Yesterday Heather and I went to see Eyes Wide Open at the Civic Center. It's an exhibition on the human cost of the Iraq War, featuring a pair of boots for each U.S. military casualty. I went expecting symbols - boots representing the fifteen hundred dead soldiers and lines of shoes representing the dead in Iraq. I was prepared for symbols.

But I wasn't prepared to hear Karen Meredith talk about her son, Lt. Ken Ballard, who was killed in Najaf just a few days before his scheduled return. I wasn't prepared to hear her talk about how she will never have any grandchildren thanks to this war, or listen to her voice quiver when she said "my only son" before reading his name, lost in a list of hundreds others, all taken before their time.

It's so easy to get lost in the politics and bullshit. We laugh at the Daily Show and bide our time until 2008. Meanwhile, people are dying in the mess we made. The Eyes Wide Shut exhibition adds more boots every day. And no matter your political affiliation, perhaps we can all agree that each pair is another pair too many.

More in the Eyes Wide Open set. »

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