Tread lightly on the things of earth

Here’s what the Eyes Wide Open exhibit looked like in Memphis today, Sunday, January 30, 2005. (Click each thumbnail to see full-size image.)

I stood in the midst of the exhibit in the windy cold, teeth chattering, nose running, scanning my eyes up and down Mulberry Street where Martin died. I nearly wept: Each pair of combat boots represents — and bears the nametag of — a U.S. soldier killed in Iraq. And each of the 1,000 pairs of shoes represents 16+ Iraqis killed — more than a third of whom, I statistically infer, were children under age 15.

I keep thinking about this passage, especially its last paragraph:

If anyone boasts, “I love God,” and goes right on hating his brother or sister, thinking nothing of it, he is a liar. If he won’t love the person he can see, how can he love the God he can’t see? The command we have from Christ is blunt: Loving God includes loving people. You’ve got to love both.

I think we’re busted.

[2005-03-19 update: Further Eyes Wide Open thoughts in March 12 entry Maker monologue, which was triggered by being asked to contribute to a Weekend America radio program on the subject.]

[announcement below originally published Saturday, 2005-01-15 at 02:14 pm]

My adopted faith community, Memphis Friends, is co-sponsoring the American Friends Service Committee’s Eyes Wide Open exhibit at the National Civil Rights Museum in Memphis, TN on January 28-30, 2005 (Friday-Sunday), 10:00 AM - 6:00 PM daily.

Eyes Wide Open is a multimedia journey through the words, images and sounds of the Iraqi war. Visitors move through a vivid memorial to the war’s soldier and civilian victims, a searing exposure of the statements told to the U.S. public to justify the war, a compelling outline of what the war is costing us at home, and finally to an interactive, easy way to contribute their voices to changing our country’s course toward peace. …

The exhibit, which opened with just 500 pairs of boots at the start of the war, features 1300+ pairs of combat boots bearing the nametags of fallen U.S. soldiers and a 24-foot Wall of Remembrance memorializing the names of Iraqi civilians killed during the war plus another 1,000 pairs of shoes representing 1/16th of the Iraqi people killed in the war. …

As part of its national tour, [the exhibit] has traveled to over 40 cities including the Capitol Lawn in Washington D.C. on Memorial Day, Philadelphia during the 4th of July Weekend, Boston and New York during the Democratic and Republican conventions. It will continue to travel across the country through March 19, 2005 — the two year anniversary of the start of the Iraq war — with the number of names and shoes growing as the death toll continues to rise.

For more details, including volunteering info, check out the full brochure (PDF, 452KB), or visit sponsors

• American Friends Service Committee (AFSC)
• Gandhi Institute for Nonviolence
• Memphis Friends Meeting (Religious Society of Friends)
• Mid-South Peace & Justice Center
• National Civil Rights Museum
• PaxChristi
  
  

Eyes Wide Open:
The Human Cost of War in Iraq
BEYOND FEAR — TOWARDS HOPE

January 28-30, 2005
Exhibit open daily: 10:00 am — 6:00 pm

National Civil Rights Museum (map)
450 Mulberry Street
Memphis, TN 38103