February 10, 2005 -- The first thing we saw before we entered the Eyes Wide Open exhibit at Live Oak Friends Meeting Grounds in Houston, Texas was a row of silver plaques, each filled with names and ages of Iraqis killed since the U.S. invasion in March, 2003.  From one side of the building to the other, the small lettering on these plaques included names entire families, elderly people, and, most heartbreakingly, young children.  I was in tears before I even entered the exhibit.  So many lives, so many children.  How could our government do this?  How can we live with the fact that the money we pay in taxes is used to exterminate so many innocent people, and in the name of �liberation� and �democracy�?

Inside were posters mounted on either side of the doors, showing the economic cost of this war.  According to the Eyes Wide Open  website, this monstrous exercise in brutality has cost us $154 billion.  The site also gives the cost for each state, even each individual citizen, and the amount of that money that could have been spent on pre-school, children�s health, public education, college scholarships, public housing, college scholarships, public housing, world hunger, the AIDS epidemic, and world immunization against deadly diseases.

The human cost of war, of course, can be found in all the above economic statistics, but the direct cost, in the number of dead, was the focus of the exhibit.  Inside, on the pews of the Friends� church, were donated replicas of combat boots � one pair for each military casualty from the state of Texas.  Because of the rain, the rest of the more than 1400 pairs of boots could not be displayed on the lawn, but right outside the building was a rack of caps, 300 of them, with names of contractors killed as they worked for the corporations making billions of dollars from this orgy of death.

On the floor, however, were the shoes that broke my heart.  The shoes of only a small number, around 250, of the dead Iraqi civilians.  Small patent-leather little girls� shoes, shoes the size of those of my own children, who are 10 and 14 years of age.  Shoes of women, men, and babies.  I spent a long time with those shoes, bending down to touch many of them.  To imagine the mothers putting those tiny shoes on squirming little feet, holding their babies close, the smell and the softness and the feel of their little ones� arms around their necks, the kisses and laughter and sweetness of the bond between them.  And the fiery, cruel deaths that tore those children and their mothers and families apart.

Draped over the backs of the pews were quilts memorializing the individual Iraqis, often entire families, the names of the dead and often the sentiments of the makers of the quilts stitched upon them:

�In the memory of the 10 children of Fallujah who died March 29,2003.  We love you and we will remember you.

Love, Brook, Jason, Evelyn, Simon, Ramala, Brownie, Annie, Hannah, and Sarah.

We�re sorry, kids.� � The Children of the Chester River Friends Meeting First Day School, Chesterton, Maryland.

Another quilt memorialized a mother, Sama Sami, age 30, and her daughters � Lama, Lava, and Miriam � all under 10 years of age.

The boots of the fallen soldiers told an entirely different, but no less heartbreaking story.  These were sons, brothers, husbands, fathers � for every death, I thought of the number of people whose lives were irrevocably shattered and changed forever.  There were 438 pairs of boots representing the dead from the state of Texas, with 1100 more that would have been on the lawn, but for the rain.  How much agony, grief, and pointless loss do those numbers represent among the citizens of this country?

And yet the authors of this war, and their children, will never suffer the agonies of it.  When the mother of one of the dead, Sue Niederer, dared to speak up and ask why, of Laura Bush, why her daughters are not serving in the hell her husband has created for so many of our sons and daughters, she was silenced and arrested on the spot.

It is time for all of us to stand up and ask �Why�?  None of the rationalizations given for the illegal invasion of Iraq has proved to be true � no weapons of mass destruction, no materials for their production, no indication of any �smoking gun� that might become a �mushroom cloud�, as Condoleezza Rice so melodramatically stated as she lied to us about the reasons for this war.

It is time for all of us to open our eyes to what is being done in our name, to the unspeakable, heart-breaking horror of it, and to stand up and shout, as one, �NO WAR!  NO MORE�.

March 19 of this year marks the second anniversary of the night the bombs lit up the skies over Baghdad, to the cheers and blood-thirsty glee of the mainstream, corporate-controlled media, who covered the gore with glory, and the truth with the lies of their corporate masters.  There will be protests all over the country.  If there is not one convenient for you to attend, gather some friends together, make some signs, find a busy street corner, and let all who see you know of your opposition to these atrocities.  Many will be angry, but many, many more, who have been intimidated into silence by �manufactured consent� and threats to their civil liberties, will realize they are not alone in their revulsion at George W. Bush�s insane and sadistic imperialist adventures.

And if you are able to attend an Eyes Wide Open exhibit, I guarantee that it will provide you with the grief, the outrage, and the courage to stand up and speak up.

The following is a list of cities in which this exhibit will be held, with dates and contacts.  Please, if you are able, go, and see, and open your eyes.

February 11-13

St. Mary's University

San Antonio, TX

Contact Bill Wilkinson: 210-520-9316

February 15-17

Zilker Park Peace Grove

Austin, TX

Contact Jessica Arjet : 512-457-8115

February 28 - March 1

City Hall Plaza

Dallas, TX

Contact Stephen Betzen

March 5-6

Tuscon, AZ

Contact Melanie Emerson : 520-623-9141

March 9-10

San Diego, CA

Contact Christian Ramirez : 619-233-4114

March 12-20

Los Angeles Metro Region, CA

Contact La Quetta Shamblee : 626-791-1978 x133

March 22-24

Fresno, CA

Contact Myrna Martinez Nateras : 559-222-7678

March 25-27

San Francisco, CA

Contact Paula Stinson : 415-565-0201 x15

March 29-31

Sacramento, CA

Contact Cindy Fowler : 916-391-3132

April 3-4

Eugene, OR

Contact Susan Segall

April 5-7

Portland, OR

Contact Susan Segall

April 8-9

Tacoma, WA

Contact Susan Segall

April 10-13

Seattle, WA

Contact Susan Segall

The exhibit is being conducted by the American Friends Service Committee -- www.afsc.org.  For more information, contact Jonis Davis, Major Donor Fundraiser for the Central and Pacific Northwest Regions, at jdavis@afsc.org, or Marq Anderson, Advance Coordinator, at marqanderson@afsc.org.

Military members and their families who oppose the war and would like contacts and help can contact:

Veterans for Peace

www.veteransforpeace.org

email: VFP@igc.org

Norman R. "Bill" Williams, Vietnam Veteran

Bill@iabv.com