November 8, 2004

Memorial to U.S. military dead on display at UCSC until November 10

By Jennifer McNulty

An emotionally powerful art installation commemorating the deaths of more than 1,000 U.S. military personnel in Iraq will be on display in the grassy quad between Colleges Nine and Ten through November 10.

Monterey antiwar activist and Army veteran Ed Leeper created the memorial, which has also been displayed in Monterey’s Window on the Bay Park.

The cemetery-like installation features photos and brief biographies of each man and woman who has died in Iraq. Leeper, a veteran of the Korean and Vietnam wars, said he fears that President Bush will reinstate the draft.

The mood was somber on an overcast morning last week as students and others quietly milled around the installation, some peering closely at the photos, noting the age of the deceased or the cause of death.

Maya Pope-Chappell, a junior American studies major from Oakland, took in the installation with her friend Brandy Clark-Smith, a senior business management major also from Oakland. Both women said they wished the installation had been in place before the November 2 election. “I wish it had been up sooner,” said Pope-Chappell.

The UCSC installation is the result of a collaboration by students in the community studies course Theory and Practice/Resistance and Social Movements, taught by Assistant Professor Paul Ortiz, and the College Ten Social Justice and Community cocurricular unit.

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