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The Eyes Wide Open Across Pennsylvania exhibit will be on campus from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Sept. 23 and 24 on the Quad. In case of rain, the exhibit will be displayed in the Marlo Room, Farinon College Center.
The impact of the Iraq War on Pennsylvania is the focus of the exhibit, which features over 175 pairs of combat boots memorializing U.S. soldiers from Pennsylvania who have died in the Iraq War. In addition, an Iraqi exhibit of 50 shoes, including those of children, and posters raise awareness of the large number of Iraqi civilian casualties that have resulted from the war.
The exhibit is made possible by the Lehigh Valley Peace Coalition and is being sponsored by the Students for Social Justice and the College Democrats. Student workers will assist with set up and break down of the exhibit and will be onsite to provide information about the exhibit.
Since the spring of 2006, Eyes Wide Open Across Pennsylvania has been traveling around the state in urban areas and small towns, bringing awareness to the human cost of the current war.
The American Friends Service Committee (AFSC), an international social justice organization, originally created Eyes Wide Open: The Human Cost of War to illustrate the lives lost in the war in Iraq. The national Eyes Wide Open exhibit, which first opened in Chicago with 500 pairs of boots in January 2004, was closed in May of 2007 as the death toll rose to over 3,000, making the exhibit too large to transport. AFSC is now concentrating on establishing state exhibits. The national death toll is now over 3,700 U.S. military casualties.
Eyes Wide Open Across PA is free and open to the public, although donations will be accepted. Further details about the exhibit can be found at http://www.afsc.org/eyes/.
Among the groups working on the exhibit in the Lehigh Valley Peace Coalition are Lehigh Valley Greens, the Lehigh Valley Friends Meeting of Quakers, the Peace Committee of the Unitarian Universalist Church of the Lehigh Valley, Pax Christi of the Lehigh Valley, Lehigh Valley Veterans for Peace, and the LEPOCO Peace Center.
On Sept. 25, the exhibit will move to Northampton Community College, where it will be on display from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. on the main campus quad. In case of rain, the exhibit will be moved to the Laub Lounge on the 2nd floor of the College Center.