♪ - We have been taught by the great philosophers that man ♪ is able to think and feel for themselves.

Why should a distant king and a distant land have anything to do with our local communities?

I truly believe that our cause is not one born out of a desire for rebellion, but out of a desire for representation.

- As a man taller than a musket with fingers and teeth, I am, I have my obligations to the defense of my town.

But now it seems that there's a need to extend that pattern of defense beyond the municipal borders of my town to answer alarms throughout the province and to defend against whatever form tyranny comes.

- I can understand and identify with a lot of the things that are being proffered as goals that we're trying to gain with our independence from the mother country.

But what are we gaining or fighting for or knowing what's going to happen?

At least with the king and parliament, we know what we're dealing with and what we have.

I identify with the ideals and yes, we do need to have more voice in our government, but we don't know where this is going to leave and where, what will be the outcome.

- We know well that no nation can live by parchment alone.

Liberty must be in the hearts of the people.

And thus, if the generations after me and my children and their children want to preserve what we'll have fought for, they must guard against those ideas that have destroyed all republics.

The ideas of apathy, of corruption, of those who are selfish and gaining power.

I truly had hoped as a loyal citizen to the Crown that the king would've answered our pleas, but he did not.

And thus, the only answer we would have is to overthrow such a king.

(patriotic music) - I always enjoy local people who are appreciative of what I'm doing in their neighborhoods, talking about the history and the past and all these kinds of things.

People say it's like, "Oh yeah, I've, you know, driven by here all the time.

You know, it's like it's battles in the American Revolution?"

And like it's like, "Yes, of course."

And I've known this since I was 10.

And now I've arguably like organized at least the free time in my life around it.

Without the public, we're just weirdos camping.

I would be doing this anyway.

- We are a species that want to remember things.

And why, right?

Like why are we as a society so inclined to do that?

I think it's human nature.

I think it's human nature to try to remember the past, both good and bad.

Because, you know, it's the legacy of us.

It's the legacy of humanity, I guess.

So I think it's important to play a role in that no matter how small it is.

The thing about the brigade that I've always thought is so fascinating is there's the legacy of the 18th century we're trying to preserve, but it's also the legacy of the people who founded the brigade that I'm trying to preserve.

- [Neil] I wasn't in touch with the 18th century until my mid-20's and 30's, but I definitely, and some people may think this is funny.

I don't want to, if you believe in reincarnation or not, but I definitely, too much of the 18th century came way too easily for me.

I think it's the love of history.

You know, the odd kids who loved history that finally found one another in our 20's and 30's and 40's and 50's.

I used to joke all the time that we're 12-year-old again playing war.

So it's a camaraderie that was part of being a family.

- [Justin] You have to learn history so that you know where we as a society or we as a nation or what have you came from.

And then try to then use that to then extrapolate where we ought to go.

Because, you know, if you don't know history, it's not necessarily that you're going to be doomed to repeat it again.

It's just that you may run the risk of undoing the hard won gains of previous struggles.

(patriotic music) (upbeat elegant music) - The Brigade of the American Revolution was actually founded back in 1962 with the understanding to recreate the life and times of an American revolutionary soldier.

There's a mutual understanding about why you're here.

It's definitely this idea of this connection to the people that lived back then.

The reason we like history is it's because it's the story of us.

- Thank you very much everybody for coming out today.

Look forward to doing some good service on the field this afternoon.

Please note who is next to you?

Take a look.

Introduce yourselves real quick so you know who might be missing later.

- We know each other.

- Yes.

- Andy.

- Darien.

- Darien?

Nice to meet you.

- Justin.

(group chattering indistinctly) - [Dakota] We have about 1,800 members, which is great because we've grown past our COVID losses.

At our height of the organization, probably in the early 2000's, the 225th, I think it was about 2,800 members.

- [Solider] March.

(elegant upbeat music) - The command that you should have heard was by platoon right wheel march, which would've brought you into a column of platoon names.

- I knew what he wanted.

He just didn't say it.

- [Justin] Battle of Monmouth.

This is kind of the first moment where the Continental Army, the Americans not only choose the place, but choose the time of the attack with the British.

And it really represents a turning point in the war.

Getting into character, it's always nervous trepidation, but then, you know, confidence in my comrades and in fellow men at arms that we will win the day.

- One, two, three, four, five, six, seven.

- (indistinct) Didn't like me.

- He didn't like you?

