generation's bloodletting, I remember you and cry with the deep pain of knowing that the war goes on. I promised myself that deep, dark night that I would return to speak for you about the costs of war. I've done my best but the fear still rules...

Lansing #2

2004-10-02T11:33:00.000-05:00

Apolonia Rosas lost her 21-year-old son "Ricky" in the war. The weekly free newspaper in Lansing, did an advance story, dedicating the front cover to Eyes Wide Open. They used Ricky's boots and tag on the cover. Apolonia was buying pizza when she saw the picture.

Stunned, she called the organizers and talked with them. After hearing the purpose of the memorial, she came the night before to honor the Michigan soldiers and stayed most of the day on Thursday, returning late to visit her son's symbolic boots one last time.

At dusk, ending the closing ceremony, each family or their representative took the boots of the Michigan fallen from the capitol steps and returned them to the boots of their brothers and sisters on the lawn. Apolonia cried deeply, as though she were burying her son for a second time. But the memorial was also healing as she said she was grateful for the chance to be there.

She told me that she walked all of the rows of boots for all of the mothers who were not here, in the hope that one day they would walk the rows of boots for her son, when she was not there.

She wrote a note on the momento that she left. It said: "Where ever these boots may travel, my broken heart will follow. God bless America." signed "Ricky's mom." More from Lansing

Lansing #1

2004-10-02T06:23:00.000-05:00

Even though Eyes Wide Open was only in Lansing for a day, there are too many stories for just one post.

The core planning group and 124+ volunteers were well-organized, thought of all the right details and were able to attract several military families to the memorial.

One of the first planning meetings they held was at a Middle Eastern restaurant. About a dozen of them gathered over dinner, discussing the memorial, its purpose and how they wanted the tone of the day (solemn) to be.

When they were almost finished, the waiter came up to their table and told them that the man who had just left paid for all of their meals. Such was the generosity of spirit that carried the day.

Pat Dartt arose at 4am Thursday morning in order to arrive early at work, so she could leave her office in Adrian, Michigan and make it to the memorial by late afternoon. Dartt took mementoes of her late son, Bradley Fox, who was injured March 13 in Baghdad when he was struck by shrapnel from a roadside bomb. He died from his injuries on April 20 in the Army hospital at Landstuhl, Germany. He leaves behind a wife, Sabine; sons Jan, 11, and Lucas, 8; and daughter Alexis, 3.

She wept as she placed pictures on his boots, including a lengthy testimonial to her son from a Major. When she went home, she could not sleep. She ended up being awake for 30 straight hours. More of her story...

Dayton Continued

2004-09-27T16:11:00.000-05:00

We just received this email from someone who visited the memorial.

"Yesterday, I attended the EYES WIDE OPEN exhibit and can never be the same person again.

It was overwhelming. Profoundly moving. Terribly sad. Much too real. I haven't been able to stop weeping. (This is VERY unusual behavior for this 57-year old non-crying man.)I've emailed my experience to my friends and many are in the western states.

I see only eastern and midwestern exhibits listed on your website. Is there a different branch of AFSC handling the west? Please let me know so I can tell my western friends about this must see/feel experience.

Thank you all SO much for what you've accomplished."

Note: Eyes Wide Open will be heading west in late January, taking the southern route through Texas, Arizona and New Mexico. We hope to be in southern California in late February or early March and then head up the west coast of California, Oregon and Washington. Over 50 requests have come in for the new year.

Still More from Dayton

2004-09-26T20:36:00.000-05:00

I just received this from a friend who visited the memorial in Dayton:

"Both of my sons and families went today. I hooked up with my 9 year old grandson, A.J., late this afternoon. A.J. told me he was so angry... I asked why. He said because he saw all those thousands of military boots that meant soldiers died and all the shoes for the Iraq people who died and there was even a 17 year old soldier who got killed. He was as angry as a 9 year old can be. Then he stopped in mid-sentence and said he didn't want to talk about the war any longer because it was too depressing."

More from Dayton

2004-09-26T19:11:00.000-05:00

This weekend a family drove all the way from Pittsburgh to visit the memorial. Their nephew had been killed in Iraq and they were not able to attend the funeral. They came to honor him and gain some closure on his death.

Four widows of the September 11th tragedy visited the exhibit on Friday, to pay their respects to more victims.

Saturday night they held an all-night candlelight vigil. Over 100 tea lights were spread throughout the boots. A cello played in the background.

Dayton

2004-09-24T14:55:00.000-05:00

I talked with Bob, who said that his friend was a Vietnam vet just recently diagnosed with post traumatic stress syndrome. It has been forty years since he was in Vietnam and it is just now hitting him.

