When military veterans return, it can be challenging to get back in step with civilian society. A conference in Roanoke will explore the issues they face, with days of presentations, performances and discussions. The third annual Veterans and Society Conference will take place over three days around Veterans Day -- and the public is invited.
It’s only recently that society has begun to look more deeply at the complexities of reintegrating veterans into society. Virginia Tech is playing a leading role in these efforts. Earlier this year it established an on campus, Veterans Caucus, to help address some of their unique concerns. And three years ago, it began sponsoring multi-day conferences exploring the wide variety of issues that arise for returning vets. Jim Dubinsky chairs the caucus and the conference.
“People are beginning to realize as the two wars wind down that so many of these young people and sometimes not so young are going to be integrating back out into the mainstream. And they’re gonna find that it’s changed and they’ve changed, so one of our roles is to help facilitate that transition.
From his own experience as an English professor and a veteran, Dubinsky knows the power of art to get at complexities in ways nothing else quite can. A powerful play, called Speed Killed My Cousin will be performed at this year’s conference. It examines, race, class, gender, generational issues, and the long-lasting ramifications of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder. Ashley Wilkerson plays Debra, who as one reviewer put it, spends most of her time in the driver’s seat of “ a cleverly designed Hummer, driving on the Long Island Expressway—the L.I.E.,” -- he writes, is an acronym that’s also a “metaphor for the untruths that have propelled many a country into war.”
Speed Killed My Cousin Audio: “The LIE is nothing like Iraq. The more he talk, the more it feels like Iraq. Sometimes you’d drive for hours and nothing would happen. You’d let up and, you know, fantasize about being back home, but then you’d be brought back to reality by these pings, and then you’d realize that someone was shooting at you. And you’d want to step on the gas but you have 20 vehicles behind you and 29 in front of you and they don’t even realize that they’ve been fired on. So it took a minute for everybody to figure out that it was time to get the hell out of there. That’s a whole different kind of driving.”
As part its focus on race and gender issues this year, the conference it will feature a panel on the Confederate Battle Flag. The three-day gathering will culminate with a talk by the author of “The Things They Carried” a fictionalized memoir of the Viet Nam war by Tim O'Brien.
You can find out more about the conference here, and sign up here.
