By JANET COOK
News staff writer
May 23, 2007

The sloping lawn at the library’s Georgiana Smith Park will host a sobering exhibit on the Iraq war Friday and Saturday.

“Eyes Wide Open: An exhibition on the human cost of the Iraq war” is sponsored by the American Friends Service Committee, Rural Organizing Project, Military Families Speak Out and Veterans for Peace Chapter 72.

It features a pair of black combat boots for each Oregon soldier killed in Iraq with their name, age and hometown. In some cases, a soldier’s actual combat boots have been donated by family for the display.

To date, more than 80 service men and women from Oregon have been killed since the war’s start in March 2003.

In addition, the two-day exhibit includes a memorial to Iraqi civilians killed in the war — estimates range from 100,000 to 600,000 — represented by 100 pairs of shoes with names of Iraqis who have died. Accompanying panels describe the impact of the war on Iraqis.

The exhibit also includes videos from Military Families Speak Out, information about the financial cost of the war to the state of Oregon and to individual counties and other interactive displays.

The exhibit will close Saturday at 3 p.m. with trumpeter Kate Brownback playing “Taps” and a reading of the names of Oregon military members killed in the war.

“The thing I want people to understand is there are two parts to the exhibit,” said Jeff Hunter, who is taking the exhibit to dozens of cities and towns in Oregon this summer on behalf of AFSC. “The first part is a memorial to soldiers from Oregon killed in Iraq. The memorial is completely non-political. We all agree that these were good people with good hearts going over there with good intentions.

“The second part deals with the human and economic costs of the war — specifically to the people of Oregon and the people of Iraq.” Hunter said showing people how much money has come out of the state and Hood River County specifically allows people to “imagine what could have been done with that money to promote peace worldwide and to benefit the cities of Oregon.”

The exhibit is an offshoot of the national “Eyes Wide Open” exhibit that has traveled the country since 2004. With nearly 3,500 military dead since the start of the war — and the number rising daily — that exhibit has become too cumbersome to continue, according to Hunter, so the AFSC and co-sponsors are continuing the exhibit in individual states.

“I’m doing this because I think this makes a difference,” Hunter said. “I think it actually changes hearts and minds.”