- Yeah, well (indistinct).

- When you size and form like this, you know, you end up, you know, shuffling people around.

(patriotic music) - So we're going.

We're doing a bit of a documentary brigade and like live re-enactors reenact.

So they're just kind of following us around.

How are you?

- How are you?

- So we're looking for USSO swords.

Both Gary and Ed do 18th century swordery productions for officers.

He's a fan of my 18th century molasses cookies.

So whenever I know I'm going to meet up with him, I bring 18th century cookies.

And this is where Neil is.

- That's the whole area.

- Hello, it's my friend.

- Hey to you all.

- Explaining our plights of re-enactors and settlers.

- Wonderful.

- And how we need fabric.

We can't go to Joann's to buy this stuff.

We have to- - Not anymore.

- Not anymore, I know.

- These are check beads made to look like garnets that I'm working on some necklaces with my modern tools.

Shh.

Don't tell anyone.

- This is nice lavender water.

Is this new?

Have you- - It's new.

- I'm working with a wonderful small distillery in the South of France who is family run.

And when I contacted them and I said, "I want you to do some 18th century things," they were so excited.

They said, "Oh yes, we love that.

That's what we do.

That's what we want."

- Yes, Timmy.

- Hello.

- Thank you for the cookies.

Thank you for the, I've already had one.

- We're helping with the documentary.

Do you want to explain what you do here?

It's kind of cool.

- What do we do here?

- I don't know, what do you do?

Tell me.

- Is this going to be recorded?

We sell military accoutrements.

- You do indeed.

- If we're not recorded, I'm going to say we sell ship.

- These here?

They're gorgeous though.

We have to find out who made them?

Do we know?

- No.

- They're gorgeous.

- I mean, if we can find somebody they tell people right because they were given to us.

- Ooh.

We have to find someone with skinny calves.

That's our goal for today.

- Yeah, skinny calves.

We know no skinny people.

- I have the good Irish stock.

I meant for running away.

- Skinny people don't eat molasses cookies.

- So much of this really is social, right?

Like he's like my grandfather, Ed, right?

Like I've always said, I came from a really small family, so it was, like I always joked, like when I got married, it was going to be five people for the bride, 50 for the groom.

But now, you know, through this, it's going to be Ed and his wife, Joanne, who used to come out, and Joe, and Ashley, and you wind up really developing a family.

And it's really nice, like, to be able to have those kinds of social connections, I think, in a time when people need and want community.

You really do have to rely on each other in a reenactment hobby, right?

Like Pap brought the fruit because we can't bring all the fruit.

So Pap brought the fruit and Kebby brought the sausage and somebody else brought this.

So it does kind of wind up having a pot luck kind of church gathering feel, even though it's not as well planned.

And you wind up just knowing everybody because, or at least I know everybody, that just may be me.

I don't know.

I'm the youngest in my family by 40 years.

So there was sort of this kind of time I kind of remember like being like, "Oh, it's, you know, one day it's going to just be me."

And the sense of, I would hate that it would just be me remembering my grandmother and her stories and just me remembering my aunt and her, my great aunt and her stories.

I am sort of the one that's going to carry on in whatever legacy the family will have, right?

It's such an amazing idea that the mark you leave in this world is other people.

And you know, I've always wanted to represent my family and make them proud in that sense.

It was my uncle who really did a lot of the genealogy research and track of my great-grandfather all the way back in the 17th century.

And that kind of spurred his interest into that.

And then from there, he found the third New Jersey regiment.

They started going to local areas.

And then they, he fell in love.

He fell in love with the hobby.

He fell in love with the community.

He fell in love with just really being able to, I think, honor his ancestors, but also to feel bigger, connected to something bigger than himself.

I think that's really big for him.

That's big for me too, to be honest.

It is a family-centric hobby.

I like to think of it as a family-centric hobby.

I think when we talk about the hobby as it was created was created by and for families.

A lot of people meet and marry within the hobby just because it is family-centric.

- I thought, you know, everyone was just going to be kind of like serious about, oh, you know, the reenacting, and really it's really more like a family.

- It's very open and welcoming, and they're so helpful.

They get you on board.

You don't have to have any background, skills, just an interest, and a willingness to try.

- It's been great.

They've, they've helped us.

- At the heart of this, it's really just about educating the public on these sort of things.

The way people lived, where they've been, what the kind of battles that we fought.

