Press Conference and Action by IVAW Eyes Wide Open: The Last Time exhibit

http://ivawsf.org/ivawsf-signifies-the-last-anniversary-of-the-iraq-war/#more-606

Members of Iraq Veterans Against the War and their allies will be laying out “Eyes Wide Open,” the American Friends Service Committee’s widely acclaimed exhibit on the human costs of war, for the last time Monday, March 19, 2012 on the plaza in front of San Francisco City Hall from 9am to 5pm.

The event will be an observance of the ninth year since the US invasion of Iraq. The exhibit includes combat boots representing the 481 Californians who died in the Iraq war, along with civilian shoes to represent the thousands upon thousands of Iraqi civilians that lost their lives. The exhibit will be up for one day only and will be permanently retired Monday evening.

“It is our duty to make sure that the larger public both remembers the costs already incurred and is aware of struggles that continue,” said Dottie Guy, a member of IVAW. “Hundreds of thousands of service members and veterans will be coming home carrying deep moral, mental and physical injuries incurred in the war. How are they going to heal? Right now a service member is committing suicide every 36 hours. The war is not over for us; it is just inside us now.”

The veterans and civilian supporters of IVAW have requested that the public join them on City Hall plaza at noon on Monday where a press conference will be held. The press conference will include a reading of names of those who have lost their lives in the war and speakers to include Guy, Scott Olsen from IVAW, Ryan Holleran; an active duty soldier from Fort Hood, and Marilyn Saner from Military Families Speak Out among others.