EASTON, Pa.(www.lafayette.edu), September 28, 2007 — Katherine Dranoff ’09 (Bala Cynwyd, Pa.) is majoring in government and law. She currently serves as president of College Democrats. On Sept. 23-24, the Democrats co-sponsored the Eyes Wide Open exhibit, which was displayed on the Quad. The following is a firsthand account of Dranoff’s impressions of the exhibit.

Co-sponsoring the Eyes Wide Open exhibit with Lafayette’s Students for Social Justice was something College Democrats was proud to do. We at College Democrats feel that active engagement in current events is vitally important in order to fulfill social responsibility.

The exhibit, brought by the Lehigh Valley Peace Coalition, included a display of soldiers’ boots which represented the 175 fallen from the state of Pennsylvania. The exhibit is intended to memorialize the 3,800 soldiers who have died. However, the memorial is not limited to United States soldiers. In fact, alongside soldiers’ boots there were 50 pairs of shoes representing Iraqi civilian loss of life.

The interactive quality of the exhibit can be described as confrontational, as it produces a range of reactions. The importance of the exhibit lies in the shoes’ symbolic power to take statistics and give them individual meaning, which as powerful as it is, is only infinitesimally representative of the meaning behind the sacrifice of life that has occurred.

This memorial leaves me with feelings of frustration and discomfort. I felt that it was important to examine these reactions more closely in order to understand where they come from. As the war continues into its fifth year, many times it is difficult to keep this issue in the forefront of my mind considering the demands of everyday life. I stay engaged through academic pursuits regarding international affairs and have been actively engaged in keeping up with current events. Still, the impact of these deaths can be lost.

It is entirely reasonable to say that the Iraq War has made little direct impact on my life, in comparison to the families that have lost loved ones, but it is crucial to fight the urge to disengage and disregard. Respect through acknowledgment and reflection on the cost of war makes these issues salient in both the mind and the heart. Further, I feel that acknowledging and respecting the sacrifices made by persons in one’s peer group is a strong way to actively express support.