WAYNESVILLE - Ever since the Miami Monthly Meeting
Religious Society of Quakers was established here more than 200 years
ago, its members have stood for peace.
Founding members left North and South Carolina because they opposed
slavery, believing slaves should be treated as equals. The church
became part of the Underground Railroad in 1811. It was not unusual
to find slaves on the run hiding beneath the hoop skirts of church
members. The church is now the oldest regularly attended group west
of the Allegheny Mountains. Tenth-generation families of the original
founders still belong.
That adherence to the Quaker mission of peace, justice,
integrity and equality is why the group agreed to bring the Eyes Wide
Open Ohio multimedia exhibit on the impact of the Iraq war and occupation
to Waynesville this weekend. The free exhibit starts with 103 pairs
of combat boots, one pair for each soldier from Ohio killed in the
war. The boots are labeled with the name, rank, age and hometown of
each dead soldier. Notes and other remembrances left in the boots
by family members or spectators become part of the display, Roberts
said. More than 100 pairs of shoes represent the more than 100,000
Iraqi civilians who have died as a result of the war. Poppies represent
the wounded.
"Our main goal is to first of all make those
people who died more than just a statistic, to give them faces, a
sense they are real people," said Barbara Roberts, the southern
Ohio coordinator of the display. "We want people to think about
a war to be aware of the costs - life and monetary."
E-mail: suek1@fuse.net