His friend feels fragile and on the edge. Bob saw Eyes Wide Open in Dayton yesterday, and as soon as he saw the 1,041 pairs of combat boots, he called his friend and told him not to come. He feared that it would be too traumatic for him to see it.

His friend told him that he has to come, he needs to come. He plans on coming on Saturday. Check back and see what happens.

Build Iraq War Memorial Now

2004-09-22T10:29:00.000-05:00

The following op-ed by Michael McConnell appeared in the Chicago Tribune, the Springfield, IL newspaper and today in the Dayton Daily News. The Dayton paper has almost a full page with a nice drawing of combat boots and the announcement of the opening of Eyes Wide Open in Dayton, tomorrow.

Build war memorial during war
We should remember fallen troops and civilians while there is still time to stop the violence

By Michael McConnell. Michael McConnell is regional director for the American Friends Service Committee in the Midwest

Because the Vietnam War still haunts elections, perhaps it and the current war should haunt our souls as well.

I remember listening to the nightly newscasters in 1968 dutifully reporting the daily body counts from Vietnam. Did the numbers numb the nation or provoke a generation into opposition to the war?

Body bags appeared regularly in the news. We don't see that in the current war because of Pentagon policies about photographing coffins. Did their presence in the media dull us to the humanity wrapped in plastic or spur us on to more determined efforts to stop a war that is generally seen today as a tragic mistake?

I remember Buddhist monks dousing themselves with gasoline and setting themselves on fire in a desperate effort to stop the killing. Did that ultimate sacrifice make us turn away in disgust or inspire us to greater commitment in stopping the napalming of villages?

What if the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Wall had been built as the war was happening, with the names of the fallen chiseled daily in its black facade and new sections added each month? Would that have hastened the end of the war as anonymous statistics took on a name and presence?

I now believe that war memorials to the combatants and civilians who die should be erected during the war, while there is still time to stop the violence. I believe this after experiencing "Eyes Wide Open: The Human Cost of the Iraq War," a traveling memorial created by the American Friends Service Committee.

The memorial quite simply consists of a pair of combat boots, each tagged with the name, rank, age and home state of a fallen U.S. soldier. Another pair of boots is added with each military death. A 24-foot wall bears the names of more than 10,000 Iraqi civilians and details on their deaths. A pile of hundreds of shoes of all sizes represents a fraction of the loss of Iraqi lives.

Visitors' reactions

But it is the interactions with the exhibit by visitors that make me realize that memorials have to be built during, not after, wars. In Taunton, Mass., the funeral of Lance Cpl. John James Van Gyzen IV, who was killed in Iraq, was happening on one side of town, while the traveling Iraq memorial was on the other side.

After the burial, his mother went to the boots, found the one with her son's name and tied his picture on with red, white and blue ribbon. She placed a rose in the boot. Then she turned to the organizer and said, "I guess I belong here."

In Amherst, Mass., the Lucey family donated their son's uniform and boots to the exhibit. Jeffrey Lucey committed suicide a few months after returning from Iraq. Last Christmas, in a fit of depression, he threw the dog tags he carried around his neck at his sister, shouting, "Your brother is a murderer." The dog tags belonged to two unarmed Iraqi soldiers he had been ordered to kill. He wore their names everywhere to pay homage to them.

I have seen relatives sit in front of the symbolic boots of their loved ones, weeping, taking photos of the boots and leaving mementos.

Invariably, as visitors view the combat boots, they remark how young the soldiers were. They say that standing in the midst of a sea of empty boots makes them visualize the faces and imagine the lives that should be there but are not.

On one occasion in Boston, a young woman knelt in front of the piles of shoes representing the slain Iraqi civilians. She sat down, removed her own shoes and placed them gently on the pile, then walked away barefoot. She said she had just heard of an Iraqi boy who had died because he could not get his insulin and wanted to place her own shoes in memory of him.

The biggest criticism leveled at the peace movement during Vietnam was that we did not welcome back the troops. They became the enemy. Not this time. More and more people understand that we can support the troops while condemning the war. Many joined the military because they faced either dead-end jobs or no jobs at all.

Most signed up in the National Guard to get money for education or extra support for their families or to help during natural disasters. The 26 suicides of those who served in Iraq show that killing other human beings was not why many joined.

More and more, the Iraq war looks like we threw a barrel of gasoline to douse a match.

This time, it is not Buddhist monks immolating themselves, it is Carlos Arredondo, 44, the father of Lance Cpl. Alexander Arredondo, his 20-year-old son who had died in August in Najaf. The elder Arredondo became so distraught upon knowing that his beloved son was dead, he went to the garage, got a can of gasoline, went to the Marine van outside and torched it and himself.

Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) recently said: "I'm sick and tired of reopening the wounds of the Vietnam War. As we speak, some young American is dying in Iraq. All the issues facing the nation are being lost."