- It's really good to immerse yourself in history and try to experience what it, what it might've been like to actually live during the Revolutionary War.

That's the best way to truly understand how life may have been.

And that gives more of like a full understanding of history to understand what the people of that time felt like as these events were going on.

- There's a lot less of you- - You guys know my film crew?

- [Re-enactor] Oh, is this your film crew?

Oh.

I didn't know we were on camera.

- We're always on camera.

Yeah, I'm going to be radioactive for like the next like couple months, probably years.

It's always, microphone is always on.

Okay?

When I started falling in with the with the regiment, I would commute to events.

The first event that I went to was at Old Bethpage, which was just like, it's in Nassau County, that's right by where I live.

I went for the day, came back the next day.

When I finally slept out in the field with the third New York regiment, that's when I really felt more a part of it.

I was just like, "Oh, here's Justin.

He comes to events."

But then when I finally slept out in the field and, you know, stayed up at the campfire and was singing the songs and doing the jollification, that's when it's like, "Okay, yeah, this guy's a, he's weird like us.

He's going to come out here and sleep."

And then when he wakes up tired and his back hurts and he's sweaty, he's going to put the woolen thing back on and the funny hat and make ready, present and do the, and do it for the public.

Like that experience, that immersion is what makes, you know, builds comradeship and what makes you want to go see those people again and so forth.

I have a genius for dates and places, not names and faces.

- That is true.

You have to take them on- - If you want to put your name and your date of birth, you have to pass away.

And then maybe give it like a hundred years too.

- [Dakota] It's deceptively hot.

- Well yeah, because it's all over UV radiation.

We're all getting a real nice sunburn today.

- If you guys want water back there, I'll talk.

- A sensible thing for our, our mans to do would be to- - To march around the water.

Can you meet that?

Usually it says buy your leave, sir.

I'm having the water.

- Buy your leave.

Exactly.

Well, if you need to conveniently die, right by it.

Conveniently die and then roll your way over.

- Guys, grab your- - I'm doing it.

I'm telling them to do it.

- Vegetable stew, there's venison next to it.

Then we have white cheddar and bread.

There's two loaves out, but there's another one if you need.

And make sure you're drinking.

- We're not as resilient as our ancestors were.

I mean, they grew up doing this on a daily basis.

They were, their feet were calloused after walking and they barely sat, you know, for leisure, which is pretty much what we do for work and leisure today.

(patriotic music) - Eight to men would have the one tent when they were lucky enough to have tents.

And those two would be on guard, six would be inside the tent, which was miserable in the summer because you've got six guys in one tent, a lot of body heat, not a lot of room, but really helpful in the winter when it reached sub-zero temperatures.

And more people actually passed from the weather at the encampment of Morristown than Valley Forge.

It's just Valley Forge gets the name.

But Morristown, it was so cold, they dragged canons over the Hudson River.

Like, I don't even know if you remember a time in your lifetime that Hudson has frozen over, let alone frozen over enough to drag actual cannons across.

- What you have to remember is that in 1778, people didn't necessarily know that they were going to found a new country, that in a quarter of a millennium would become the greatest imperial power on the surface of the earth that they were trying to fight against the Stenson.

But they knew that they needed to defend their family and defend their home.

There were hundreds, thousands of men on that field, all with their own stories, their own families, their own arrogances, their own, you know, you know, they're their own people.

♪ Oh be a solider ♪ Oh be a solider ♪ Oh be a solider from Maxwell and me ♪ ♪ And we sang as we march through the crowded streets ♪ - This promise of what America, you know, aspires or could be is something that we can, is still within reach, but it's not this thing that is part of inevitable progress.

Because yeah, there are some people that say it's like, "Oh, and then we have the revolution and the American Civil War extends the franchise and citizenship to all men.

Then we wait another 70 some odd years to get women on side and then Native American citizens."

It's not just progress.

There are things that arrest that progress, fits and starts and deviations from that.

And so we need to understand, you know, the history so that we know it's, okay, this is where we began.

This where we went.

How do we extrapolate that line so that we don't retrograde, we don't veer off somewhere else?

(gunfire popping) (crowd cheering) - [Speaker] Story of George Washington, we are Americans, and we have nothing.

(crowd cheering) (thoughtful music) (crowd chanting No Kings) - See, you're breaking the rule that we have in Revolutionary War re-enact that we don't talk about modern politics, but go ahead.

(crowd chanting No Kings) - Our forefathers fought off kings and said no kings for the first time.

