Today on the way home from work, I passed by the College of St. Catherine, which is a couple of blocks from my house. There is a beautiful rolling lawn in front of the school and I noticed lots of activity there. Turns out its the local exhibit of “Eyes Wide Open: Beyond Fear-Towards Hope.” Its “an exhibition on the human cost of the Iraq War” put together by the American Friends Service Committee. Since the literature says the exhibit has been in over 60 cities so far, maybe many of you have seen it. Boots for all Ameridan service members killed in the military were everywhere. More pictures below.
There was also an exhibit in memory of some of the Iraqi’s who have died.
Some of the soldier’s family members added special memories of their loved ones.
No words are needed for this one.
As I was leaving I noticed this soldier had just arrived. I wanted to take a picture of him without intruding on his privacy. I just aimed the camera and shot. When I looked up, he had been wiping away tears. I probably don’t have much in common with this man, but today we shared a broken heart.
This is how to change things
Thank you for taking the pictures and sharing this.
In such a simple way we are shown the emptiness and loss.
Any idea how long its going to be there?
Its so easy to get busy living our normal lives, sacrificing each day to the daily routine. It would be so easy to just keep driving by. I’m so glad you didn’t.
Your pictures, especially the little shoes, are just haunting.
The exhibit is here just a couple of days – the last is today. I am so glad I stopped too. I had a busy day and hadn’t eaten all day. But had been able to leave work a little early (you know – the Friday afternoon thing). When I realized what the exhibit was about – I pulled right over. I might have stopped anyway, but after all the talk here about the DC march last week and my feelings of wanting to have been there – I knew I had to.
Thank you for this. It is good to see the Iraqi dead being recognized as well.
I didn’t want to write too much in the diary. I thought just the pictures spoke more to my experience. It was so quiet there.
But the shoes of the soldiers were laid out in straight lines and just covered this HUGE lawn. It was overwhelming. While the shoes of the Iraqi’s were laid out in a circular maze that you walked through. That was a really powerful experience. Rather spiritual. You took these people into your soul. Lots of tears as people took it all in.