The wounds of Vietnam have not been reopened; they were never closed.

Just watch the people as they pass the Vietnam memorial wall. Even the Department of Veterans Affairs puts the number of Vietnam vets suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder at 400,000. Others say 1.5 million. Whatever the number, they are four times more likely to divorce; they represent a large proportion of America's homeless and they are increasingly more likely to commit suicide as the years go by.

We are surrounded by the walking wounded of the last great U.S. imperial adventure. How long and how many will suffer from the current one?

Let politicians, media see

So let's build the granite wall in Washington, D.C., right now, close to where our elected and appointed officials pass every day. Let them and the media watch as hammer strikes chisel daily to record the next deaths. Let us chisel into stone the names of all of the victims, Iraqi and U.S. combined.

We have passed the 1,000th death of U.S. soldiers in Iraq. That puts us in danger of the number of fallen becoming a mind-numbing statistic, rather than a human tragedy.

Now is the time to join the private grief of individual military families and the public mourning of a nation. Candles should burn in every federal plaza, heads should bow, church bells should ring and minds should think about the blood spilled on both sides. The first question should then be: Is it worth it?

Private grief leads to private questions. Why was my son or daughter, husband or wife taken from me? Rosemarie Slavenas of Rockford, just one example out of a thousand, asks why her son Brian, who landed a helicopter under hostile fire saving lives, lay bleeding on the ground for half an hour?

Public grief leads to public questions. Why was Brian, a sensitive young man who told his mother, "I don't want to hurt anybody," taken from us as a nation? Why was someone who did not want to harm others taken from a city that bans the sale of guns, taken from a post-Columbine nation that worries about bullying in our schools?

Public mourning leads to political questions, such as why is this war being fought and what is the cost to this nation?

It is the 18th month of the Iraq war, and I can hear the hammer falling on the chisel for the thousandth time on the U.S. side.

Whose name will it carve? And when will the hammering stop?

Copyright © 2004, Chicago Tribune

Xavier University

2004-09-22T10:27:00.000-05:00

I received a call from a friend yesterday whose sister had seen Eyes Wide Open in Cincinnati. In the past they have been unable to even discuss the Iraq War becasue of their totally opposite views.

The friend said that maybe the sister will not change her mind, but for the first time, the memorial may have opened up the space for them to at least talk about it.

Chicago

2004-09-22T10:23:00.000-05:00

Moving speeches by Celeste Zappala and Fernando Suarez de Solar had people walking by Federal Palaza in tears last Thursday.

One man, who looked like he may be homeless, placed his shoes on the pile of shoes representing the deaths of Iraqi civilians. He then pulled a pair of tennis shoes from his backpack and moved on.

One military family member told a group of AFSC supporters Friday night that if it were not for Eyes Wide Open he may have gone crazy with the anger and frustration he had been feeling about the war.

This week People magazine features a two-page spread on Eyes Wide Open on Page 88.

Indianapolis

2004-09-14T21:36:00.000-05:00

In the heartland of the United States, at the crossroads of Indianapolis, the Iraq War Memorial stood on the circle monument, the granite monument to Indiana veterans. The combat boots radiated out down the steps from the granite wall that bore the names of regiments that had fought as early as the Mexican War.

One poignant moment was when a high school student walked among the boots. He was against the war, but he had come to see the display to show his support. He was talking with a reporter when he was surprised that he was more emotional than he had expected to be. Seeing the ages of many of the soldiers and feeling like he could be one of them brought the exhibit to a level that both saddened and shocked him.

The Bronx Volunteer

2004-09-05T08:29:00.000-05:00

The two Bronx residents had seen the Eyes Wide Open exhibit on TV and rushed down to Central Park to see it. Unfortunately they arrived too late as volunteers were packing up the boots.

As a consolation they asked to buy the special exhibit t-shirts, but Central Park policy prohibited their sale.

One of our staff gave them each a t-shirt if they promised to return the next day at 7AM to volunteer.

One returned punctually at 7AM. He had been out with friends the night before and was their designated driver. They got in so late that he just decided to stay up all night. He was afraid that if he went to sleep he wouldn't wake up in time, and he had promised he would be there.

He was so impressed with the exhibit and worked hard sweating profusely as he hauled the boots from the truck to Judson Memorial Church. He has been against the war and was so appreciative of the opportunity to DO something.

Chicago Tribune Goes to NY

2004-09-03T22:56:00.000-05:00

Charlie Madigan the editor of the Sunday Perspective section of the Chicago Tribune had a blog during the Republican National Convention. He stopped by the Eyes Wide Open exhibit in Union Square on Wednesday and here is his report.

