Eyes Wide Open

An anti-war group using dead Marines to promote their agenda has caught the attention of the relatives of the fallen

Mothers of Marines and soldiers killed in Iraq are gearing up to protest a traveling exhibition that they say disgraces their sons? names.

The ?Eyes Wide Open? exhibition has traveled through more than 50 cities since its debut in Chicago more than a year ago, but it wasn?t until late February that many mothers discovered their sons? names were being used in the exhibit.

Organizers say the exhibition is meant to honor the fallen and show the human cost of war, but the mothers say its anti-war message is one their sons would not have agreed with.

?I know that Jason did exactly what he wanted to do. ... I know that he would never ever want his name associated with an anti-war demonstration, especially not one that seems to bash the military,? said Sharon Westbrook of San Angelo, Texas, whose son, Pfc. Jason Poindexter, 20, died in Ramadi, Iraq, on Sept. 12.

?My son helped make history. He was part of that, and I?m proud of that,? she said.

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?He wouldn?t have liked it at all,? she said.

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Sharon Cortez McLeese, whose only son, Lance Cpl. Justin McLeese, died Nov. 13 in a battle in Fallujah, found out about the exhibit when a woman who had visited the show phoned to tell McLeese she had been praying over Justin?s boots.

Taken aback, McLeese looked at the Web site. She says the site?s literature portrayed Marines in Fallujah in a negative light.

?Justin was a proud, strong Marine. He would have never wanted to be associated with this,? she said.

McLeese said she respected the right of the organizers to put on their display but that they should have been more sympathetic to the wishes of the families involved.

?My take in the whole thing is we should have been asked if we wanted to participate. It?s attached to an agenda that our sons would not have been for in a million years,? she said. ?The minute they put my son?s name on it, it becomes personal.?

Read the whole thing. If you know any survivors of fallen heroes you may want to point them to this group's web site to see if their relative is also being used. They will remove the names of those for whom a family member sends a written request.

The display is traveling the nation and is currently in California.