Support Your Local Reenactor

As reported in the local news, the Hauppauge Public Library has stirred up some controversy by paying $450 for an appearance by a psychic medium.

Whether or not you think this is an appropriate way for your tax dollars to be spent, the bottom lines is that libraries are there to serve the public interest.  If the public is interested in psychics, that is what the public will get.

If you have an interest in history then please support the reenactment groups in your area by attending lectures they give at your local library.  If a history lecture gets a full house, there’ll be more of them.  If you enjoyed the presentation do let the library know.

If your library doesn’t have on its schedule a history lecture then please contact the library and ask for one on your favorite history topic.  If you can recommend a group to give the talk it’s even better.  (It’s usually the Public Relations Director who handles the booking.)

The same goes for the local fairs and festivals.  Contacting the chamber of commerce, the school, church or local government that sponsors the fair and suggesting the addition of a new historic reenactment attraction couldn’t hurt.

 The cynics out there may think that I’m trying to get the public to do what should be a reenactment group’s leg work.  Trust me, we’re pounding the pavement and trolling the web for leads.  We’re emailing, phoning, texting, and face booking looking for a gig.  We’ve got a spiel to help convince libraries and others to part with their doubloons, but a request from the public might just be that little extra push towards getting a library or festival to ask a reenactment group to come for a visit.  Just in case the library asks, no, we can’t predict the future, but we can give an entertaining look into the past.