meaning

so i mentioned in one of the entries about eyes wide open (which you should really check out the video and things on the website...extremely powerful)...i am in the process of editing and producing a journal of sorts documenting stories, quotes, and experiences from the eyes wide open exhibit that went around pennsylvania in october....here is one of the introductory paragraphs for the story collection and then one of the stories from Bloomsburg PA which struck me as poignent...

October turned out to be quite a sobering and challenging month to exhibit Eyes Wide Open around the state. Not only did we lose 104 US soldiers (the 4^th highest monthly loss since the war began), 6 from Pennsylvania, but we were all aghast when the most recent British report was published citing the total number of Iraqi deaths to be as high as 600,000. It seemed that each time we changed location our trailer carrying the boots got a little more tightly packed.

My brother served in Vietnam. He saw so much killing and was forced to be apart of the atrocities. One day he was ordered by his commanding officer to kill a woman and her children. After the sixth or seventh order he turned to his commanding officer and handed him his gun and said “I can't do this anymore”. He returned home and was so broken up he was placed in a mental hospital where he is to this day. When he dies I will make damn sure he is buried with full military honors. I am so glad you are doing this, paying respect to the soldiers...because nobody did that for the soldiers who fought in Vietnam.