Eyes Wide Open

TJMC PEACE CONVERSATIONS HOSTS "EYES WIDE OPEN" MEMORIAL DAY WEEKEND

Over Memorial Day weekend, TJMC Peace Conversations, along with three other local groups, Veterans for Peace, the Charlottesville Quaker Meeting, and the Charlottesville Center for Peace and Justice, hosted Eyes Wide Open at the Free Speech Wall on the Downtown Mall. The exhibit, created by the American Friends Service Committee (AFSC), is part of a national campaign to show the human cost of war. It includes combat boots tagged with the names of the 117 service men and women from Virginia who have died in the war and a visual representation of the hundreds of thousands of Iraqi people who have died during the conflict.

Hundreds visited over the three-day event, which was covered by C-ville Weekly, NBC-29, and the local public television station. More than forty volunteers worked at the exhibit and helped read the names of the dead every two hours. Local schools and businesses donated supplies and equipment, and Iraqi refugees helped with names reading. Among the visitors were veterans of past wars and active duty service members who had been to Iraq and some who were returning.
On the AFSC’s petition, “Defund/Refund,” calling for the defunding of the Iraq War and refunding of human needs at home and in Iraq, volunteers gathered ten pages of signatures from our area as well as names from Northern Virginia, Alabama, Boston, Texas, Washington DC, Florida, Maryland, Arizona, and the UK. Many people wrote comments in a guest book that travels with the exhibit around the state.

Volunteer Comments on the Eyes Wide Open exhibit,
Charlottesville Downtown Mall, 2008

A mother of two soldiers told me at the EWO display about soldiers being
electrocuted from the way American contractors had put in the showers, and
that the government (as usual, she said) had been trying to cover up this information.
--Debbie Eggleston, TJMC Peace Conversations

My last noteworthy contact at this 3-day event occurred as we were breaking down the last box of boots. An active duty infantry sergeant major stopped off to view what we were doing. He was friendly toward our intentions, and told me "we are fighting to insure that your freedom of self-expression at display's like this one remains intact," or words to that effect. He told me he was due to depart for his third tour in Iraq within the next 2 hours. Whew.
--Freeman Allan, Veterans for Peace

It was an honor to read the names of both the Virginia soldiers and the Iraqi civilians who have died in this undeclared war . . . The war was wrong from the outset, and it is still wrong. Our country is paying a high cost in lives and resources, and lost opportunities, for this tragic mistake. As I read the names, I had to turn away from the display of boots and shoes in order to maintain composure. My response to the display is deep sorrow. Thank you for your efforts to help us see and remember.
--Sharon Baiocco, TJMC Peace Conversations

The encounters that touched me most deeply were those with veterans who stopped to look at the exhibit and talk with us. One had been seriously brain damaged in Iraq and said, pointing at the boots, "I was one of them, and then I came back. I've had enough". Another said he went in to the first Gulf war "gung-ho" and now realizes what a terrible tragedy that war was and he feels the same about the current war. Another is on active duty and may be shipped to Iraq. Her boyfriend was just sent over and is awaiting his assignment. She said, "I wish I could sign the petition (to defund the war) but I can't because I could get in trouble. My beliefs are between me and God, no matter what the military says".
Each of the stories I heard confirmed my belief that war is never the answer.
Other aspects of the exhibit that I found to be powerful were the reading of the names and the silence of the people walking among the boots.
--Sue Chase, CCPJ

I had been to my daughter’s graduation a few days before and the names of graduates were read ceremoniously. When I was reading the Iraqi names, I couldn’t help but think that some these people could have been college graduates.
--Helena Cobban, Charlottesville Quaker Meeting

A man who had been in Iraq for two years said, after reading the AFSC’s petition, that he agreed with everything in it except the part about the U.S. funding Iraqi reconstruction. He said that they [the Iraqis] hated everything the U.S. did now, that the U.S. would not be able to do anything right, that we should take care of people here, which he didn’t think the government was doing. “My exit interview went like this – did you kill people? Yes. Did you see dead bodies? Yes. And that was it.”
Homeless men, some of whom were Vietnam vets, asked if we were giving away shoes (which they needed).
--Christine Black, TJMC Peace Conversations

Other comments heard at the display:
--We couldn’t show the coffins; at least we can have this.
--I couldn’t be any more disgusted than I am now, said a man as he signed the petition.
--Thank you for being here, for doing this.
--Can I donate on-line to AFSC?
--Do you have people represented who have died in Afghanistan, asked a young military man. He said he would write to AFSC and recommend it.
An Iraqi refugee visiting the display said how much it saddened her. Her husband was killed in the war. She has said that all the Iraqi people she knows have lost people in the war; most people have lost several friends and family members.
A man who had been in the Navy for ten years said he resigned because of the current U.S. policies in the Middle East. He had worked with the FBI and CIA. He said he was very worried about the rise of Blackwater USA and other mercenary companies.
A woman with a T-shirt inscribed with “Band of Mothers for the Band of Brothers,” said her son was currently training to go to Iraq and believed in what he was doing. She cited improvements in Iraq.

More comments from volunteers:
There should be more Iraqi shoes in the display. There were only about 50 pairs to represent Iraqi killed. The Virginia exhibit has 100 pairs with it, but they had been mislabeled in Richmond, so we couldn’t use them this time.
A volunteer noted that the display didn’t have adequate signage to explain the number of Iraqi deaths and the ratio to American deaths. [We created signs to use and donated them to the exhibit.]
The 29 38-gallon containers used for packing the shoes and supplies made organizing and stacking easier. They were bulky, though, and we needed more space than one truck for transport and storage so had to rent a van.
A volunteer said she thought we should have the display in Charlottesville every year or so.
Many people want to have a place to feel their grief and outrage about the war – the EWO exhibit creates such a place.
Volunteers who read names said it was especially meaningful.
EWO has a definite American focus. AFSC has created another display to convey the experiences of Iraqi people. It’s called, “Dreams and Nightmares: An Exhibit on Life and Death in Iraq.” More information may be found on the Web at https://www.afsc.org/eyes/dreams-and-nightmares.htm I wonder how we could show this one.