Eyes Wide Open – Iraq War Boots Exhibit - San Jose Circle of Palms, Sunday, June 22

On Sunday, June 22, in conjunction with the meeting of the 218th General Assembly of the PC(USA), the Presbytery of San Jose Peace & Justice Task Force, the Council of Churches of Santa Clara County and members of the Presbyterian Peace Fellowship are sponsoring .Eyes Wide Open, the widely acclaimed exhibition on the human cost of war. The exhibit is within walking distance of the General Assembly meeting location.

The Eyes Wide Open exhibit features a pair of boots honoring each U.S. military casualty from California (about 450), a labyrinth of civilian shoes to memorialize the Iraqis killed in the conflict, and a display exploring the history, cost and consequences of the war. This exhibit will be in San Jose on Sunday, June 22 (10am-7pm), at the Circle of Palms which is between the San Jose Museum of Art (110 S. Market St.) and the Fairmont (170 S. Market St.) across from Cesar Chavez Plaza. At 3:30pm on Sunday there will be prayers, music, and Gold Star mother Karen Meredith speaking. The exhibit is open to the public and free of charge.

The Eyes Wide Open exhibit creates a sacred space for prayer and reflection. The national version of the exhibit, which has traveled widely, was created by the Quaker organization, the American Friends Service Committee. The full exhibit was displayed on the Mall in Washington DC. As the number of US casualties has grown too large for most exhibition areas, state versions now exhibit the number of boots for soldiers killed in each particular state. The Department of Defense Confirmation List records 4,101 U.S. deaths in the Iraq War as of June 20, 2008. Studies of Iraqi civilian and military deaths put that number as high as 655,000 persons.

The co-coordinators of the San Jose exhibit are Presbyterian Peace Fellowship member Rev. Diana Gibson, who is Co-Director of the Council of Churches of Santa Clara County, and Geoff Browning, United Campus Christian Ministry chaplain for Stanford University and Peacemaking Advocate for the San Jose Presbytery. "Eyes Wide Open,” says Gibson, “helps me realize - with my body, mind and soul - the true cost of war. These are all real people, and I can touch the shoes they once wore."

According to Mary Ellen McNish, General Secretary of the American Friends Service Committee:
“When this exhibit was unveiled in January 2004, there were 504 pairs of boots symbolizing the lost lives of U.S. soldiers in Iraq. With each passing week, each stop in a new city, more pairs of boots are added to represent the newly fallen. Alongside the boots stands a wall of remembrance with the names of the more than 11,000 Iraqi civilians who have been killed since the U.S.-led invasion.

As the exhibit makes its appearances across the country, families and friends come to grieve for lost loved ones and strangers honor those who gave their lives to a cause far from home.At each stop, person after person leaves notes of commemoration, photographs of lost soldiers, identification tags, flowers, and American flags to accompany the boots on their journey.

Although a majority of Americans now believe this war is a tragic misadventure, the human cost of the Iraq War grows every day. How many more boots will be standing at silent attention before this war ends, before Iraqis and American soldiers are out of harm's way? This traveling exhibit is a memorial to those who have fallen and a witness to our belief that no war can justify its human cost.”