So it is full circle.

- [Neil] I think we're seeing a lot of the same things that happened with the king and parliament are sort of happening here now.

So who knows?

And again, not to be bringing modern politics into it, but who knows?

(crowd exclaiming) ♪ O say can you see - [Trump] Now exactly 250 years after the first patriots stood and fought at Lexington in Concord, we're in the midst of another kind of revolution.

- [Reporter] Do you see any checks on your power on the world stage?

Is there anything that could stop you if you wanted to?

- [Trump] Yeah, there's one thing, my own morality, and I'm a dictator.

But sometimes you need a dictator.

- [Interviewee] We're in turbulent times and it's surely scary and not comfortable.

America's so good at kind of glossing over history and whitewashing it.

And let's not talk about the things that, you know, happened that we don't want to talk about.

Well, it's all part and parcel.

We need to embrace it.

We need to understand what went on before to understand where we are today.

- [Trump] We will proclaim the ideals of the Declaration of Independence, and we will never surrender in the face of lies meant to divide us, demoralize us, and diminish us.

We will show that the story of America unites us and makes everyone free.

- Yes, we're divided, but thank God we're allowed to be.

Right?

Because in other areas of the world, division's not even allowed, right?

You're not allowed to be out there protesting.

You're not allowed to be criticizing your government very vocally on both sides of the spectrum.

But I think the term revolution really does have to come down to the idea of, are we even allowed to have these conversations?

And to me as a history teacher, if we're having conversations about division, we're in a good place.

- [Neil] Maybe this is, it's a good time for this all to be happening, that we're kind of reigniting that interest in our civic background and where we came from and what our liberties actually are and what we were fighting for in 1770's.

When I first discovered reenacting, it was kismet.

I was 11 years old and I was very excited about the bicentennial.

And I was bitten from the minute I stepped to the gate and saw all the tents, all the people dressed in 1740's, 1750's clothing.

The battles were amazing.

It was just, I was hooked and I said, "This is what I want to do."

- [Newscaster] In 1976, Americans came together for America's bicentennial.

- We just got caught up in the feeling.

I didn't think I was going to care.

And then when the day came, there we were.

- Everybody's in the spirit of the birthday move.

Yesterday morning on the train, one lady came in and said, "Happy birthday, everybody."

And everybody chimed, we were singing Happy Birthday America.

It was a beautiful spirit.

- I think people are closer together than they have ever been in a long time.

I saw us pulling apart 10 years ago and maybe people becoming very antagonistic.

I think this weekend showed us what we're really like.

We're really one.

- [Neil] I had always been interested in 18th century history in that period, but that kind of ignited even more in me.

- You've got to realize that the bicentennial is happening right after the Vietnam War era.

The guys in the ranks were Vietnam veterans who were involved in the hobby because they had experienced turmoil and revolution, and we could really relate the pre-independence colonies.

The bicentennial was an interesting period where we're kind of selling American history and trying to get people back into the groove of what the founders were really trying to do.

- [Neil] We really kind of glossed over the American Revolution.

I don't think they even teach civics or government in school anymore.

Civil War, we have photographs.

Revolutionary war, we really don't have any of that.

We don't have recordings.

We don't have anything.

So for me, it was to help bring history to life.

- America's 250th anniversary is almost here.

The milestone will be marked by celebrations from coast to coast, but this anniversary comes at a turbulent moment.

As the country looks back on the ideals that shaped it, Americans find themselves divided over the very interpretation of their past.

In an era of political polarization, history has become more than a record of what happened.

It has become a battleground over who we are.

- The bicentennial, that was 200 years.

Here we are 50 years later.

And to me, it almost seems like, eh, people are going to do 50th.

Eh, that's unfortunate because I think re-enactors take that, we think this is important and the next eight years are very important because we're illustrating how our country was formed.

This will be a way to start a flame under a new pot to simmer and to really bring everyone to coalesce and to bring them together.

And the public can be contained here.

- Horses have more ability to move.

Artillery is not- - Even if they, the other, if they loop around or something, I mean, it's.

We're in Yorktown Heights, New York, and there were major encampments throughout this area.

I'm working with Dakota and a few others.

We're planning events in 2028 already.

I jokingly say that Dakota is the keeper of the schedules and that I feel like either a member of royalty or someone of some high status that I say, okay, it's this day, where do I need to be?

At what time?

But so we're planning out, which is something I've never really done.

