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Eyes Wide Open Across Pennsylvania

Spring 2008

Haverford College- April 8

Giving talk to class at Haverford College Photo Nawal Rajeh

Haverford is a small Liberal Arts College of around 1,500 students, founded by Quakers, in the quiet town of Haverford PA.   The Eyes Wide Open display was set up on “Founders Green”, a large lawn in front of Founders Building that was central to campus.  All students in the course of a day pass Founders Green. 

The boots were set up early in the morning by student organizers and several workers from the grounds crew.  The air was somber and respectful.  One professor brought her class around noon and the names of the U.S. soldiers and Iraqis were read aloud.  At the end of the day, students organized a small discussion that brought a nice group together to reflect and discuss their feelings on the exhibit.

Villanova College- April 9
Villanova, though located only miles from Haverford, is a University of almost 10,000 students.  The school has a very large ROTC program on campus.  This is the third year that Villanovans for Peace, a student group, has brought the exhibit to campus.  The boots were displayed on a main walkway on campus that is in between all the areas for dining and a very busy passage-way from buildings.  The boots were placed all around, keeping the walkways clear but definitely making the boots noticeable.  Hundreds of students walked passed the boots, some seemingly not noticing.  Professors and concerned students visited the table set up by the student organizers and signed postcards to be sent to Congress and showed their appreciation for the visibility of the exhibit.

Photo album Haverford and Villanova

Bradford Eyes Wide Open Veterans Square. Picture by Scilla Wahrhaftig

5th District of Pennsylvania -
The 5th District of PA is the second largest Congressional District in the country, larger than Rhode Island. Not an easy area to organize. However the 5th District Peace Project, through the leadership of Mary Ann Caton, organized a four site tour of Eyes Wide Open in one week in April 2008. Three sites were on University campuses – Titusville University of Pittsburgh, Penn State at Clarion and Penn State at Dubois and in Bradford it was held at Veterans Square. An amazing accomplishment!

The 5th District is not only the biggest in Pennsylvania but it also one of the most conservative, predominately Republican and with many for the war, perceiving people who want the war to end as dangerous hippies. Even before the exhibit arrived in the area hate messages had been received by one of the organizers. It takes courage to organize for peace in this area.

As we always do before each exhibit we trained a group of volunteers to be listeners to take the time and opportunity to listen to the views of those attending the exhibit.

Titusville Eyes Wide Open Photo Scilla Wahrhaftig

Titusville - Monday April 14th:
This beautiful little campus, with 500 students, was a lovely setting for the exhibit. The boots were arranged in a spiral around the central green. Among the volunteers, student and local community people, who spent the day working on the exhibit was a couple from Michigan who had come especially to help.

With the central locality all students on campus went by the boots at some time during the day, many stopping to read names and messages. The closing in the evening was especially moving for many of us. The names of the all the Pennsylvanian losses were read to the tolling of the campus bell, followed by singing of Amazing Grace and taps played from the steps of the library. It was especially hard for one mother whose son has been in Iraq three times, was supposed to get out in the next few months, and has been stopped-lossed. He will be going over again in the fall.

We had been told there would be a counter protest from pro-war forces and the Area Gathering of Eagles, and indeed early in the day one protester with a large American flag marched around the exhibit. Our listeners attempted to talk to him, but he was only interested in condemning the exhibit. About six people from the Gathering of Eagles appeared for the closing, keeping the entrance of the area and holding signs saying “Support our troops” and, “Our military is volunteer.”

Eyes Wide Open at Clarion University Picture by Paul Wahrhaftig

Clarion -Wednesday April 16th:
The exhibit at Penn state at Clarion was entirely student organized. At the last moment the students realized that Bill Clinton would be speaking on campus in the building right next to where the boots were displayed. We were a little concerned that people would not think we brought the exhibit because Bill Clinton was speaking. The line for the Clinton talk went right through the exhibit with the result that over 800 people were made aware of the cost of the war. Many stopped and spent time with the boots after the talk.

The different groups protesting became a little confusing with the Young Republicans demonstrating the Clinton talk. Our volunteer organizer had reserved the whole space for the exhibit and so the Republicans were asked to move. The Obama people were also there with their signs. At the gate was a small pro-war contingency, and finally the National Guard appeared and set up a recruiting tent.

As we listened to the people at the exhibit it became clear that the campus draws from most of Western PA and many people knew the soldiers who had died. They were family members, neighbors or school mates. We added a lot of new messages to the boots. Two stories come to mind. One was Rob McGinnis from Knox who school mates talked about as being pretty wild as a kid; he went into the army and settled down. He was killed when he threw himself onto a grenade to save his buddies. The second was a soldier who was granted to leave to come home after he heard his mother had died and was killed on the way to her funeral leaving his dad bereft. The human cost of the war.

Eyes Wide Open Penn State at Dubois Photo Scilla Wahrhaftig

Dubois - Friday April 18th:
Dubois is a tiny Penn State campus with around 1,000 students many of whom take classes through the internet. It was laid out in on one of the central lawns and was viewed by most of the students on campus as well as parents and staff coming to honors night.

The exhibit was also organized by students from the university who did a wonderful job of not only bringing it to Dubois, getting the press out to cover the event, but also encouraging one of the local Democratic candidates for United States House of Representatives in the 5th Congressional District to come by in the evening and stay for the reading of the names.

It was also clear that many of the students knew people who had been killed, so many of the losses from Pennsylvania come from small towns, such as Dubois. One of the student volunteers came to help set up to show her gratitude to a Pittsburgh soldier who had died protecting her son’s life.

Eyes Wide Open at Veterans Square Bradford Photo Paul Wahrhaftig

Bradford- Sunday April 20th:
The Bradford exhibit was organized by the local 5th District Peace group and was held at Veterans Square in the center of town. A good number of town folk had seen the article and ad in the paper, the day before, announcing the exhibit and came to see the boots.

A young Iraq Veteran spent some time talking to our listeners about his experience in Iraq. He joined us for the reading of the names and was deeply moved by not only the US Soldiers but also the Iraqis. The Iraqi names were read by an Iraqi couple. After the reading of the names the volunteers and  Iraq Vet were able to share with the couple their concern for the Iraqi people and the pain and anguish they are going through.

One of our volunteer listener expressed her appreciation for the chance to listen. She commented that so often she is trying to get her point across and the opportunity to hear other views was very valuable to her.

Photo Album 5th district

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