Producer’s Blog: Dayton: City of Peace 2025

As a native Daytonian who has spent most of my life immersed in the arts, joining the production team for our Dayton: City of Peace 2025 special took a bold step outside my creative comfort zone. This program marked the 30th anniversary of the Dayton Peace Accords and highlighted the NATO Spring Parliamentary Assembly, exploring Dayton’s lasting role in global peacebuilding. While I’ve produced countless live theatrical and artistic performances, this project demanded a different lens — one rooted in history, diplomacy, and global consequence.

Delving into the story of the Dayton Peace Accords, a triumph of shuttle diplomacy that unfolded more than three decades ago, offered a profound contrast to my usual creative work. It was both humbling and exhilarating to explore how my hometown—so often celebrated for its innovation and culture — was once at the center of international negotiations that helped end a brutal war. Thirty years provides enough chronological distance that many of our viewers may not be aware of the significance of the selection of Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in Fairborn, Ohio changed the trajectory of an escalating and deadly global conflict half a world away. Given the complexities of portraying these historical events accurately, everyone on the production team felt a duty to communicate the “why” behind it all.

Our research began with the accounts of those who had a front-row seat to the 21 days of negotiation, from Ambassador Holbrooke’s “To End a War” to General Wesley Clark’s “Waging Modern War” to Ambassador Christopher Hill’s “Outpost.” These works provided the foundation for understanding the diplomatic process they followed. We also spoke with local civic leaders like Phil Parker, former head of the Dayton Chamber of Commerce, and William Gillespie, Assistant City Manager of Dayton at the time, as well as Daytonians like Dr. David Ponitz, who shared the efforts he and his wife undertook to support relocation and integration efforts for many Bosnian Herzegovinian families.

As the taping day approached, transforming our studio space to accommodate a small but engaged audience became an all-hands-on-deck effort. From maintenance and production to development and communications, every department contributed.  No detail was too small as we worked toward a singular goal: to deliver a half-hour program worthy of the subject. This meant every introduction and question had to be analyzed and refined to ensure we made space for our esteemed panelists—Congressman Michael Turner, Alice Young-Basora, and Kevin Lydy, President of the Dayton Sister Cities Committee.

While it was valuable to acquaint ourselves with the historical context and be present on our day of filming, I was especially moved by the interview portion of our work. We had the unique opportunity to interview several Bosnian Herzegovinians who were displaced by the conflict and have since made Dayton and Southwest Ohio their home. Hearing the vivid recollections of Azra Kaurin, Adnan Secic, Dr. Alma Meric and Irena Joseph made the horrors of displacement and conflict real — no longer abstractions but deeply human experiences, courageously shared with us. Their stories of intervening fate and last-minute decisions made under threat of death challenged our capacity to comprehend as well as our duty to represent.

I couldn’t help but feel the weight of responsibility to honor these individuals and stories both in our research and on screen for Dayton: City of Peace 2025. It’s a lot of information to coalesce into a single half-hour broadcast, but that is the almost magical power of public television — its ability to distill complex, emotional and historical truths into meaningful stories. These are our neighbors, our friends and our families, and their journeys deserve our best efforts and our most thoughtful presentation which is at the core of our mission as your public television station.

Producing this special reminded me that even in the darkest times — a young mother fleeing with children under sniper fire, a pediatrician saving lives amid chaos, a couple believing in love under siege — there is profound perspective and enduring faith. Hope is more than a feeling — it is a quiet, persistent force that dares to imagine a different future. I hope you also find in Dayton: City of Peace 2025 that while hope does not erase hardship, it makes endurance meaningful — and opens the door to peace, progress and possibility.

Dayton: City of Peace 2025 premiered on May 15 and encored throughout the week. It is also available to stream on the PBS App and online at https://thinktv.org/dayton-city-of-peace-2025/.

Rodney Veal
CET and Think^TV Producer and Community Arts Liaison