- We put a one-pager together that explains if you are exhibiting or if you are a re-enactor, what are kind of the rules of the road?

- That's good.

- Perfect.

- All that.

And about vaccines, they go to her.

- Great.

- All that we have all this- - Do you also have a- - (indistinct) - Website.

- Keep going.

Website.

Registration.

Facebook?

- Oh well.

- Instagram.

Instagram.

- No, it's upon everyone says a release.

- Hold on.

That's a whole other issue which I - - That's something that we need insurance.

That's insurance.

That's a nice issue.

- That'll go away.

- Yeah, and we handle registration.

- I didn't mention that.

Don't listen.

I didn't bring up releases for injuries.

- Whatever we can offer the re-enactors to make them feel like this is a great weekend for them to step back in time while also keeping the site happy and educating the public.

It's a little bit of a juggling act, but we're doing our best.

- When I started reenacting, I jumped in headfirst, in the deep end, and was swimming.

For the first four or five years, every weekend I was somewhere.

You're with these people every weekend.

And it's funny how you kind of just get through the week to get to Friday afternoon to go to an event and you see your family again and it's a great time and everyone's laughing and joking and, you know, in their cups and drinking and whatever.

It's enjoyable.

It's fun.

It's your family.

(dancers cheering) - My father, George Newman, who was a New York City businessman, either president or vice president of major companies.

We're talking Good Humor Ice Cream, Canada Dry Soda, Johnson & Johnson.

Imagine that, being a Manhattan businessman and on the weekends going to do battle reenactments.

My father built the third New Jersey regiment, which was an actual regiment in the Revolutionary War.

- And this one was your dad?

- Yep, that's my father.

- [Neil] That's our founding right there.

- He looks like you.

- Yeah.

- It's like I can kind of see the family resemblance.

George Newman.

He would go around to these garage sales in the '60's and '70's and he would be like, "That's from 1770," or, "That's from 1760."

And he would go and he would tell people like, you know, "You've got something."

And they'd be like, "Do you want it?

$5."

Now, these things, the George Newman collection is part of the collection at Valley Forge and under glass with gloves.

- I was 11 years old when we landed on the moon.

For a kid my age, that was just magic.

So I think back then when patriotism was more in vogue, people would go to a brigade event and watch this theatrical event happen in front of them.

But now I think you really need to go over the top to entertain people.

And then these days, you know, you're trying to get a good turnout.

We don't have the turnouts that we did in the bicentennial years.

It's a story of the American Revolution.

It's quite an amazing one.

And I don't think a lot of these younger people know it or understand it or appreciate the sacrifice that was made.

Something my father, even into his 80's, he was always talking about how can we get to the young people?

- Basically to grow.

We need, we definitely need more young people.

I don't think any of us want the BAR to become of groups of, you know, guys in their 70's with muskets and a color guard, you know, in a parade.

So growing the organization, teaching the organization, sharing its history, it's important for people to know where they came from.

I mean, hell, we're all about the history, right?

- Charge your bayonets.

Turn.

- Huzzah.

- See, he's the only one who did it right.

You got to yell and I want you to yell it.

So shoulder your arms.

Charge your bayonets.

- [Group Together] Huzzah.

(thoughtful music) - We're at Eastville Village in Nassau, New York.

And what we're here today or this weekend is an immersion weekend.

It's one of these rare times that we all get to take a little vacation from doing a lot of public activities, public lectures and talks, and just spend a weekend with ourselves in an 18th century setting.

- Morning, sir.

You look splendid.

(chuckling) (thoughtful music) - Cooking is being done by the hearth.

We've got candlelight.

We have the taverns open.

And it's sort of a breakren reward for all those who do all those public shows and events just to relax and enjoy the work, the passion, and the research that they have done all these years for a weekend actually living in the 18th century for a little bit.

And leaving home the smartphones and the tablets and the computers and today's modern issues.

- It's nice to see you.

- It's nice to meet you, Sean.

It's a pleasure.

Coffee's to your left.

Sorry, that's the secret electricity compartment.

You know, I've always said, no matter what kind of hobby you're in, churches, volunteers, it always comes down to food, fun, and fellowship.

- There you go.

Next.

You're a new face.

I saw my first reenactment living history event at Putnam Park in Redding, Connecticut in my single digits.

I think I was seven years-old.

My parents took me to that event.

And ever since then, I was hooked.