"September 1, 2004 2:25 PM CDT: An arresting moment. The weather broke overnight and so I headed off to Union Square today to see what was up after a night of listening to speeches at the Republican Convention and watching street protests. I found myself standing beside the boots representing Pfc. Joel K. Brattain, who was 21 and who came from California.

These substitute boots, and a couple of pictures, were right between the substitute boots of Lance Cpl. Brad S. Shuder and Pfc. Steven Acosta. There were almost 1,000 other pairs of military boots standing in silence in Union Square too, all of them reflecting the sadness of soldiers and Marines killed in Iraq.

The feeling was arresting. It stopped you right in place and forced you to look out over that field of black boots, marching to nowhere and to eternity at exactly the same time.

The headlines this morning talked about the arrests of some 1,000 protesters Tuesday as some events got out of hand and people, some of them who came here just to get arrested, found the New York City Police Department completely accommodating. I wondered what protest might look like in the midst of people who are pledged to non-violence, and how they felt about confrontation.

So I visited with the Quakers. Using boots was an idea born in Chicago's American Friends Service Committee office. Mike McConnell, the regional Friends director in Chicago, worked out the plan. ArmyNavysales.com donated the first batch of boots. The Quakers brought the boots here and lined them up, along with shoes representing more than 600 Iraqi civilian deaths. McConnell, who was at a Quaker conference in Seattle, told me by phone that the Chicago Friends wanted to find a symbolic way to show what the fatality numbers actually meant.

At 10:55 a.m., a collection of people from September 11th Families for Peaceful Tomorrows rolled a huge stone, like a headstone, into the square on a cart built to look like a coffin. It had been pulled all the way from Boston.

Put all of that together and no one really had to shout about anything. The Quakers stood quietly around the boots, answering questions and waiting to update a post that had flip numbers on it representing the number of American servicemen killed in action. The number was at 974 when I looked at it at about 10:30 a.m.

Elizabeth Enloe of the New York Friends was at the scene to talk about the display. My assumption was that the press kit she handed out would have all the easy answers. That's not what I wanted to ask. I wanted to know whether she felt that the media attention paid to arrests would overwhelm the message the Quakers were trying to send.

No, she said. Nonviolence carries with it a built-in credibility. The Quakers aim for a peaceful, respectful solemnity and they believe that is louder than any noise any one else can make. This display has been on tour since January, and it produces strong responses everywhere it goes.

Enloe said earlier in the day a veteran who was walking in Union Square asked if he could be the one to flip over the numbers counting American war dead. He made it to exactly one number, 974 she said, then he was overcome by emotion and, weeping, had to stop.

A man from Florida who had been a Boy Scout leader found the shoes representing two of his Scouts. A woman from Arizona found the shoes representing the first Native American woman killed in the war. Even as Enloe was speaking, there were more visitors, looking through the shoes, which are organized by state, for their friends, relatives, loved ones."

Be sure to visit his blog.

Watch Chicago Tribune Weblog

2004-09-01T11:37:00.000-05:00

Charles Madigan is keeping a daily weblog at the Republican National Convention. He just visited the Eyes Wide Open exhibit in Union Square and will be writing about it later today. Check it out here.

Union Square, New York City

2004-09-01T11:23:00.000-05:00

The boots are displayed in semi-circles but there is not enough space to hold the nearly 1,000 casualties. The boots from Texas had to be piled up marking a tragic consequence of the war, even our large urban parks are not sufficient to hold the war's dead.

Early this morning, a woman was leaving the farmer's market nearby when she came upon the boots. Surprised and awed she stood open mouthed and then began to cry. She went over to the piles of shoes representing the Iraqi civilian casualties and began distributing the flowers she had just bought along the pile.

Her witness has caught on as many of the boots now are filled with flowers.

Later today a silent Quaker vigil with volunteers all wearing the T-shirts with the boots on front and the words "War is Costly." On the back of the shirt are the words in red and black, "Peace is Priceless."

The media swarmed to the park at 7:30AM as the volunteers were setting up.

Central Park, Manhatten

2004-08-28T10:55:00.000-05:00

The combat boots, wall and shoes will be in the Cherry Hill section of Central Park today (Saturday). Here is the map to the circular Cherry Hill area where the boots will be arranged in concentric circles. Map

A noon Press Conference will kick off Eyes Wide Open in New York City. Here is the schedule for the weekend.

Saturday, August 28 at Central Park's Cherry Hill Fountain, New York, N.Y. (Near Strawberry Fields at W. 72 St.)

12 noon - Press Conference - military personnel, family members and civic activists to participate

3 p.m. - Reading the names of U.S. service personnel - including 37 New York State soldiers - journalists and Iraqi civilians killed in the war

--

Sunday, August 29 to Tuesday, August 31 from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m.

