History of the Veteran-Civilian Dialogue

The deepest philosophy of Intersections is the value of engaging, with consciousness and good will, communities that are often separate, unrelated or in conflict. By entering into relationship together we begin a process of transformation and wholeness, deepening our understanding, respect and way forward with each other.

Two year ago on Veterans Day, a small group of civilians came together to listen to one veteran, his life and work. In his opening remarks, after discerning who was or are related to veterans in the group, and in a country of over 35 million veterans, quickly showed us that all of us together are impacted. His statement, now famous to us was “You all have something I need for my healing”. You could hear a pin drop. He quickly touched a deep need that many civilians have about wanting to help in some way. He followed his statement by adding, “and I have something you need for your healing” We discovered that we are truly bereft without the experience, knowledge and relationships that our veterans and warriors have for us. Perhaps they alone are truly the ones to teach us about peace...Perhaps it is our turn to encircle and protect them.

In this moment was born the Veteran - Civilian Dialogue. Rather a verb than a noun it is a process designed to have equal number of veterans and civilians come together for mutual understanding, support and conversation around the impact of war upon all.

This event and recent and ongoing headlines, op-ed pieces in major newspapers, historic veteran’s legislation, the largest Veterans Day Parade and an outpouring of compassion have brought members of the military, both active and veteran and their issues to the forefront of our national consciousness.

The Veteran - Civilian Dialogue is a comprehensive and replicable program, utilizing new and traditional media, extensive and cutting edge psychological and social healing processes, research based arts initiatives to assist an array of ability and disabilities with both veterans and civilians and an emerging presence of collaborative services and programming in Second Life. All designed to forge common ground and bridge the disparate experiences of veteran and civilian, empowering veterans to fully re-integrate into civilian society and educating civilians to the unique needs and strengths of returning military personnel.

Future

In our two year effort we have hosted a national conversation, convened panel discussions on the needs of returning veterans, provided a Sesame Street screening of a film for families impacted by veteran’s experiences and ongoing dialogues between equal numbers of veteran and civilians.

We see this initiative having important impact for neighborhoods, communities, cities and our nation. We hope to create a new social fabric that supports and honors all who sacrificed and have been touched by war. We hope to develop resiliency, to foster healing, to advocate for unresolved issues, to leave no soldier behind. We envision many dialogues, a deep public conversation where social healing can occur for all. We envision pairs of veterans and civilians going out in community settings beginning these conversations. Finally, we envision the nation begin invited to participate in this conversation.