And here I am as a president and commander of the BAR for the 250th.

I, John Lopez.

- Swear by my honor that.

- Swear by my honor that.

- I will bear true allegiance without reservation.

- That I will bear true allegiance without reservation.

- Thank you.

- Thank you all.

- Three cheers for John Lopez.

- [Group Together] John.

Huzzah.

Huzzah.

- A hobby or this living history actually kind of kept me alive.

It kept me going.

(thoughtful music) We do a lot of this stuff at local, state, and federal historic sites.

We're all volunteers.

We love history.

We have that passion for history.

And we like to talk to people and get them involved in that.

- Vintage bake light, but it's looks like coral with, well, this one doesn't have real coral, but circa 1820, 1830.

- I feel like it's a little bit too busy for a gown for sure.

- 'Cause it's a lot of it.

- So we're going to go crazy with the spices on this one.

- Quite a bit.

- [Re-Enactor] And you did the two races?

Perfect.

Yeah, let's throw it in there.

- Because the men need their rations ahead of time.

It's going to take forever.

- I'm finishing this.

So this is a piece of ash.

We had a lot of ash right now because it's an Emerald dashboard.

It's a very resilient wood.

It's very, very hard.

And farmers were making a lot of their own spoons.

This is the sort of thing you would do on a cold winter's night while you're sitting around home.

- What we've been seeing is sort of a moving away from living history demonstrations.

Why are you guys here dressed in funny clothing with guns?

Yeah, we don't like that.

A couple of years ago, you know, we, you know, marched down Main Street and the whole parade route, every couple of yards, we stop, make ready, present, fire.

And everyone goes, "Ooh, ah," and so forth.

And the dogs bark and sometimes a kid cries.

But it's as we went around the bend and we, you know, do the wheel and then we make ready, present, fire.

Didn't see who said it, but just sort of heard this voice of someone kind of use a modern expression, Karen-y tone.

It's like, "Oh, is that necessary?"

Yes, ma'am.

This is a Charlotteville model 63 corrected for 66.

I just call it my Charlotteville 66.

I have neither pets nor children, and this is the joy of my life.

In the United States, our culture around firearms has sort of been tainted.

There was this legislation in New York State to not allow people to use firearms in state parks.

And that included reproduction muskets.

The people that wrote that legislation to say no firearms in state parks didn't necessarily realize that when we're doing our historical demonstrations, we are using actual firearms.

The brigade and what we do in living history has already kind of gone through this evolution because maybe to the chagrin of certain enthusiasts within the hobby, we are moving away from firearm focused things.

So I think that the brigade has an opportunity with its sort of living history to go into more of logistical things, the social aspects to be more revelatory or embrace the notion of this as a first American civil war.

- Come grab dinner.

It's hot, ready.

- It's not hot, but it's ready.

- There's a whole bunch of people that live vicariously through social media via through us watching our events, watching our conferences, yet it doesn't transform to, why did you actually come out?

Why don't you actually do some living history with us?

They seem to be involved in social media, but they're not able to make that jump.

Because I've invested so much of my life and time in doing this that as much as you get tired or frustrated, you can't, you don't want to give up that battle and just walk away.

It's too valuable.

It has a value.

Not only to me, but to you, to everybody else.

This living history community has a great value, and I'm a beneficiary of that value.

And the concern is after the 250th, after 1783 and eight years from now, where are we going to be?

- We should do the impediment also.

- I want half of your energy.

- Such- - Because you're half my age.

- I didn't necessarily fall in love with history.

I fell in love with the people.

The community is truly, I think, something that everybody searches for.

Regardless of whatever statistic you read, this is one of the loneliest generations we've ever raised.

People are so desperate for connection.

And what's great to me is that this hobby, regardless of where you come from, you have that community.

It is a form of historical escapism in a way.

There are some people that are in this for the experience of bringing history to life, whether it be through the gunpowder or the smoke or living in that sense.

But I think the unifying experience that we all have is to step out of ourselves.

Someone else should say something.

- So what I've asked is if you could - - Sorry, cut that out.

- Proposal.

- Don't.

(Neil rolling tongue) You got to keep her honest.

- You turned this into a gang, you know?

- I know.

It's important because it keeps the hobby alive, and we are a family.

How long I would be involved?

Well, we'll see.

You know, it just depends as long as they want me around and I'm adding to the mix and then I'm being part of something that's moving forward.