Judson Memorial Church, 55 Washington Square South

Noon to 1 p.m. - Speakers will address the gathering

3 p.m. - Reading names of U.S. service personnel, journalists and Iraqi civilians killed in war

Volunteer Extra Efforts

2004-08-25T16:33:00.000-05:00

Over the course of the tour, volunteers have made extra efforts to make the exhibit happen. In Oberlin, OH, not only did they feel that it was the best community-building experience that they had had in years, they also wanted to travel to help other towns set up the memorial.

The latest example comes from Ohio as well, where one volunteer with MS told our AFSC staff person that she was exhausted, but felt that she definitely wanted to expend the effort to have Eyes Wide Open come to town. She said that she chose what activities she did very carefully and this was one that she believed in. She is involved in helping shoose the site.

AFSC Letter Printed in Newsweek

2004-08-22T20:19:00.000-05:00

In Newsweek at the end of July, a 2/3 page photo of the combat boots from Philadelphia was included in an article entitled "Pain on Main Street." The article told of the 44% of troops killed in Iraq being from small towns. The photo was not well identified, so we wrote a letter calling attention to the nature of the exhibition.

In the August 23rd Newsweek, they published the letter. See below:

"Pain on Main Street" hit home. As the initiator of the American Friend's Service Committee's Iraq war memorial, the traveling exhibit, featured in that article's accompanying photo, I have talked to many families who have lost sons or daughters in Iraq.

In Taunton, MA, our "Eyes Wide Open: The Human Cost of the Iraq War," exhibit was on one side of town and the funeral of fallen soldier John James Van Gyzen, 20, was happening on the other side. After the burial, his mother came to the exhibit, placed a white rose in the pair of boots bearing his name and tied on his photo with red, white and blue striped ribbon. She said, "I guess I belong here."

Since the government has banned photos of flag-draped coffins coming home from Iraq, it has taken an exhibit like this to allow for the real mourning of this nation. No photo can do justice to the feeling of standing in the midst of the empty boots and imagining the lives that should be standing there.

[This part in italics they did not publish] Along with the combat boots, the exhibit contains a 24-foot wall listing the names and incidents of death of over 10,000 Iraqi civilians – three times the number of deaths we suffered on September 11 in a country one-twelfth the size of the United States. You might say that the "Pain on Main Street" is also being felt ten-fold in Baghdad.

Michael McConnell
Regional, Director
American Friends Service Committee

Vermont to Long Island

2004-08-22T09:58:00.000-05:00

The trip from Burlington, Vermont to the next stop on the exhibit tour in Long Island passed close to the Canadian border.

The U.S. Customs Service had set up a road block in Vermont, stopping all vehicles.

Asked what was in the truck, our AFSC staff person, Stephen told the agent that it was Eyes Wide Open, an exhibit about the human cost of the Iraq War. The custom agent's eyes seemed to glaze over, not understanding. Stephen tried a few more explanations. Finally at a bit of a loss, Stephen said: "It's the boots exhibit."

The eyes of the customs agent lit up, he tapped the cab and said, "Oh, good work, keep on going."

He did not even open up the back of the truck to inspect it.

Buzz in Brattleboro

2004-08-21T12:48:00.000-05:00

In Brattleboro quite a buzz was created on the street concerning the exhibit.

It was one of the most emotional stops for the exhibition – many tears. People felt that they should be there. Many people returned every day even though they were not signed up to volunteer.

On the street people were asking each other, "Have you seen the exhibit up at River Garden -- you have to go see it."

The River Garden is a public building – glass on both sides, glass atrium on top and bordering the river separating Vermont from New Hampshire. The boots just dominated the space. The entire community came together

Two women in Vermont came and helped both in Montpelier and Burlington -- they just stopped their lives for five days because it was something that they just had to do. Our AFSC staff person tried to take them out to lunch to thank them. Only one accepted and she just wanted gravy fries. Every time he wanted to thank them, they said, no, thank you for doing this. So many people were honored to be able to work with the exhibit. Everybody is being very selfless when it comes to volunteering for the exhibit.

New England Honors Guatemalan

2004-08-18T12:40:00.000-05:00

Volunteers tell me that the man who’s been sitting among the boots for twenty minutes is a former Marine, a Gulf War Vet. I approach, slowly, in the way that one learns over time spent among the boots. At first, he doesn’t answer. I come back later, and stand nearby. He’s muttering to himself: “There’s been enough killing.” He says that this, the numbers here, are nothing to what the reality must be. He says he was on the ground in Gulf War I, and saw the reality through his own eyes. “There’s been enough killing.”

A Guatemalan immigrant woman remarks in Spanish that there is only one pair of boots for a Guatemalan, an immigrant who joined the Marines with the promise of citizenship for himself and his family. His boots rest between Georgia and Hawaii. She returns with roses, which she places in his boots “so that he won’t be alone.”

from Noah Merrill

Interlude

2004-08-15T21:46:00.000-05:00

One of the main criticsms leveled at the exhibit in the past few weeks was that we have not shown the thousands of people killed by Saddam Hussein.

