- Joined
- Apr 8, 2018
- Location
- Coffeeville, TX
Not reenacting itself, but everything that comes with it.
I'm about at my limit, I'm so sick of all the failure and having my hand slapped away in reenacting and with CW heritage organizations like the SCV.
I've been reenacting for 15 years, been studying CW history like a maniac for longer. So much so, that one of my original mentors in both has declared publicly I've surpassed his knowledge by a long shot, yet because I wasn't born before 1980 I'm still ostracized as a worthless "millennial" and folks in reenacting and the SCV still look to him for great knowledge and insight after he's washed his hands of both and wants to be left alone. At reenactments I'm still a private, after I've proven I can command and organize, (though this is understandable as life has forced me not to make more than one or two events a year, plus I don't mind being a private), and when a reenactment goes south with screw ups galore when I try to offer a solution and try to suggest a better way, even more period correct, I basically get told to mind my own business and keep my mouth shut. I guess because its inconceivable I could know more than someone who's been an officer for twenty years. Plus I commit the ultimate crime by refusing to play politics and make my feeling clear that the reenacting politics is disgusting.
It gets worse for me, in the SCV I was begged for years by a man to join so as to use my knowledge to improve his color guard and help the SCV. I finally stopped refusing when he was on his death bed. I joined, instant 2nd Sgt. rank and when I try to fix some issues, next thing I know the old fart who inherited command fights and shuts down everything I try to do because "We've never done it that way before." he went so far as to make dang near everyone a Sgt. nullifying any authority I had.
And within the SCV I propose reforms and ways to recruit new younger members, only to be shouted down and I still stay the course. I propose all the local Camps get together to start a new reenactment, I drew up plans, scouted potential sites, I work to make sure that it be superior to any of the dog and pony shows that do the same thing over and over with no imagination. No entrenchments, no flanking maneuvers, just the same head on movie style shoot'em ups. I get my hand slapped away yet again.
And for the latest let down I propose to the powers that be that I write a book, a "Confederate Heritage for Dummies" (not titled that at all), of sorts to try and correct the extreme lack of knowledge of CW history in the SCV, lay the "Lost Cause" myths to bed once and for all and showing that the truth is better, list all the right books members should look to for history, and have a section on reenactments, showing what is period, and what isn't in uniforms, and show how to build period correct fortifications, (I'm already cutting the wood) and secured use of land for a weekend. I even put on the table an offer that all the royalties, (excepting a very small fraction, my thinking being like 25 cents per copy for example, I'm dirt poor I have to get something) go to "Heritage Defense" for the good of the SCV.
All I got was a "we'll consider it" with all signs pointing to a no thanks in the long run.
So, after 15 years of my life I feel un-appreciated, am often accused of being politician by one guy, (because of my writing style) and basically told to shut up and let better people handle things and to really keep my mouth shut when everything blows up in peoples faces as I warned it would. Some have told me it's my people skills, yet when I look at my main mentor, who demanded "Power of God" when organizing and running a reenactment to make sure it didn't turn into a mess, and had a "your either with me or against me" attitude where I try to let everyone have a say and bend over backwards to accommodate them, I don't think this is true.
Sorry for the long ranty post, but I'm curious to hear everyone else's thoughts and if its just me. Because I'm about sick of trying to do good and being crucified for it with reenactments and the SCV. Life's too short to put up with it, and I won't lie it hurts because reenacting is the biggest love in my life and I've come to love the SCV hence all my efforts to try and do good for both. The insults at reenactments and the SCV drive me bonkers because, and this is my favorite thing to quote from people "I read a book!" I've read hundreds and God only knows how many records and that quote only serves to royally tick off my mellow hard to anger self.
I'm about at my limit, I'm so sick of all the failure and having my hand slapped away in reenacting and with CW heritage organizations like the SCV.
I've been reenacting for 15 years, been studying CW history like a maniac for longer. So much so, that one of my original mentors in both has declared publicly I've surpassed his knowledge by a long shot, yet because I wasn't born before 1980 I'm still ostracized as a worthless "millennial" and folks in reenacting and the SCV still look to him for great knowledge and insight after he's washed his hands of both and wants to be left alone. At reenactments I'm still a private, after I've proven I can command and organize, (though this is understandable as life has forced me not to make more than one or two events a year, plus I don't mind being a private), and when a reenactment goes south with screw ups galore when I try to offer a solution and try to suggest a better way, even more period correct, I basically get told to mind my own business and keep my mouth shut. I guess because its inconceivable I could know more than someone who's been an officer for twenty years. Plus I commit the ultimate crime by refusing to play politics and make my feeling clear that the reenacting politics is disgusting.
It gets worse for me, in the SCV I was begged for years by a man to join so as to use my knowledge to improve his color guard and help the SCV. I finally stopped refusing when he was on his death bed. I joined, instant 2nd Sgt. rank and when I try to fix some issues, next thing I know the old fart who inherited command fights and shuts down everything I try to do because "We've never done it that way before." he went so far as to make dang near everyone a Sgt. nullifying any authority I had.
And within the SCV I propose reforms and ways to recruit new younger members, only to be shouted down and I still stay the course. I propose all the local Camps get together to start a new reenactment, I drew up plans, scouted potential sites, I work to make sure that it be superior to any of the dog and pony shows that do the same thing over and over with no imagination. No entrenchments, no flanking maneuvers, just the same head on movie style shoot'em ups. I get my hand slapped away yet again.
And for the latest let down I propose to the powers that be that I write a book, a "Confederate Heritage for Dummies" (not titled that at all), of sorts to try and correct the extreme lack of knowledge of CW history in the SCV, lay the "Lost Cause" myths to bed once and for all and showing that the truth is better, list all the right books members should look to for history, and have a section on reenactments, showing what is period, and what isn't in uniforms, and show how to build period correct fortifications, (I'm already cutting the wood) and secured use of land for a weekend. I even put on the table an offer that all the royalties, (excepting a very small fraction, my thinking being like 25 cents per copy for example, I'm dirt poor I have to get something) go to "Heritage Defense" for the good of the SCV.
All I got was a "we'll consider it" with all signs pointing to a no thanks in the long run.
So, after 15 years of my life I feel un-appreciated, am often accused of being politician by one guy, (because of my writing style) and basically told to shut up and let better people handle things and to really keep my mouth shut when everything blows up in peoples faces as I warned it would. Some have told me it's my people skills, yet when I look at my main mentor, who demanded "Power of God" when organizing and running a reenactment to make sure it didn't turn into a mess, and had a "your either with me or against me" attitude where I try to let everyone have a say and bend over backwards to accommodate them, I don't think this is true.
Sorry for the long ranty post, but I'm curious to hear everyone else's thoughts and if its just me. Because I'm about sick of trying to do good and being crucified for it with reenactments and the SCV. Life's too short to put up with it, and I won't lie it hurts because reenacting is the biggest love in my life and I've come to love the SCV hence all my efforts to try and do good for both. The insults at reenactments and the SCV drive me bonkers because, and this is my favorite thing to quote from people "I read a book!" I've read hundreds and God only knows how many records and that quote only serves to royally tick off my mellow hard to anger self.
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