Eyes Wide Open In Austin

The Eyes Wide Open Memorial (http://www.afsc.org/eyes/) made its way to Austin this week. It is the memorial that shoes a pair of combat boots for everyone who has died in Iraq. I'm not sure how I feel about this bunch. I have my own mis-givings about Iraq, but I don't like the "peace" crowd very much. I'm an Iraq veteran and Army-proud, and I just don't like the peace at any cost line of thinking. I think we right in Afghanistan, and I think the world probably should have confronted Saddam's Iraq. But, I'm not too sure about the way Iraq is unfolding. The recent elections have given me a little bit of hope though. Some of my soldiers are over there right now, and I hope things improve.

I didn't know the boot memorial was going to be in town until I saw it on the news last night. They were reading the names of the dead, and it looked like a pretty solemn and powerful ceremony...until the bongo players showed up. That's right: bongos. I don't understand what it is about this town and bongos, but it seems like at every festival they show up with their hackey sack and those stupid stick things. I guess that's okay at Eeyore's Birthday (http://austin.about.com/cs/annualevents/a/eeyore.htm), but perhaps they should be left at home when it comes time to honor the dead.

I'm not sure if this memorial is about honoring the dead though. I think its the same protest from the same protest crowd that shows up for every other thing. These people offer no solutions. How are you going to fix the middle east dreadlock boy? (And I'm just ranting here. I live in Austin because I like it. Dreadlocks and bongos and everything.)

Anyway, I might go down there tonight and check it out, but I'm afraid that I might see or hear something that pisses me off.