From: Bruce Kalin (convoy@mtaofnj.us)
Date: Fri May 20 2005 - 18:13:46 PDT
Wow,
I think some of you guys are going a little overboard in judging others
(aka prejudices). The only thing that we don't have a "right" to wear
are awards, if you are going to represent them to someone as awards that
you earned (if you did not). That's fraud. Otherwise, there are no
"rights" associated with a uniform, if you are not misrepresenting it. A
25 year old reinactor in full dress uniform with awards from WW1 is not
trying to tell anyone that he "won" those medals. I reenactor in Civil
War gear is not trying to tell anyone that he was actually in the Civil
War - at least I don't think he would :-)
If you use that same mindset of prejudice, then we don't have the
"right" to drive a military truck. Are you saying that if you were not a
military truck driver, you shouldn't pretend that you are one now?
Come on guys, use a little common sense. Reenactors aren't
misrepresenting themselves any more than anyone else driving a military
truck, or a Ham radio operator using a military radio.
If you buy a used police car at auction, does that mean that you really
don't have the "right" to drive it? Should you not wear an 1800s police
uniform in a parade, because you were never a cop in the 1800s?
What I saw that was more like desecration than wearing a historic
uniform today were the hippies in the 60s, who took surplus M-65 field
jackets and put peace patches all over them. It was just their means of
expression, and they didn't feel as if they were denigrating the
uniform. Now THAT really upset me!
Bruce Kalin
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