Afghanistan Eight Years of War

Eyes Wide Open Exhibit:  Afghanistan

We are bombarded daily with numbers quantifying almost everything going on in the world. With so many numbers buzzing around the airwaves and print media, few people pause to contemplate them, even when the numbers tell a tragic story of human loss. The exhibit consists of a pair of empty combat boots for each U.S. military casualty in the Afghanistan war.  Civilian shoes reflect a small representation the innocent citizens of Afghanistan killed in this conflict.

 

Each of these boots has a story. These are people who lived and breathed and lost their lives too soon.

 

To open the public eye to the true costs of the Afghanistan War, we use empty combat boots and civilian shoes as a tangible, visual representation of human loss. When people can walk in the midst of empty shoes and read the names, ages, and hometowns of those who have been killed, the war comes home to them in a powerful way.

 

War is brutal, many people die, and families are forever changed because of it. Through EWO, we mourn the terrible consequences of war and ask people to consider what the exhibit means.

 

The exhibit seeks to create a safe space where people of differing opinions and perspectives about the war can come together to remember those who have died.

 

Military Families Speak Out is an organization of people opposed to the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan who have relatives or loved ones who are currently in the military or who have served in the military since the fall of 2001. Formed by two families in November of 2002, our members now span the United States, and countries around the world. Our membership currently includes over 4,000 military families, with new families joining daily.

As people with family members and loved ones in the military, we know that it is our loved ones who are, or have been, or will be on the battlefront. It is our loved ones who are at risk, who have been injured or who have died as a result of these wars. It is our loved ones who are returning scarred from their experiences, who are suffering from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). We say:

Support Our Troops
Bring Them Home Now!!! and
Take Care of Them When They Get Here

 

 

 

The American Friends Service Committee is a practical expression of the faith of the Religious Society of Friends (Quakers). Committed to the principles of nonviolence and justice, it seeks in its work and witness to draw on the transforming power of love, human and divine.

 

The American Friends Service Committee carries out service, development, social justice, and peace programs throughout the world. We nurture the faith that conflicts can be resolved nonviolently, that enmity can be transformed into friendship, strife into cooperation, poverty into well-being, and injustice into dignity and participation. We believe that ultimately goodness can prevail over evil, and oppression in all its many forms can give way.