4/14/2007
Anti-war exhibit intended to open eyes about Iraq
AARON KEITH HARRIS
Staff Writer, Xenia Daily Gazette
YELLOW SPRINGS – An anti-war exhibition that uses a pair of empty boots to represent each death of an Ohio service member in Iraq opened Thursday at Antioch University.
The Coretta Scott King Center for Cultural and Intellectual Freedom is hosting “Eyes Wide Open Ohio,” a traveling exhibition created by the American Friends Service Committee, a pacifist Quaker organization.
Organizers placed 157 pairs of boots on the floor of a room in the Spalt building on campus Thursday morning, each containing a laminated tag with the name, age and hometown of a member of the U.S. armed services killed in the Iraq War, including Army Spc. Ethan Biggers, 22, of Beavercreek, who died last month after being shot in Iraq in March 2006.
Some of the tags did not contain a name at the request of the family of the deceased.
The exhibit also includes a pile of shoes to symbolize Iraqis killed during the war, pictures of American and Iraqi casualties, and multimedia displays and literature explaining the AFSC’s opposition to the war.
The national Eyes Wide Open exhibit has toured the United States since 2004.
The exhibit at Antioch is scheduled to run 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. on Saturday and 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. on Sunday.
Organizers said some veterans may offer remarks at the exhibit 5 p.m. Sunday.
