'Eyes wide open:' a painful dyssey

Catholic New Times, Dec 19, 2004 by Ted Schmidt

The televangelist Pat Robertson tells a story about a conversation with U.S. President George W. Bush. When Bush informed Robertson about the impending invasion of Iraq, Robertson asked him what was he doing to prepare the American people about the expected casualties. Bush assured him there wouldn't be any. After the original "shock and awe" of bombing, the Iraqis would throw up their hands and the Americans would walk in as liberators.

Now the "The Eyes Wide Open" exhibit is travelling through the U.S. Americans have an agonizing display of their president's shocking hubris and his cavalier attitude toward human life.

The American Friends Service Committee (AFSC) has, since 1917, been indefatigable in its tireless promotion of the sanctity of every human being, their dignity and worth--and its hatred of war. No religious group has done as much to dramatize the human costs of war as the American friends the Quakers.

In January, 2004, the AFSC unveiled its latest imaginative attempt to wake American jingoists as to the real cost of war. The concept of "Eyes Wide Open" is simple. To dramatize the loss of American lives the AFSC collected a pair of military boots for every fallen soldier.

When the exhibit opened there were 504 pairs of boots. In Milwaukee in early November there were over 1,000. At every stop more boots are added. And as often happens, people add their own commemorative notes. On an accompanying bulletin board there are as many Iraqi names as the AFSC could find, as well as the pathetic cheap shoes of the Iraqi fallen. The cumulative effect is devastating for anybody with half a heart.

It is heartbreaking to look out over the row on row of boots, many with pressed yellow roses and ribbons, a few with messages from parents, brothers and sisters. Richard Rosas, 21, from Lansing, Michigan is remembered by his mother Apolonia with the words, "Wherever these boots may tred, my broken heart will follow." Somebody trying desperately to justify a sad and needless death has written, "His qualities make him an American hero." There is a note by Thomas Day's (not his real name) shoes-turret gunner (July 6,1983 -June 9, 2004.) Harder to read was little brother's note "I love you." The funeral service for Day in his local Baptist church in Columbia, S.C. shows us just what these victims are up against, in particular rancid imperial religion which effectively camouflages the horrendous cost of war and the gaping hole it leaves in people's lives. Young Day's funeral included the "Battle Hymn of the Republic," "God Bless America" and "America the Beautiful."

Possibly the saddest pair of boots belonged to Jeff Lurie of Belchertown, Maine. Beside a picture of him in his high school football uniform was his suicide note (one of the over 40 soldiers who could not deal with the horror.) Written to his girl friend Julie, Jeff writes "If you have the letter I am no longer around--not to make you cry but to let you know I lived a happy and complete life."

Near the letter is the picture of a 10-year-old Iraqi boy, Nassriyah. He lies with a hole in his head still clutching a U.S flag. Lurie's father writes with barely controlled rage. "My son is an uncounted casualty of the war. The horrific acts of war took away his humanity."

And so it went--pathetic words of bravado, about being warriors, about dying for a muse. Dulce et deconum est pro patria mori. The old lie that never dies.

Beside the long rows of shoes lies the truth of this ugly war written on large moveable walls. The visitor moves slowly through a labyrinth forced to confront the truth: "Access has been provided to all sites we have wanted to inspect." Hans Blix, Jan. 27, 2003.

No Iraqis were involved in September 11, 2001. Fifteen of the hijackers were from Saudi Arabia. In Iraq, no mobile germ-making biological weapons, no WMDs. No connection between Al-Queda and Iraq.

On Jan. 17,2005 (Martin Luther King, Jr. Day) this moving piece of prophecy moves to the National Cathedral in Washington, DC. Contact : 201-836-8923