True. But we have also not tried to represent the 200,000 Iraqis killed in the first Gulf War, nor have we attempted to symbolize the 500,000 Iraqis who died under the US/UN economic sanctions against Iraq. The majority of that half a million of humanity were children.

Perhaps that is what we need – to cart around hundreds of thousands of tiny shoes and dump them in the federal plazas throughout the country until the nation realizes the futility of war. The aggressive coercion of the past decade has left the United States isolated, hated and vulnerable to attack.

The deaths by starvation, by lack of insulin, by infection due to lack of antibiotics are not recorded in the same way as the deaths of soldiers, but no less worthy of memorialization.

It seems that those of us living in the United States who seek peace need to keep showing the amount of deaths perpetrated in our name.

Military Families Donate Boots to Exhibit

2004-08-05T16:21:00.000-05:00

At the press conference Tuesday, Kevin and Joyce Lucey recounted the events leading up to their son Jeffrey's suicide that occurred a few months after his return from Iraq.

While in Iraq Jeffrey found himself in an alleyway, trying to avoid gunfire. He saw in the street the body of an Iraqi boy who had been shot in the head. Although the boy was already dead, Jeff ran out, picked up the body, and carried it into the safety of the alley. Clenched in the boy's fist was a small blood-stained American flag. Jeff took the flag and kept it with him for the rest of his life.

The Luceys were thrilled when Jeff returned home last year, apparently safe, but his injuries were just not visible yet.

At first, Jeff seemed happy to have his life back, but the family noticed he was drinking a lot, and he became more and more reclusive. On Christmas eve he became irritable and at one point threw two dog tags at his sister and said, "Your brother is a murderer." The dog tags belonged to two Iraqi unarmed soldiers that Jeffrey had killed at point blank range because he had been ordered to do so.

He kept the dog tags and wore them around his neck to honor the two men.

After Christmas the nightmares were so frequent and tumultuous that Jeffrey got little sleep. He vomited every day. Family members often stayed up most of the night with him.

On May 28, 2004 the family had Jeff committed to the Veterans Affairs Medical Center in Leeds, MA. He was discharged four days later, diagnosed with alcoholism and mood swings.

"Nobody really saw him," said his father. "The records show he indicated to somebody at the VA that he was contemplating suicide, but we were never informed."

On June 21, Kevin stayed up with Jeff until 1 a.m. Jeff asked if he could curl up in his father's lap. In what he regards as one last gift, the father cradled his grown son.

On June 22 Jeffrey hung himself in the basement of his parent's home. They buried him with the blood-stained American flag that belonged to the young Iraqi boy. The Luceys donated Jeffrey's boots to the Eyes Wide Open exhibition in honor of their son.

Kevin told the news media: "This goddamn war is creating thousands of Jeffreys. "We don't want people to make the same mistakes we did."

see the report in The Republican from Springfield, MA

Amherst Begins Western MA Tour

2004-08-03T18:39:00.000-05:00

Tonight the family of a soldier, who committed suicide one month after returning from Iraq, will speak at the opening ceremonies of Eyes Wide Open in Amherst, Massachusetts.

The U.S. military has recently reported that there have been an unusually high number of suicides among U.S. troops in Iraq during the past year. 24 soldiers have taken their lives during the past 12 months in Iraq and Kuwait. There have also been seven suicides among troops who have recently returned, including two soldiers who killed themselves while hospitalized at Walter Reed Army Hospital, according to a report in the Toronto Star.

That equates to a suicide rate of 17.3 per 100,000 soldiers, compared with a rate of 12.8 for the Army as a whole in 2003 and an average rate of 11.9 for the Army during the 1995-2002 period, according to officials familiar with the study.

Previous Army investigations of increases in the suicide rate during the 1990s and more recent probes had similar findings -- soldiers tend to avoid seeking help with stress or other mental health problems for fear of being stigmatized.

More from Copley Square

2004-07-30T19:08:00.000-05:00

A woman knelt for about ten minutes in front of the pile of 1,000 shoes representing the over 16,000 Iraqi victims of the war. Then she sat down, took off her shoes and placed them on the pile. As she walked away barefoot, an AFSC staff member asked her what she was doing.

She said that a friend of hers had just told her about a young Iraqi boy who had died recently because he could not obtain insulin. She placed the shoes to remember him.

