In its depiction of the human toll of the ongoing Iraq War, the American Friends Service Committee’s “Eyes Wide Open” exhibition ranks among the most profound.


The traveling memorial that visits Franklin & Marshall College next weekend consists of an ever-increasing number of combat boots with name plates memorializing each soldier killed in the Iraq War.


As at the Vietnam Memorial, friends and family members leave mementos such as photographs, baseball caps, flowers, T-shirts, books, identification tags, American flags, albums and other personal objects to remind others of the lives that the soldiers lived.


“That is probably what is the most touching of all, to see the pictures, to realize that these young men and women are gone because of the Iraq War,” said Erin Polley, project assistant for the AFSC.


In January 2004, when “Eyes Wide Open” first opened in Chicago, there were 500 pairs of soldiers’ boots.


“Right now that number stands at 1,896. By the time the (F&M) exhibit starts, it will probably be more. That is what people need to see,” said Matthew Smucker of the Lancaster Coalition for Peace and Justice, one of several local sponsors of the exhibition.


The boots will be arranged by state and then in alphabetical order on Hartman Green in the center of the F&M campus off College Avenue. Nearly 100 of the deceased soldiers were Pennsylvanians.


The exhibition opens at noon Friday with a ceremony featuring speakers from F&M and Elizabethtown College, and representatives of Lancaster Friends Meeting and the AFSC. At 1 p.m. the names of each fallen soldier will be read and, at dusk, a candlelight vigil will further honor the men and women who gave their lives in Iraq.


The names will be read again at 1 p.m. Sunday, followed by a concluding interfaith prayer service on Hartman Green at 3 p.m.




Opening eyes wider




At F&M, the statement made by the boots memorial will be amplified by art, film and forum presentations.


Saturday will bring a “Human Cost of War Day” speakers’ forum at noon featuring representatives from the AFSC, Gold Star Mothers for Peace and Veterans for Peace.


A symposium on “Principled Resistance: Religion and War in the Modern Era” will take place at 3 p.m. Saturday in the Booth Ferris Room.


A two-day multimedia display will further explore the history, cost and consequences of the war. It includes objects donated by families of the soldiers, along with the media presentations “Arlington West” and “Waging Peace” and a quilt exhibition titled “Rehumanize Us.”


Among the artists whose work complements the exhibit are Nathan Ratcliffe, 23, of Dr. Stephen and Anita Ratcliffe of Lancaster. Ratcliffe is currently studying art in Florence, Italy, so he cannot personally participate. But his art speaks eloquently on his behalf. Foremost is a 20-by-12-foot mural on display at the stairway entrance to the lower level of the Phillips Museum of Art.


Ratcliffe collaborated on the mural with fellow Washington University graduate Jefferson Stewart to create the graphic images that news footage has shown of the Iraq War: bombed-out cities, bandaged and crying children, people pleadingly holding out their hands for food, military tanks rolling through narrow village streets, military vehicles on fire, and prisoners being tortured.




Not anti-American




“This piece is not meant to be anti-soldier or anti-American in any way,” Ratcliffe said. “It is more complicated than any single issue.”


Ratcliffe also has three other pieces on display, all of which examine the inhumanity of sanctions against Iraq. In researching the situation, Ratcliffe was surprised to learn what items were banned for sale in Iraq — bandages, toothpaste, children’s clothing, pingpong balls and toys. His paintings include images of some of these objects, with one showing several of the items tenderly wrapped in gauze bandages and a triptych of a bandaged doll, crayons with gauze, and a doll with paints.


Tom Block’s complementary “Human Rights Painting Project” is presented in conjunction with Amnesty International and runs from Sept. 15-Oct. 23 in the Curriculum Gallery.


Block, a native of Bethesda, Md., whose work has been featured in galleries throughout the United States, Spain and Portugal, has created a series of portraits depicting the sufferings of a number of worldwide groups in order to help raise awareness for the human-rights advocacy group, Amnesty International. His subjects range from an Albanian refugee to the Dali Lama to an Equatorial Guinean.


As Block notes, the paintings bring together people’s best and worst impulses. “We are left with the uncomfortable question of which group is more typical of our human race and which the exception.”


“This is an example of art making a social statement and represents a new type of memorial that is not in one stationary place,” said Eliza Jane Reilly, director of F&M’s Center for Liberal Arts and Society.




Support is strong




F&M’s expanded mounting of the AFSC’s “Eyes Wide Open” exhibition was made possible by a number of local sponsors: the Lancaster Coalition for Peace and Justice, the Lancaster Monthly Meeting of the Religious Society of Friends (Quakers), the Lancaster Interchurch Peace Witness, the F&M chapter of Amnesty International, Women in Black, and F&M’s art, art history and anthropology departments, Phillips Museum and the Center for Liberal Arts and Society. Lancaster Friends Bob Lowing, a retired Millersville University art professor, and Charles Holzinger, a retired F&M anthropology professor, also were instrumental in bringing the exhibition to Lancaster.


Polley said that the AFSC committee plans to continue touring the exhibition as long as possible. But its increasing size makes it more and more challenging to transport. It has been to Washington, D.C.; Philadelphia; Boston; New York City; Baltimore; Orlando and some 60 other cities.


“Since it has become so large, we need to show it in places that have enough space,” said Polley, adding that another 3,000 pairs of shoes represent the Iraqi civilians who have died in Iraq.


The exact number of civilians killed in the Iraq War is not known, Polley said, but estimates suggest the total is about 100,000.


As a Quaker organization, the AFSC promotes a philosophy of peace and nonviolence. Polley said AFSC is finding the number of people who share that view is growing. As a liberal arts college, Franklin & Marshall emphasizes open views on various issues. The exhibition plays a role in several aspects of the curriculum, including history, ethics, political science, anthropology and art . But it is more than that, Lowing said.


“It is intended to reach out to the entire community. As the name of the exhibition implies, it is with eyes wide open that we view a symbol of the loss of life in Iraq.”


The Phillips Museum hours are 11:30 a.m.-4:30 p.m. Tuesday-Friday and 12:30-4:30 p.m. weekends. Admission is free. For more information, visit the Web site www.afsc.org/eyes/about-the... or call F&M at 358-4550.