Boots on the ground: exhibit displays cost of war to Michigan

By Jon Stonehouse
Managing Editor

The lawn of Western Michigan University’s Miller Plaza looked more like a cemetery Wednesday as the combat boots of fallen servicemen and women from Michigan were lined in rows that resembled tombstones.

Jo Wei Looi/Western Herald | Combat boots were poised in neat rows at Western Michigan University’s Miller Plaza to memorialize and honor fallen soldiers from the American wars being fought in Afghanistan and Iraq.

Searching the rows was Sheri Goode, mother of the late Cpl. Jordan Goode, an Army Paratrooper of the 82nd Airborne Division. With her was her granddaughter, 4-year-old Amirah, who knelt beside her father Jordan’s boots as grandmother Sheri took a photograph.

“It’s to spotlight the human cost of war,” said Jake Huizenga, treasurer and media liaison for the Kalamazoo Peace Center.

Also on display March 30 at the Bernhard Center, the exhibit titled “Eyes Wide Open: The Cost of War to Michigan” included more than 170 pairs of boots of servicemen and women that lost their lives in the Iraq and Afghanistan Wars.

Posters accompanying the exhibit cited a total monetary cost of $226 billion to U.S. taxpayers for the War in Afghanistan, $6.1 billion to Michigan taxpayers alone, and a human cost of 158 servicemen and women from Michigan that lost their lives in Iraq and 25 servicemen in Afghanistan.

Presented by the American Friends Service Committee and the Kalamazoo Peace Center, the exhibit Wednesday was among many setup in other states by the AFSC that aim to question the justifications of the wars, which the organizations oppose.

This week marks the 11th time the exhibit has been displayed in Michigan.

Huizenga said he saw some harassment from those passing by due to the anti-war nature of the exhibit.

“The Peace Center is about promoting peace,” he said. “We’re inherently anti-war because it’s the opposite.”

Among many pamphlets available, some stressed the organization’s firm belief of supporting troops yet denouncing war and violence.

“I support my troops, but not this war,” said Christina Confer, a senior studying secondary education and Spanish.

“I think some people mistake being against the war as unpatriotic.”

Some may have found it hard to call Confer unpatriotic that day. Earlier in the day she saw a woman crying next to a pair of what appeared to be her husband’s boots, and stopped to console the woman.

“I’m really grateful to my troops,” Confer said. “I just wanted to show my appreciation.”

Confer said she was so moved by the woman and the exhibit that she made a special contribution of her own.

“I went and bought two-dozen carnations, and it’s saddening it wasn’t enough [to fill all the boots],” she said.

Cpl. Jordan’s boots were among those decorated by a carnation in Sheri Goode’s photograph.

With tears in her eyes, Sheri said she appreciated the memorial’s honoring of her son.

“Anything that honors the sacrifice these guys made,” she said. “I just don’t want people to forget.”

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Posted by heraldstaff on Apr 1 2010. Filed under News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry

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