13 October 2007 EYES WIDE OPEN

A moving exhibit on the human costs of war is touring Alaska and was presented in downtown Anchorage yesterday. I've been reading about Eyes Wide Open for several years but didn't think it would ever make it to our lonely outpost on the peace frontier. So this last summer when Friends committed to bringing EWO to Alaska, I signed up to help in any way I could.

Eyes Wide Open started with 500 pairs of boots in 2004 to represent the number of American soldiers who had died in Iraq at that point. When the number of US casualties reached into the thousands, the exhibit was split up for state exhibits. The Alaska exhibit has 109 pairs for soldiers either from Alaska or based in Alaska when they were killed. Each pair of boots has a tag with the soldiers name, rank, age, and hometown. EWO tries to put a personal face on the war, to remind us that real lives are impacted and ended by war.

This personal face is not only for US casualties but also for Iraqi civilians who have lost their lives in the war. In Anchorage, 300 pairs of shoes, sandals, boots, and sneakers held tags with the names and ages of Iraqi children, women, and men who have died. The exhibit also has a series of posters - Dreams and Nightmares - showing the hope and despair of the Iraqi people.

The program varies from state to state but usually includes a reading of names, alternating between soldiers and Iraqis. Two local singing groups also sang and peace poetry was read periodically throughout the afternoon. The mother of a local soldier who was killed last February joined us for the day and read a poem that she wrote after her son died. Her presence was a constant reminder that war cuts short the dreams of not only those who die in battle but also of those they leave behind at home.

{I've added some links to organizations seeking a peaceful world with a variety of approaches. I hope that some of these speak to y0u. I've posted more of my photographs from the Anchorage EWO exhibit at my online gallery.}