In an article in this month’s Friends Journal called “A Peace Perspective” is the following statement:
“… Eyes Wide Open exhibit, which memorializes the dead of the Iraq War.”
No, it doesn’t. That exhibit only memorializes the American deaths and shows nothing of the hundreds of thousands of Iraqis — be they terrorists, police, soldiers, civilians, families — who have lost their lives in this war.
Maybe I expect too much of Quakers. Maybe our Testimony of Equality is too hard to follow today. Maybe AFSC made a conscious, financially-responsible decision to focus on the deaths that would affect the “average American” the most. But when we expect so little of our fellow Americans, how can we encourage their growth? How can we self-centered Americans ever change if even the Quakers give in to our self-centeredness?
How much more powerful would the “Eyes Wide Open” exhibit be if it also included one pair of leather sandals for each Iraqi death?
Light and Lotus (& cats) 
Hey, Tania.
I’m behind on my reading of Friends Journal, but I doubt I would have caught what you did.
What I can tell you of the exhibit that I saw during FGC’s 2005 Gathering in Blacksburg, Virginia, is that there was a section of the exhibit that was dedicated to the Iraqi children who had been killed by the war up til that time. …So many Iraqi children had been killed that each pair of shoes represented… 10? 100?… children, and those shoes brought a different sort of tenderness, shame, hurt, and anger into my awareness than did the shoes that represented each the American soldier.
I can’t recall if there was still another section of the exhibit that illustrated the number of Iraqi civilians…
I’m hoping you sent along your thoughts in a letter to the editor… and if you haven’t, I want to encourage you to do so!
Blessings,
Liz Opp, The Good Raised Up
Thanks for the encouragement. In retrospect, I was worried I was being too rough. I did email this entry to FJ. I’m glad to hear that there was a section of the exhibit dedicated to Iraqi children. I often feel appalled at our country’s response, or lack thereof rather, when non-Americans are killed (there are exceptions, of course).
There was a final showing of the entire EWO exhibit in Chicago over Memorial Day. That exhibit, as do all EWO exhibits, contains civilian shoes –adult as well as childres — and signage with the Hopkins study stating up to 600,000 civilian deaths. See official website for more details: http://www.afsc.org/eyes/index.php
There are now EWO State exhibits in most states, with mostly volunteers, mostly Friends and military families invovled — that also contain this element along with a exhibit called “Dreams and Nightmares” (see http://www.afsc.org/eyes/dreams-and-nightmares.htm) that shows both realities of the occupation and the dreams of Iraqi civil society. Lifting up Iraqi voices is a commitment that AFSC has maintained.
There is also capacity to have an exhibit only of those US National Guard members who have lost their lives and such exhibits have gone up around the country.
There have also been at times, work helmets to convey the price that civilian contractors have paid (one reason why Bechtel withdrew from Iraq).
That being said, symbolic presense for the US “security” mercenaries and Iraqi Republican Guard, has been in the form of mentions here and there.
The real point about the EWO is that it is one of the few public forum/safe spaces for both civilians and military families to come together. Since the military has been professionalized, the two segments of society have become very isolated from one another.
My apologies, smcneil. I found out after posting this that the Iraqi deaths are represented in EWO. I meant to edit this post to indicate that, but never got around to it. This will not be published in Friends Journal, either.