Palm Beach Post-Cox News Service
Empty Shoes, empty lives
By Gretel Sarmiento
Monday, May 7, 2007

DELRAY BEACH — From every corner, visitors approached Worthing Park on Sunday to see shoes of all sizes and colors displayed on the ground.

Facing Atlantic Avenue, the smallest sizes were less visible than others.

Shoes representing civilian casualties of the war, each labeled with a name and date of death, dot Delray's Worthington Park Sunday.

Hillary Keyes of Boca Raton, dressed as Julia Ward Howe, the 'Mother of Mother's Day,' takes part in the antiwar project Sunday in Delray Beach.

"Frsu Gulad Kathem. 1 month old. Died of burns," read the tag attached to a pair of white-and-pink shoes.

And next to it, "Aeat Hmed Hade. 8 years old. Killed in aircarft attack."

The South Florida chapter of CodePink Women for Peace came up with the peace project, "Walk In Their Shoes," to honor Iraqi women and children killed in the war.

"It's easy to say '600,000,' but when you see shoes ... this is an actual person who would not be walking anymore," said Lori Russell, the group organizer.

CodePink began spreading the word two months ago and started collecting shoes from all over South Florida.

Members attached a tag, with a victim's name and age, to each shoe, using an online database of civilian deaths from iraqbodycount.org.

Though the visual display of more than 200 shoes, the group focused mainly on female and infant victims of war.

Russell noted: "We are not anti-soldier — we want our troops to come home. Alive."

Joining CodePink were members of the South Florida Raging Grannies and the Palm Beach County Peace & Justice Coalition, who wore pink shirts and pins.

"I go to many events," said Vera Fried with the justice coalition [and the Raging Grannies]. "But there are many groups that just talk and don't do anything."

She came to the demonstration driving her pink car.

Letting go of shoes was not easy for everyone.

"Those, I had trouble giving up," said Susan Mosely, pointing at grayish sandals. "But for this, I could give them up."

It was a call for peace 137 years ago that made the local group choose the Sunday before Mother's Day to have the shoes displayed.

"Arise, then, women of this day! Arise all women who have hearts," read the proclamation issued by Julia Ward, daughter of a wealthy banker. It was from that peace effort in 1870 that Mother's Day originated.

Having lived through the Civil War and sensing the beginning of another, the Franco-Prussian war, Ward encouraged women to get involved, to help end the war.

"We felt it was right because Mother's Day originated as a time for peace," said Hillary Keyes, a CodePink organizer.

Keyes said the group hasn't determined whether the shoes will be displayed at other locations or donated to charity.



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