>> Ehren Tool: War isn't
like anything else,
and war isn't like it is on TV.
I don't think it's really
possible to communicate,
and even just how an event in a
war can affect different people.
You know, I make the cups
to start conversations.
My name is Ehren Tool.
I'm a veteran of
the '91 Gulf War.
I've made and given away more
than 21,000 cups since 2001.
Well, I joined the Marine Corps
in '89, and I thought I wanted
to be a cop to protect
and serve.
I went Military Police,
graduated top of my class.
We did convoy escorts and
enemy prisoner of war handling.
One day there was a
older Iraqi officer,
and he was holding his
hand on his shoulder,
his hand on his hip, his hand on
his knee, and saying "Baghdad,
Baghdad, Baghdad," one, two,
three, "Baghdad, Baghdad."
Eventually, I figured out
that he had three children
in Baghdad, and then I said
that out loud to the Marine next
to me and said, "Oh, he's
got three kids in Baghdad."
And my buddy said,
"Hiroshima, Nagasaki.
Hiroshima, Nagasaki.
All gone."
And that guy dropped
like we shot him.
He just crumpled
and just sobbed,
just uncontrollably sobbed.
And at the time, I didn't know.
Maybe we had nuked Baghdad,
but anyway, it just really --
it kind of undermined
the argument
of "they hate freedom"
or "they hate us."
You know, this guy
was just concerned
about his three kids in Baghdad.
And so that messed with me
and I decided I didn't want
to be a gunslinger anymore.
I got out of the Marine
Corps, took the GI Bill.
I went to art school, and
I took a drawing class just
as a whim kind of thing.
But that instructor, Ben
Sakaguchi was Japanese-American.
He said, "All art's political."
And that really resonated
with me.
Decorating the cups initially,
I started with, you know,
my own insignia, and then
my father's insignia.
As it went on, you know, I'd
borrow other people's insignia.
And toys, like -- right?
-- like the gas mask that
I wore in the '91 Gulf War
if GI Joe made a version of it.
You know, the collection
keeps growing.
All the images mean
something to me,
and they're emotional for me.
So you can't really be thinking
about too many other things
when you're when
you're throwing.
The stamping, then you
can get lost and all kinds
of crazy conversations
in your head.
There are times I cry in
the middle of the night
because I'm making cups,
but I feel like making
the cups is something
that I really need to do.
It's a desire to serve.
My father didn't talk to me
about his experience in Vietnam.
My grandfather didn't talk
to me about his experiences
in World War Two, until
I came back from my war.
You know, it's impossible
to communicate,
so it feels easier just not
to talk about it at all.
Most of the requests come
from vets or their families.
People will just cold,
like email me and ask me
to make a cup for their
brother who committed suicide
or their son who's
having a hard time.
The real payoff is being
able to hand somebody the cup
and have their reaction.
It's a little message
in a bottle
that I get to throw out there.
I gave cups to people and
they were crying so bad,
they almost dropped
the cup, you know?
But and, you know, and hearing
stories afterwards, like a woman
who maybe had a hard
relationship with her father.
You know, I made the cup for
them, and she took the cup back
to the father, and then
they had this conversation
where the daughter got a
new insight into her father
and what his experience
must have been like.
It's priceless, the opportunity
to have these conversations.
Yeah, once you get done messing
with it, I mean, keep messing
with it and we'll
fix it at the end.
I work in the ceramics
lab here at UC Berkeley.
I think a lot of
what's causing problems
in the world is ignorance,
and so at Berkeley,
you get exposed to
so many things.
The conversation is here.
All you got to do is listen.
There is something about the
Marine Corps that I try to bring
to teaching and try to bring
working here that, you know,
we are all in it
together and, you know,
everybody's perspective
is important.
Working at Berkeley has
been great for that.
I say I just make cups, and part
of that is a self-defense thing,
that I don't want to say
that the cups are these grand
and noble things that are
changing the world and then find
out that they're just cups.
So I'd rather just
say their cups,
and if they're anything
more, that's great.
But if they are anything
more, it's not because of me.
It's not because of
the way they're made.
It's because they resonate
with somebody else.
There's still Marines out
there in combat, in harm's way,
and it's hard for
me to ignore that.
I don't believe anything I do
is going to change the world,
but nothing in the
world releasing me
from my obligation to try.