There has always been a violent response to Black men willing to serve in their pursuit of the respect and dignity due to a man. Historically Black military men we stripped of their rank and title during a lynching. Unfortunately, in America for Black Veterans there is a very high cost of serving.The artist uses black butterflies in her work to symbolize the souls leaving the bodies. While the young boys who discovered the bodies aren’t wearing any shoes she wanted to symbolize the purity of an impressionable young mind and spirit by dressing them in crisp white shirts instead of portraying them as being dirty & tattered.