Volunteers set up Iraq Body Count Exhibit
Michael Niemann, 26.04.2008 12:08
Part of the SOU campus was covered in flags to commemorate the senseless deaths of the Iraq war.
IBCE on the SOU campus
IBCE on the SOU campus
IBCE on the SOU campus
IBCE on the SOU campus
IBCE on the SOU campus
A large number of volunteers showed up bright and early on Saturday, April 26, to set up the Iraq Body Count Exhibit (IBCE) on a section of the SOU campus along Siskiyou Blvd. The exhibit is intended to raise awareness about the human cost of the war and consists of 125,000 small flags each representing five deaths, both Iraqi and American.
If the number 625,000 deaths seems a lot higher from what you have heard before, don't be surprised. From the very beginning of the war, the Defense Department has refused to count civilian casualties and so there were no clear numbers. Different organizations published number based on news reports and other data points but, as Rudy Dietz, a national coordinator for IBCE, explained, this number of deaths is derived from a study published in the medical journal The Lancet and represents the best estimate of deaths caused by the Iraq war.
The IBCE exhibit in Ashland is the ninth installation and previous exhibits have taken place in Washington, Oregon, California and Colorado. Three Ashland organizations, SOU's Students for Truth, the Peace House and the Ashland Quaker Meeting, are the local sponsors.
Seeing the volunteers turn the green lawn into a sea of white (Iraqi victims) and red (American victims) flag was a stirring experience. As the flags fluttered in the wind, images of cemeteries came to mind and the vastness of the number drove home the senselessness of this war and the need to end it urgently.
According to Dietz, ICBE plans to install the exhibit on the Mall in Washington, DC this fall and use one flag for each death. One can only hope that 625,000 flags will motivate Congress to take action to bring this war to an end.
Make sure to visit the exhibit. It will remain up until Saturday, May 3, when volunteers are needed to take the flags down again.
Iraq Body Count Exhibit webpage
http://iraqbodycountexhibit.org/
e-mail:: mniemann2@gmail.com
Homepage:: http://michael-niemann.com
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Inspired poetry from exhibit 28.04.2008 - 17:03 White flags. Scarlet flags. Row after quiet row Filling the wide green lawns. Do you hear the bombs? Row after quiet row. Do you see the splintered bodies turning red? Do you hear the bombs? Startled souls streaming Home. Do you see the splintered bodies turning red? Trailing blessings through the silent smoke. Startled souls streaming Home. Forgiveness floating/winged love rising Trailing blessings through the silent smoke. Transformation. Revelation. Forgiveness floating/winged love rising. Open your eyes. Transformation. Revelation. Filling the wide green lawns. Open your eyes. White flags. Scarlet flags. Weep. Anonymous> |