Honoring Service, Story, and Humanity: Reflections on Veterans Day

Every November, we pause to honor those who have served in the U.S. Armed Forces. Veterans Day reminds us not only of their service and sacrifice, but also of the global and human stories intertwined with that service – the allies, families, and communities whose lives are forever connected through shared struggle and resilience. Veterans Day is more than a day of remembrance; it is a call to recognize the full humanity behind every story of service and to listen, with intention, to the experiences that shape our collective understanding of sacrifice, resilience, and community.

At the Minnesota Humanities Center (MHC), our work with Veterans began over a decade ago with a simple but powerful idea: that storytelling can build bridges of understanding between those who have served and the communities they return to. In 2013, we launched Veterans’ Voices, a statewide initiative designed to honor Veterans not just for their military service, but for the leadership, creativity, and resilience they bring to civic life. What began as an annual award program and series of public readings grew into a vibrant network of dialogues, partnerships, and events connecting Veterans, families, and civilians through the humanities.

By 2020, this initiative evolved into Many Fronts | Veterans & Community Voices, expanding the lens to include both Veterans and those whose lives have been shaped by war – refugees, families, and civilians. Many Fronts emphasizes that the impact of war is never a single story. Its purpose is to explore how conflict reshapes identity, belonging, and our shared sense of humanity. Through thoughtful dialogue, storytelling, and the arts, we have seen relationships deepen and new understandings emerge – helping Minnesotans connect past, present, and future across many fronts of experience.

This year, I had the honor of co-leading MHC’s 50th Joint Commemoration of the end of the Vietnam War, the Secret War in Laos, and the Southeast Asian conflicts. This series of events united the voices of five key communities – Cambodian, Hmong, Lao, Vietnamese, and U.S. Veterans – to remember, reflect, and heal together. Through exhibits, film screenings, storytelling, and performances, we sought to honor those who served and those displaced, to bridge generational divides, and to affirm the resilience of communities whose stories are too often overlooked.

As we gathered Minnesotans across cultures and generations, I was reminded of how deeply personal this work is for me. I often think of my Uncle Calvin, who served twenty years in the U.S. Army. When I was seventeen, he listened patiently as I talked about enlisting and studying languages at the Defense Language Institute. After a moment, he smiled and said gently, “That’s not the path for you.” He understood both me and the Army well enough to recognize that my service would take a different form – through education, storytelling, and the humanities. His counsel shaped the path that led me to this work and to the Veterans whose stories continue to deepen my understanding of service and citizenship.

On this Veterans Day, I am filled with gratitude – for my uncle’s wisdom, for the Veterans and families who so generously share their stories with us, and for the many communities across Minnesota who continue to remind us that honoring Veterans means honoring the full spectrum of the human experience. The humanities give us the language to do that: to listen deeply, to connect across difference, and to remember that every story of service is, ultimately, a story of belonging.