It is a harrowing sight, not easily forgotten: Walking among the too many empty pairs of boots laid out in formation like so many toy soldiers in a row. Muffled sniffling, quiet sobs, and hushed whispers break the silence. Each pair, tagged with a name, represents an American soldier killed in Iraq. When "Eyes Wide Open," the American Friends Service Committee's exhibit on the human cost of the Iraq war was unveiled in January of last year, 534 pairs of boots were laid like tombstones atop Chicago's Federal Plaza. By the time this mobile war memorial reached Brooklyn's Prospect Park on the morning of this past October 16, the number of pairs of boots had grown to 1970. (Six more pairs of boots were added to the exhibit by the end of the day.)

Alongside the boots are hundreds of pairs of shoes representing the deaths of Iraqi civilians and a wall of remembrance with more than 11,000 of their names. Life-size photos of Iraqis surround the empty boots and shoes.

To date, "Eyes Wide Open" has traveled to more than 70 sites in 25 states. Many boots are now littered with photos, baby pictures, flowers, letters, teddy bears...even a small worn baby blanket, left by loved ones, friends, comrades in arms, and those looking for some common healing release—of both anger and grief. A grief made visible by these never to-be-worn-again representations of America's lost, but not forgotten young servicemen and servicewomen.

What has become an anonymous numbering in the papers, another sound bite on TV, a never-to-be-shown public accounting of the almost daily deaths in Iraq, is viscerally conveyed by "Eyes Wide Open." It is not to be missed.