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Peace by Pieces
Tia Steele, whose stepson was killed in Iraq, at the "Eyes Wide Open" exhibit in Baltimore. "We can do something and we are doing something," she says.
(Katherine Frey For The Washington Post)
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If we don't fight the Enemy in Iraq, will we someday fight him here?
Isn't it a good thing that Saddam Hussein is toppled and facing trial?
If we "cut and run" and do not "stay the course," will the fallen have died in vain?
Empty Boots on the Ground
On a recent Saturday, Tia Steele is contemplating a field of black boots in Baltimore. The pairs are arranged in neat ranks like a negative image of the white crosses in Arlington Cemetery. One pair for each of 1,895 dead soldiers and Marines by this point in the war.
It's the "Eyes Wide Open" exhibit arranged by the American Friends Service Committee at Johns Hopkins University. The exhibit has toured 65 cities since January 2004, when there were only 504 pairs of boots, and has been seen by more than 500,000 people, organizers say. About 6,000 people attended in Baltimore.
The boots are symbolic, purchased from surplus, not worn by the honored dead, but on a table is a special display of boots donated by families.
Next to a pair worn by Pvt. Robert Frantz are two photographs. One shows him and his smiling recruiter, the other shows his tombstone.
Thick-soled and toe-scuffed are the boots of Spec. Casey Sheehan, posthumously famous son of Mother Cindy. The leather is stamped "Made in the U.S.A."
And there are the boots of Lance Cpl. David Branning, Tia Steele's stepson.
A woman approaches shyly. In her hand is an official paper: "Report of Casualty." It's what Yvonne Green has now instead of her daughter. It says Spec. Toccara Green, 23, of Rosedale, Md., was killed in action in the "War on Terrorism/Operation Iraqi Freedom." The death is so recent that boots for her are being added only today.
Steele embraces Green. Two mothers with wet eyes.
This is the feeling side of the peace movement. Steele, 56, a Baltimore research psychologist, believes minds are changed not by information as much as by experience. It's what happened to her.
