"Eyes Wide Open" raises
Iraq war awareness
Laura McHugh
Chief Staff Writer
April 19, 2006
In January 2004, the American Friends Service
Committee, a Quaker peace group, used boots to commemorate the fallen
American soldiers of the War in Iraq in an exhibit entitled, "Eyes
Wide Open."
One pair of boots was displayed for each
soldier lost, which at that time added up to 504 pairs. The boots were
displayed between the Washington Monument and the U.S. Capitol on the
National Mall in Washington, D.C. The exhibit also featured a wall of
remembrance with the names of all the Iraqi civilians who had been killed
in the conflict. Since it began in March 2003, the War in Iraq has claimed
the lives of 2,361 American soldiers.
In August 2005, an "Eyes Wide Open
Ohio" campaign began, displaying boots to represent the impact
of the war on Ohioans. "You have to have your 'eyes wide shut'
to continue this madness," wrote an anonymous viewer in the comment
book after seeing the exhibit in Oxford, Ohio. The exhibit will come
to the College of Wooster on Sunday, April 23 as the culmination of
a three-day event running from Friday, April 21 to that Sunday.
Professor of geology Hilary Sanders said
planning for the exhibit began in January. Members of the religious
community jumpstarted the exhibit, said Sanders, and the Wooster exhibit
was then coordinated by a coalition of sponsors from both religious
and non-religious groups.
Sanders is a member of Wooster Opposing
the War (WOW), one of the groups in the coalition. WOW is an organization
comprised of faculty, students and community members who are focused
on the immediate cessation of the war and the quick return of U.S. troops
from deployment.
Sanders said the exhibit would include
100 pairs of boots, representing Ohioan soldiers killed in the war.
There will also be shoes to represent a small fraction of the more than
100,000 Iraqi civilians killed since the U.S.-led invasion. A rug embroidered
with flowers will commemorate the wounded soldiers from Ohio, and a
Media Center will provide information on the AFSC and the history of
the War in Iraq.
On
Friday, April 21, the exhibit will be open from 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. at
On-The-Square in Downtown Wooster. There will be a candlelight service
at 7:30 p.m. that day. On Saturday, April 22, the exhibit moves to the
Wayne County Fairgrounds Pavilion and is open from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.
On Sunday, the exhibit will be displayed behind Lowry Center from 1-6
p.m.
"We are physical beings and so the
visual has a strong impact on us," said Linda Morgan-Clement, the
Henry Jefferson Copeland campus minister. Morgan-Clement is organizing
a prayer service led by what she called "a diverse group of students."
"I hope that they [the exhibit] will
be a strong image of the men and women whom we have lost," said
Morgan-Clement, "calling us to gratitude for their loss."
The prayer service will be held at 4:30 p.m. that Sunday.
"The purpose of 'Eyes Wide Open' is
not to protest the war," said Sanders. The AFSC is a Quaker organization
committed to social justice, peace and humanitarian service.
"This traveling exhibit is a memorial
to those who have fallen and a witness to our belief that no war can
justify its human cost," said Mary Ellen McNish, General Secretary
of the AFSC.
Sanders said she hopes that people who
are pro-war will look at the exhibit and ask themselves, "Do I
still think this is a reasonable war, a just cause?"
"In all wars, we find ourselves turning
the enemy into a monster and ourselves into saviors," said Morgan-Clement.
"Both postures deny the complex truths and the multiple perspectives
that exist. […] The bottom line is that the war is a tragedy and
a loss that we need to grieve as well as act to put an end to."
Sanders said volunteers are still needed,
especially for Friday. Interested volunteers should contact Mary Wicks
at wicksfam@earthlink.net.
As a prelude to the exhibition, Chris Hedges,
Pulitzer Prize-winning author of bestsellers "War is a Force that
Gives us Meaning" and "What Every Person Should Know About
War," will give a lecture Monday night, April 17, at 7 p.m. in
Gault Recital Hall.
"The Hedges lecture gives a nice sense
of continuity to the exhibit," said Professor Sanders. The lecture
is sponsored by the English Department, the Interfaith Campus Ministry
and WOW.
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Click HERE
for more photos. Also read COMMENTS from
this exhibit.