Copley Square Boston

2004-07-28T17:04:00.000-05:00

The response to AFSC’s Eyes Wide Open exhibit here in the Boston area during the Democratic convention has been far beyond our expectations. People – including convention delegates - have flocked to it, grieving at the losses of Iraqi civilians and the now more than 900 U.S. troops cruelly sacrificed there. The media, including national networks like ABC, newspapers from USA Today, the Los Angeles Times, Newsday, international press from Japan to Cuba, and dozens of independent documentary film makers have given us coverage and filmed and reported on the exhibit.

Last night’s candle light rally at Copley Square, with Eyes Wide Open and September 11th Families for Peaceful Tomorrow’s monument to the unknown civilian victims of war was stirring, sober, and very successful. Speakers included members of Military Families Speak Out, Iraq Veterans Against the War, Sept. 11 Families, Agneta Norberg from the Swedish Peace Council, City Councilman Chuck Turner, Phyllis Bennis and I spoke. Again, the press was excellent.

Boston Common

2004-07-26T20:52:00.000-05:00

Eyes Wide Open had a premiere location on Boston Common and journalists from around the word, in town for the Democratic National Convention, swarmed the area. They took photos and interviewed visitors.

The Cambridge AFSC office took out an ad in the Metra newspaper for commuters entitled "Stop the War – Fund the Dream." On one side was the picture of the combat boots on the lawn outside the Capitol in Washington D.C. On the other side of the page was a picture of Martin Luther King, Jr. A nation cannot spend $1.1 billion a day for the military and an additional $5 billion a month for the war in Iraq and still fund college scholarships, healthcare, job training, fire departments and other basic necessities of its citizens.

First Day in Boston

2004-07-23T07:58:00.000-05:00

The voice on the cell phone kept saying, "Who did all of this? Who did all of this?" The voice was of an AFSC Boston staff person who has known since January who created Eyes Wide Open. What she was expressing was the usual added excitement of seeing the exhibition in person. You can read about it, see photos of it, but once you stand amid the boots and read the names of the Iraqi civilians killed by U.S. bombings, it takes on a whole new depth.

Seeing the names of children 7 or 8 or 9 years old killed by Cruise missles or cluster bombs, reading the ages of the U.S. soldiers on the tags of the boots, brings the whole cost of war into your mind and heart in a way that surprises and makes you want to call someone to share your experience.

Hartford Silence

2004-07-18T15:08:00.000-05:00

In Hartford, CT yesterday the combat boots and wall display happened to be next to where a weekly vigil has been going on against the war for months. The vigilers carried signs. A reporter asked about the coincidence and one of the vigilers said that while we have the signs, Eyes Wide Open has the silence.

See the news article.

On to Cape Cod

2004-07-16T11:07:00.000-05:00

One comment that keeps being repeated in every location: visitors remark with sadness how young the soldiers are who have died. And at every stop families who have had loved ones die visit and place mementoes by the boots bearing the name of their soldier. Colored photos, ribbons, roses, letters are all being left by the boots. It has become a living memorial and tribute to those who have fallen.

Throughout Massachusetts organizers have placed in the front row the names of Massachusetts soldiers. Boots tagged for John James Van Gyzen, 20, of Taunton were decorated with a white rose and his photo tied on with red, white and blue striped ribbon.

His family placed them there while the exhibit was in Taunton this week, shortly after they buried him. The display of combat boots was on one side of town, while his funeral took place on the other. The rose had barely begun to wilt by the time it reached Cape Cod. See the news article.

Reflections from Philadelphia Press Conference

2004-07-14T13:02:00.000-05:00

My name is Michael McConnell, Regional Director of the American Friends Service Committee from Chicago. On behalf of AFSC and the military families present today, I welcome you to this memorial to the Iraq War dead, the deadliest war for the United States since Vietnam.

When we began this memorial in Chicago in January there were 504 U.S. soldiers who had been killed. Five months later 860 are dead.

We are here today to remember those 860 U.S. soldiers who have given, what Abraham Lincoln at Gettysburg called "the last full measure of devotion." This is a tremendous loss as it took this nation over four years in Vietnam before reaching that level of deaths. 860 pairs of empty combat boots, each tagged with the name of a fallen soldier, represents the tragic and unnecessary loss that this nation has suffered in Iraq.

We also remember the Iraqi civilians killed in the war, represented by this 24-foot long wall inscribed with the names or incidents of death of nearly 10,000 people and the 1,000 pairs of shoes representing 1/16th of their loss. Their ages range from an unnamed baby in the womb to Mulkiyya Jabir, 87 years old. Those deaths are over three times the loss of this nation on September 11, 2001, in a country one twelfth the size of the U.S.

We publicly display their names because the more the American people see the Iraqis as individuals, the harder it will be to continue to kill them.

The granite and marble war memorials of this nation honor the dead decades after the war has ended. In contrast this is a living witness that commemorates each death as it happens, memorializing a war while we still have a chance to stop it.

