Member Spotlight

Exhibit Shows The Human Cost of War

“It was scary, and you just knew that the human cost of the war was only going to get worse and escalate.”

The speaker is Paul Vogel, who flew to Baghdad in November, 2003 to see his son Aaron, an Army reservist in Iraq at the time. Soon after Vogel’s return – on Christmas Day – two more men in his son’s reserve unit were killed in Iraq.

In the years since his visit, Vogel and his wife Pat have devoted much of their time to opposing the war, and Vogel has spoken publicly about Iraq at the Eyes Wide Open exhibit organized by the American Friends Service Committee (AFSC), which carries out service, development, social justice, and peace programs throughout the world..

In the exhibit, which was unveiled in Chicago in 2004, boots are tagged with the name, rank, age and home state of a soldier or Marine who has died in Iraq. The exhibit had 504 pairs of boots when it opened; by Memorial Day, 2007, that number had increased more than six times to 3,455 pairs of boots. Eyes Wide Open has been displayed in over 100 cities.

 “Having a personal stake in the war makes you acutely aware,” Vogel says. “My experience only intensified my feel that the whole thing had been a horrible mistake. Now, people here can understand more about what happened through the ‘Eyes Wide Open’ exhibit. These boots are symbols of men and women AND WOMEN who have died – and a great way to humanize what is going on.”

Vogel has spoken at the exhibit in Chicago, Milwaukee, and Washington, D.C., and his wife has also spoken at Eyes Wide Open. “By the time I spoke in D.C., my son was home,” he says, “I held up his actual boots.”

Vogel is all-too-familiar with those who misinterpret or distort the views of people like him who have opposed the war. “My wife and I are not against the military, we are against what this administration is doing,” he says. “This exhibit has opened up the door to people who wouldn’t necessarily be protesters. The encouraging thing is that more and more military families are starting to speak.”

More people, he and AFSC say, could also be witnessing this exhibit and its powerful message in the future. AFSC. Future plans for the exhibit, says AFSC Executive Director Michael McConnell, including presenting it in states around the country.

Illinois Migrant Council:
Bridging the Digital Divide

Access to computer technology is something millions of children in this country can take for granted – just not all children. That’s one reason why the Technology Learning Center in Cobden, Illinois -- a program of the Illinois Migrant Council -- is making such an impact on the lives of children.

Children like Mariza – a second-grader who came to the Center last year, and whose family is from Mexico. With support from a grant by the Illinois Department of Commerce and Community Affairs’ Eliminate the Digital Divide and resources through Community Shares of Illinois, the Center benefits 500 people a year.

Danielle Eicken, who worked as an after-school tutoring coordinator at the Center, and Jeri Kinser, director of the Center, both use the same words to describe what happens to children who receive one-on-one attention through the Center’s after-school program. They “blossom” – and develop confidence that they can not only learn, but excel.

“Mariza was always so determined,” Eicken says. “She had problems with reading at first, so we helped her get motivated to read by going to the Internet and finding websites that interested her. She really got involved with that, and interested in the technology part of it. After doing that for a while, we extended it to books.”

Ultimately, Eicken says, Mariza’s grades at school went up, and her social skills improved. Through the program, she was able to develop academic skills through a program called “Skills Tutor” that enables children to work on actual activities related to language, math and reading.

“Many students like Mariza don’t have resources for learning at home,” Eicken says. “We were able to help fill that gap – and before long, she was asking if she could help another student who needed help with her homework.”

You can learn more about the work of the Illinois Migrant Council by visitng them at www.illinoismigrant.org

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