Former University Professor Bo Adan stood in the EMU Amphitheater on Monday afternoon reading aloud the names of some of the nearly 800 U.S. troops killed in the war in Iraq.
Then, he came across the name “Hines.” Adan didn’t know the man who had been killed, but hearing the name shook the writer, teacher and activist, he said. It was the surname of his grandparents.
“It had a deep emotional impact on me,” Adan said. “You know that you’re not reading the name of someone you know, and at the same time the sound coming out of your mouth resembles the name of someone you know. It had kind of a jarring impact on me.”
Adan was one of six members of the Concerned Faculty for Peace and Justice who read aloud the names of U.S. troops killed in the war in Iraq. Monday’s reading was only the first of many, which are scheduled to take place every week until the end of the term.
Adan was not the only person to feel moved by the reading of the names. He said many people who walked by recognized the names of old high school friends or other people they knew.
However, the reading was not a political protest of the war; instead, it was simply meant to honor the troops, he said.
“The way to honor the dead is to not try to make some political argument,” Adan said. “There are other times and places to do that … This is really a very solemn occasion, and we’re not reading these names with anything but sadness and remorse.”
Adan said the readings seemed appropriate in light of the Bush administration’s efforts to diminish media attention to the war’s casualties, especially by restricting photographs of the coffins of dead soldiers.
The Concerned Faculty for Peace and Justice, which was formed before the first war in Iraq in 1990, has between 30 and 50 devoted members, Adan said. The group plans to do a reading every Friday at noon in front of the University Bookstore and invites those passing by to take part.