les yeux ouvertes.

last week i helped set up an exhibit called eyes wide open. it consisted of about 100 pairs of combat boots for each american soldier from oregon who has died, several hardhats commemorating oregon contractors who have died, a long trellis of thousands of prayer flags each representing one american soldier who has died, and several hundred shoes greatly under representing the loss of iraqi civilians. i think it was a rather impactful visual representation of the human cost of the war thus far. i was especially affected when laying out children's' shoes that have iraqi names and ages as young as 6 months printed on them. the organization sponsoring the traveling exhibit was in iraq before the initial bombing that was only supposed to hit military targets but actually killed thousands of civilians. they collected some of their names from the morgues around baghdad after the first onset of attacks. hopefully the exhibit helps to promote discussions about the war, helps people visualize the loss, promotes peace and above all, honors those who have lost their lives.