Last November, it was announced that The Wall That Heals, a three-quarter replica of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington, D.C., would be making a stop in Great Bend. The Great Bend Public Library jumped into action on the announcement. On Saturday, May 13, at 11 a.m., the library will host a presentation from Murl Riedel, a retired major from the Kansas Army National Guard.
"As soon as we heard it was coming, I tried to find a speaker to tie into that," said Circulation Manager Lisa Zier. "Luckily, Humanities Kansas has a wonderful speakers bureau. They're an independent, non-profit organization. I applied for a grant, and we have Mr. Murl Riedel coming to put on a program called 'A New Generation of Veterans: Stories from Iraq and Afghanistan.'"
The wars in Iraq and Afghanistan gave rise to a new generation of veterans. They challenged society’s traditional notions of military services and raised questions about the role of the U.S. in global conflicts. Soldiers from Kansas were some of the first deployed to fight in Iraq and Afghanistan. They returned again and again, yet their stories remain largely untold. Modern communication platforms connected these veterans to family and friends instantaneously but left little written record for future generations. This talk reviews key events of America’s longest war to date and discusses methods to collect and share these stories from American veterans.
“A New Generation of Veterans: Stories from Iraq and Afghanistan” is part of Humanities Kansas's Speakers Bureau and “21st Century Civics,” a collection of resources that invite Kansans to participate in community discussions and learn more about the history of American democracy and the shared responsibilities of citizenship. “21st Century Civics” is made possible with support from “A More Perfect Union: America at 250,” an initiative of the National Endowment for the Humanities.
Members of the community are invited to attend the free program. Contact the Great Bend Public Library at (620)- 792-2409 for more information. The program is made possible by Humanities Kansas.