The thousands of deaths represented here today is too high a price to pay for an illegal and unnecessary war.

As we place the name, rank, age and home state of the fallen soldiers on these boots, they become like sacred objects. Each pair reminds us never to allow the casualty count to be a mere statistic, but rather to remember each death as a tragedy.

This pair has no tag. [Holds up pair of boots] Whose name will we have to put on this pair tomorrow? Whose family will be swamped in grief tomorrow? When will this carnage end?

Tears of Sadness and Anger in Westerly, Rhode Island

2004-07-13T15:05:00.000-05:00

A veteran was not sure that he wanted to view the exhibit.

While other visitors walked among the boots, checking names and sometimes stopping to put a little American flag or flower in a boot, the veteran stood at the display's edge.

Providence Journal columnist Dave McCarthy writes that "He was afraid he would break down if he walked among the boots. 'I just find it so heartbreaking. They are all my brothers ... It's so sad. They had wives and mothers, and sisters and brothers, and aunts and uncles. Not one of them wanted to die.' "

McCarthy goes on: "His sadness was mixed with anger, however. He paused for a second, then added, choking with grief, 'We never learn...' His voice trailed off to a whisper: 'Anyone one of these could be my son or anyone else's son.' "

Vietnam Parallels

2004-07-12T10:07:00.001-05:00

Today is the eleventh day after the U.S. turned over "limited sovereignty" to the Iraqis. Thirty-five U.S. soldiers have been killed. That averages over three per day. Since the war began, including the invasion and the deadliest month of April 2004, the average has been just under two per day. The death toll should remind us all that the military occupation still continues.

Meanwhile controversy rages in Taunton, MA as the city council debates tomorrow night whether to allow the Eyes Wide Open Exhibition to be displayed on Church Green, a space set aside to honor Vietnam veterans. See the news article. Eyes Wide Open is one hundred percent supportive of the U.S. troops while condemning one hundred percent the war they have been forced to fight . Many of the families and soldiers that I have talked with joined the national guard to pay for college or make extra money for their families. They were prepared to serve their country in real national emergencies not manufactured ones.

The parallels to Vietnam are becoming more apparent everyday. We have witnessed the hyperbole that the U.S. government used to justify the Iraq war, suggesting that the "smoking gun will be the mushroom cloud." Back in the 1960s government officials urged the American people to stop the communists in Vietnam before they had to be stopped at the Golden Gate bridge. Or as Secretary of State Dean Rusk said in June of 1965, the collapse of Vietnam would lead to "our ruin and almost certainly to a catastrophic war."

Eyes Wide Open Rolls into Charleston, WV

2004-07-08T11:00:00.000-05:00

7-8,000 people viewed the 865 combat boots and wall of names of 10,000 Iraqi civilians killed in Iraq at the Charleston Civic Center. The Church of the Brethren was holding its annual meeting there and held a candlelight vigil, interspersing candles among the boots.

Three TV stations and all of the newspapers covered the event. A pastor from Puerto Rico invited us to bring the exhibit there.

Eyes Wide Open Front Page News in Philadelphia Inquirer

2004-07-03T14:56:00.000-05:00

Eyes Wide Open opened yesterday in Philadelphia on Independence Mall — the boots, the wall and one thousand pairs of shoes (representing 1/10 of the Iraqi civilian victims) were on the lawn. The indoor educational portion was on the second floor of the Visitor’s Center.

Thousands of people have and will go through the exhibit, which will close tomorrow at 4PM.

It was front page of the Inquirer — above the fold, three color photos.

It is running every hour as a news story on the much listed to news radio station and it appeared on several TV stations. We also had a two-page article in the big free Philadelphia Weekly. AP Photo was there as well. And the local NPR ran a 3-minute story Friday morning.

By all estimation it was a great success and reached so many people from all over the country traveling to Philadelphia for July 4th celebrations.

Eyes Wide Open Last Day in Cleveland

2004-06-26T11:27:00.000-05:00

The Cleveland Heights Public Library hosted the exhibition from June 24-26. On Thursday, June 24th WOIO, the local CBS affiliate shot live footage of the noon set-up and covered the exhibition live at its evening broadcasts from 4-6PM.

Oberlin Exhibition Energizes Volunteers

2004-06-26T11:21:00.000-05:00

The three-day stay of Eyes Wide Open: An Exhibition on the Costs of the Iraq War in Oberlin, Ohio was a resounding success. Forty volunteers made the three-day stay memorable as they handed out leaflets and talked with visitors from both out of state and out of the country. Over 1,000 people visited the exhibit which was covered extensively by several local Television stations.

The Elyria, Ohio and Lorraine, Ohio newspapers covered the exhibition on their front pages and the Cleveland Plain Dealer had a photo on the front page of the Metro section.