Good evening everyone.
The fact is my personal story does not matter. Tonight, is not about me, it is about each and every person here. It is about our instructors and liaisons, our fellow classmates and fallen veterans that are not here tonight. But also, tonight is about YOU.
You see, this graduation ceremony is for us, yes, but a soldier’s work is never finished. While we have benefitted from PCVI and get to move on from class, we do not get to so easily move on from what brought us to it. And if we do not advocate for the Providence Clemente Veteran’s Initiative’s continuance, our brothers and sisters in service may never be able to find the puzzle their piece belongs to, and we could lose them to addiction, disease, or violence.
You see, this graduation ceremony is for us, yes, but a soldier’s work is never finished. While we have benefitted from PCVI and get to move on from class, we do not get to so easily move on from what brought us to it. And if we do not advocate for the Providence Clemente Veteran’s Initiative’s continuance, our brothers and sisters in service may never be able to find the puzzle their piece belongs to, and we could lose them to addiction, disease, or violence.
Why is it important for veterans (of all walks of life) to take this course, or to study things like the sophists of antiquity, ancient wars, and art throughout the millennia?
It is hard to put into words exactly what PCVI offers to ALL of us involved in it. This class is far more than just the study of war throughout the ages or looking at pretty pictures or sculptures. PCVI is a class that requires everyone involved to be introspective in ways we were too afraid, unable, or unaware to try before. It is a class that cares nothing about your race, religion, or political affiliation. It cares about us on a human level, something that is missing from the society in which we return to.
When we come home, we are expected to act like we did NOT serve. The expectation is that we will seamlessly reintegrate with society, fit in, and move on as though however much time we served is but a distant memory of a story someone once told. Our families hope and expect us to be the people they remembered, as though our life’s journey has seen no shadows, only sunlight and rainbows.
The truth is also that it is far from easy for us to talk about these things. Sometimes we cannot, we will not, or we do not know how any more or less than you do. We may want to talk, even if it is not to tell of events, but to talk about our thoughts and feelings developed as a result of those events. The Providence Clemente Veteran’s Initiative is our path to get there. Here, we can begin to build bridges with each other, and mend our fences and then traverse those bridges back in the ways we all hope for.
Finally, on a personal note (that I said I would not do); thanks to the PCVI, I am finally, after a decade post-service, beginning to not feel ashamed of it and have my parents here tonight as the start of what I hope will be the rebuilding of our bridge.
Thank you all for supporting us and thank you all for being here tonight.
