Eyes of a Child: A Public Art Installation

Location:
Outside the office of Representative Mike Turner (Dayton, OH)

Event Description:

Eyes of a Child is a public art installation that invites people to slow down and reflect on the human cost of war through the lives of children. This installation focuses on the victims of a U.S. missile strike on a children’s school in Minab, Iran, where an entire space meant for learning and safety was turned into a site of devastation.

Inside that school were students and teachers going about an ordinary day. In a single moment, that normalcy was gone. Lives were taken, families were shattered, and those who survived were left carrying something they should never have had to experience.

The installation is meant to center those children not as statistics or distant headlines, but as real people who had names, futures, and lives that mattered. It asks visitors to step outside of politics for a moment and sit with a harder question about what war actually looks like when it reaches the most vulnerable.

Children do not draw borders or understand geopolitical strategy. They do not choose conflict, and they are never the ones making decisions that lead to violence. Yet they are often the ones who live with the consequences in the most permanent ways.

Why here? Why now?

We are holding this installation outside Representative Mike Turner’s office intentionally.

This is about accountability.

The strike that killed these children was carried out with U.S. weapons and funded with U.S. taxpayer money. That makes it something we are all connected to, whether we think about it every day or not. Bringing this installation to a place of political representation is a way of asking for that connection to be acknowledged, and for responsibility to be taken seriously.

Rally at 5:00 PM

At 5 PM, the installation will shift into a rally where we come together to honor the lives lost and speak more directly about accountability and the broader policies that make these kinds of events possible.

Hosted by:
Veterans For Peace

Sponsored by:
Greater Dayton Peace Coalition
Echoes of Gaza

What to expect:

The installation will be open from 1 to 5 PM as a quiet, self-guided experience where people can move through at their own pace. At 5 PM, there will be a rally. You are welcome to stop by for a few minutes or stay for the full event.

Closing:

This installation is ultimately about remembering that behind every act of war are people, and in this case, children, whose lives do not come back once they are gone.

We hope you will join us.

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Host or Publisher Veterans for Peace