The Tufts Coalition Opposed to the War in Iraq (TCOWI) held a demonstration in front of Tisch Library on Nov. 15, which displayed 119 pairs of empty boots to commemorate the loss of New England soldiers in the increasingly unpopular war.
Each pair of boots came with a nametag listing information including, age, rank, date of death and hometown, about the actual soldier it represented. The boots and names were supplied by the American Friends Service Committee (AFSC), a Quaker pacifist group opposed to the war, which did not contact families to ensure their support.
The demonstration provoked mixed responses from students, in some cases eliciting discontent from those who saw it as a disrespectful ploy that runs contrary to the beliefs of the dead soldiers, many of whom supported the war.
Amy Stone, a post-baccalaureate student in the premedical program at the College of Special Studies and the girlfriend of an Iraq war veteran, wrote a viewpoint expressing this perception that ran in the Nov. 20 issue of the Daily. Stone said in her viewpoint that her "heart sank" when she saw the boots and that it was "disrespectful to use their names - especially in the context of their deaths - to propagate a viewpoint that may not have been their own."
Stone's viewpoint sparked a debate on campus on whether the consent of soldier's family should be a prerequisite for such a demonstration.
In an effort to gauge opinions on the matter, the Daily contacted twelve soldiers' families in Massachusetts. Out of all twelve families, only one was willing to comment on the demonstration - the father of Joseph Bellavia, a staff sergeant who was killed in Oct. 2003.
Bellavia said that he acknowledges TCOWI's right to express dissent, but said that making the soldiers' names part of the protest is a breach of privacy.
"They have the right to protest but the war, but there's a difference when you're using the names. My son died a hero," he said.
While Bellavia, a retired colonel himself, openly supported the war in Iraq, he made it clear that personal opinion is not a factor. "It shouldn't matter what you think about the current administration, they didn't have the right to use those names," he said.
Becky Saggese, a core member of TCOWI and one of the main coordinators of the boots demonstration, contests this opinion, saying that the identities of slain soldiers are a matter of public record.
"The names are public information," she said.
Gabe Frumkin, another member of TCOWI and a long-time activist, agreed, arguing that TCOWI functioned well within the boundaries of the law.
"It's an issue of free speech," he said. "Everyone is entitled access to the public domain."
Saggese encouraged the boots demonstration on campus because she herself had a cousin who died in the Iraq war. When she first saw a similar demonstration in another part of the state, it triggered strong feelings about him that made it particularly meaningful.
"I became really emotional," she said. "There was his name, and there were these boots. The boots weren't even his, but it made me feel closer to him. It created this connection to him. I liked having his name there."
Saggese worked with TCOWI to stage the demonstration which she hoped would duplicate her response and "would provoke emotion on campus." She said she did not foresee the negative reaction.
"It never crossed my mind that it would offend people - it wasn't meant to be some super radical demonstration," she said.
Saggese stressed the importance of seeing both sides of an argument, regardless of feelings. "Opponents of anyone's view will make an emotive agreement," she said, "but it's important to learn to see both sides."
Despite the criticisms some students have leveled against the demonstration, Saggese said that students' response has been largely supportive of the cause.
"More people thanked us than anything else," she said.
Frumkin notes that how people react to such protests is an important criterion for success of a demonstration, and he deems this one appropriate.
"I always consider if protests are offensive before I organize them," he said. "I didn't think this one was."
