Eyes Wide Open - Wage Peace

The American Friends Service Committee’s Eyes Wide Open exhibit stopped in the gardens near the State Capital in Sacramento today. The exhibition presents rows and rows of empty army boots, each with a name tag representing one U. S. soldier fallen in the Iraq war. Next to the empty boots is a large labyrinth laid out with thousands of men’s, women’s, and children’s shoes and slippers representing a small portion of the thousands of Iraqis killed. Several of the combat boots are decorated with photos and other personal items friends and relatives of the dead have added as the exhibit has traveled around the country. You can see more about the exhibit and a short film about the exhibit at http://www.afsc.org/eyes/ . The website has an electronic petition asking the president to remove U. S. forces from Iraq.

The exhibit is very moving, the precisely arrayed army boots and the more casually arranged civilian shoes. Children’s shoes and baby shoes, old lady shoes. Standing and walking amidst thousands of empty shoes really drives home the enormity of this waste of human life. Shoes filled no more, visiting friends and family no more, They will age no more, breath no more.

It’s about time to say, “No More”.

That’s my story and I’m sticking to it.