The Wake

The number of empty civilian shoes was overwhelming, but my eyes were drawn to a tiny pair of worn-out snow boots with an attached nametag. A little girl playfully jumped over them, knocking them over. As she was carefully putting them back in place, I noticed that her shoes were about the same size. I stood speechless, ashamed more than ever of the Iraq war and tried to fight the tears.

Shoes lined the “Path of Remembrance,” representing the lives of the thousands of Iraqi civilians who have been killed in the war so far. The path was part of the Eyes Wide Open exhibit on the lawn outside the College of St. Catherine in St. Paul.

Photos of some civilian casualties accompanied the shoes — mostly mothers with their children. Signs posted next to the path say the shoes represent only a fraction of the Iraqi civilian casualties. There is no official count, but a John Hopkins University study estimates that by September 2004 at least 100,000 Iraqis had died as a result of the war and occupation. The most common cause of death was aerial bombardment by coalition forces. Women and children account for the majority of civilian deaths in Iraq.

Rows of U.S. soldiers’ combat boots also extended across the lawn with a chilling resemblance to a graveyard. The boots, arranged by state, had tags with the soldier’s name, age, rank and state of origin. The number of boots in the exhibit keeps growing with the number of fatalities. When the exhibit opened in Chicago in January 2004, there were 504 pairs. Now the boots total 1,933 pairs.

Most of the combat boots had something little tied to them in remembrance of the soldier, such as a prom photo, a concert ticket stub or buttons that read, “peace is patriotic” or “no one died when Clinton lied.” Tags on the boots showed that many soldiers were teenagers when they died.

The American Friends Service Committee (AFSC), a Quaker organization based in Chicago created the exhibit. It began in March 2004 and since then has traveled to more than 50 cities. The AFSC wanted to show the stark realities of war and its physical, emotional and psychological toll.

Jeanette Raymond coordinated the exhibit’s arrival in Minnesota. She says it was important for the exhibit to come because it highlights the human cost of war. “War is not an abstract thing, it has a real cost that is hidden from us,” Raymond says.

Raymond says the exhibit creates a welcoming environment for public mourning and dialogue. Two military families came to the exhibit in St. Paul on the opening day, one was for the war and one was against. But Raymond says that it is supposed to be a place where anyone is welcome and anyone can discuss. Fall is an excellent time for the exhibit because students can come and be able to consider the human cost of war.