I recently attended an event honoring both U.S. Veterans and high school students. The youth had been engaged in a series of projects interviewing veterans and learning their stories of sacrifice, duty and honor. The purpose of the program is to bring together the youth with these veterans so that they might understand, honor and recognize the sacrifice that our military men and women make everyday for our country. But the experience provides such a broader and deeper education. The results of the stories told, become a published book for all to read, understand and remember. Many of the veterans have not told their story and most of the youth are too young to remember the difficult days of combat of our country's past, or even the days of the Cold War, when tensions ran high, though guns were not directly firing at the opposition. The opportunity to speak gives the veterans a voice once again, while at times difficult, in the safe space of an eager listener, it is often found to be unburdening, even therapeutic. The wisdom learned of the listeners, was summed up beautifully by one of the high school project participants, "I have come to understand, the key to empathizing with people is to listen to their story". Wisdom spoken, ALL SHOULD HEAR and APPLY.

More on this program visit Veterans Heritage Project at https://veteransheritageproject.org