Posted on 03/10/2005 8:59:54 AM PST by Mister Sophisticate
ESCONDIDO ---- An outdoor exhibit on the human costs of the conflict in Iraq called "Eyes Wide Open" will come to Grape Day Park in Escondido Wednesday.
The main feature will be rows of boots representing the lives of American soldiers lost in Iraq. The boots will be tagged with the soldiers' name, rank and home state. The exhibit will also feature a 24-foot wall of names and incidents identifying Iraqi civilian deaths.
Sponsored by the American Friends Service Committee, the exhibit will be held from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. at the park, 321 N. Broadway in Escondido. Speakers are scheduled from 11:30 a.m. to 1 p.m Thursday.
The Guerrero Azteca project, formed by Escondido peace activist Fernando Suarez del Solar, applied to the city of Escondido to bring the exhibit to Grape Day Park. Suarez del Solar became an anti-war advocate after his Marine son was killed in Iraq in March 2003 after stepping on a land mine.
As of Tuesday, 1,504 American soldiers have been killed in Iraq since March 2003, according to the Department of Defense. Another 174 soldiers from 15 other countries had also been killed, according to the Associated Press. Estimates of the number of Iraqi civilians killed as a result of the invasion vary widely, but the Web site Iraq Body Count (www.iraqbodycount.org) totals the tallied reported deaths at around 17,000.
A limited form of the "Eyes Wide Open" exhibit was on display Wednesday outside the county administration building on Pacific Highway in San Diego. Because of a misunderstanding of space requirements, only boots representing the 174 Californian troops killed were displayed.
Speakers at the event will include Suarez del Solar, Chuck Lowery from the North County Coalition for Peace and Justice, and Pedro Rios from the American Friends Service Committee.
"Eyes Wide Open represents our support of families who must deal with the terrible consequences of war, while simultaneously condemning the war and ensuing violence as the ultimate expression of diplomatic failure," said Rios in a statement.
Eyes Wide Open began traveling around the United States in January 2004 and has visited more than 45 cities.
Latest news from the peace activist front. The AFSC recently held one of their "Eyes Wide Open" rallys in Texas (I think) and, when the folks from Protest Warriors showed up, things got just a bit confrontational until the cops showed up and managed to separate the violent "peace activists" from the normal people.
Someone ought to fill the Grand Canyon with shoes to demonstrate the number of Saddam's victims. Maybe that would be an "eye-opener".
How about a briefcase representing each $1M of oil-for-food money squandered or stolen by the U.N.? At the estimated $20Bn that would be about 20,000 briefcases!
And for good measure let's display an African head dress for each of the hundreds of thousands of people slaughtered in Rwanda.
And then there's a teddy bear for each of the hundreds of young women and girls raped by UN peace-keepers in the Congo.
This could be quite a project if you want to be honest about it!
There's something wrong about twisting the sacrifices of our military into something diametrically opposed to the reason they made the ultimate sacrifice.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.