Empty Boots: Exhibit Honors N.C. War Dead
By Mary Giunca, Winston-Salem Journal, N.C.
Aug. 1–Morning light streams into the old church, illuminating the 86 pairs of combat boots that line the pews. They sit in silent testimony, one pair for each soldier from North Carolina who has been killed in the Iraq war.
Some of the boots have mud splatters and were contributed by soldiers who served overseas or by the families of those who died.
Others are brand new.
Each pair carries the tag of a soldier: Sgt. Monta Ruth, 26, Winston-Salem … Spc. Prince K. Teewia, 27, Durham … Staff Sgt. Misael Martinez, 24, Chapel Hill …
The boots are part of the exhibit “Eyes Wide Open,” which is at Lloyd Presbyterian Church in downtown Winston-Salem this week. The traveling exhibit will end Saturday and is sponsored by the American Friends Service Committee. The organization was founded by Quakers in 1917 and works to promote peace and social justice.
The church was one of the sponsors of another such exhibit in Winston-Salem in January.
“The purpose of the exhibit is for people to have a deeper understanding of the realities of the Iraq war, what it means for North Carolinians in terms of the human cost and the financial,” said Debra Dillard, who works with the AFSC.
The exhibit began in March 2004 as a national exhibit in Chicago, Dillard said. Back then, 500 soldiers across the country had died in the war, she said. By Memorial Day weekend, when the national show closed in Chicago, the death toll across the country had risen to 3,400.
As of yesterday, 3,653 people have died in the war, Dillard said.
Different states have adapted the national exhibit to tell the stories of those closer to home, she said.
Lloyd Presbyterian Church was chosen as the setting for the exhibit, she said, because it was founded in the 1870s as part of a national movement to establish black churches in the South. The church has a history of supporting political and social causes.
The exhibit was also timed to coincide with the National Black Theatre Festival, Dillard said, which brings thousands of people into downtown. One of the church’s members was involved in the theater festival and suggested bringing it there.
Josh Deaton, a volunteer with the exhibit, said that the beauty of the exhibit is its simplicity.
“The war is so far removed from us here,” Deaton said, “many of us don’t feel its effects.”
Visitors are invited to write their reflections in a book after viewing the exhibit.
One recent guest from Winston-Salem wrote: “Each name, each hometown creates a connection–”He lived near the beach, I wonder if he ate at the great BBQ place on Main Street” — and a sense of personal loss.”
— Mary Giunca can be reached at 727-4089 or at mgiunca@wsjournal.com.
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If you go
The exhibit “Eyes Wide Open,” will be at Lloyd Presbyterian Church, 748 Chestnut St., through Saturday. The exhibit is open from 9 a.m. to 7 p.m.
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