There's so many levels of love and so many ways that it can be expressed with people, with things, with objects, with music, with art.

I think it's something that makes you happy and makes you comfortable.

- Okay, everybody.

Good afternoon.

Professor will be here in a couple of minutes.

But yeah, we're going to be talking about a little bit the evolution of the military's role in the exercise of the police power.

As much as I can kind of like just sort of get through a nine to five, you know, working the day job, you know, it's not ever going to be totally fulfilling unless, you know, yeah, I'm doing that thing that I saw, you know, when I was a young man of five, of doing, of not only doing history and teaching it, but doing it in a way that people can engage with and participate.

(thoughtful music) - [Dakota] How do we get ready for the 275th and the 300th, right?

How do we have that forward thinking?

And of course, when we get people joining, I want them to be committed members for life.

I want them to want to do this for the rest of their lives.

- We have cider, we have pumpkin ale and we have the porter.

Now the teaching tonics all gone.

- It's truly about fostering that sense of community and dedication to, we are all in this together.

(thoughtful music) - We're rolling.

- Okay.

So remember now what's happening, I don't know if you were listening to Dakota.

- No.

- No.

You are talking to your 250-year-old person.

- Yeah.

- Okay.

If you feel it in your heart, I want you to thank your younger, your 250-year-old person from then.

Your young self.

- Okay.

- So what's, tell your 250-year-old self, what do you think is the- - 250-year-old self.

- Yeah.

What do you think is the root that's held us together?

What's the root?

- I think the fundamentals of, I hate to use this, but life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.

I mean, that's an off to used term, but it is integral in what this country was founded on.

And to a point, it's still valid today.

Now it's just times 200.

I think we need to be reminded of where we came from.

I thank all the colonists and the people who fought during that period to get to where we are.

But I don't know if a lot of them will be happy with the way we are now, because as I keep saying, we're kind of back to that dispute.

I don't want to say the experiment failed, but it's changed.

And ultimately, if that's what the general majority wants, then maybe that's the way we go.

But it's not a time where we can take up arms like we did in 1776, 75 or the eight years of the war, because it's different.

But then look at a small ragtag group of colonists defeated one of the major world powers.

So who knows?

Who knows where we'll end up?

- You weren't perfect.

No one is.

I'm not perfect now.

And in future generations, they won't be perfect either.

But ideals are worth fighting for, and morals are worth fighting for.

Otherwise, they're just hobbies.

If you're going to live by the principles that you've started, then I have to do my part today, whether that be remembering the sacrifices and taking part in my own government, whether it's through voting, through paying attention, through, you know, reading the news, and to really understand, I owe that to you.

I owe that to everybody.

That is what you and the colonies were fighting for, to be able to have a voice in the very laws that governed you.

So to today, I think the biggest thing that we all need to be aware of, and we all need to be just cognizant of is that when we feel like it's not worth it anymore, or just give up, it doesn't really matter.

That's something that I fight in my classroom every single day, because it has to matter.

Otherwise, nothing really does.

- So it may seem strange to you, but 250 years moved on from the brutal experience of fighting in this conflict, this is something that we still celebrate.

And though I work at a university and as a teaching assistant and teach history, it's certainly seems to me very necessary to do this sort of living and breathing history and to really depict what you and your neighbors and your fellow countrymen went through 250 years ago.

And as difficult as it is, you know, for me to do a two-day event and to camp out in the field and to, you know, sleep with a bed roll and to, you know, eat out of a campfire, when I'm leaving Sunday afternoon and getting into my Ford sedan to go home to the air conditioning or the heating or whatever time of year it happens to be, I have to remember that you stayed out in the field.

Every moment in history, people always think that, that their times are the most extraordinary.

And and that's true because they haven't been resolved historically yet.

And it's maybe easy to look on other moments, maybe the American Civil War or the progressive era a hundred years ago, and see where they ended up and see them as kind of progressive and inevitable.

But those were just as fraught as anything that we're, going through right now.

- I think for so long, the status quo had been that there was one person who should be in charge.

That the divine right to rule was the norm.

It was a thousand years of history that we had been pulling from, that you had been pulling from.

But we see that whether you say that it was the enlightenment thinkers that sparked it, or whether it was just the fact that America became launched onto the world stage, it did spark other revolutions that happened afterward.

And this idea that we should be able to consent of the governed, that power lies with the people, and not with one arbitrary ruler, is just an enduring idea.

And perhaps maybe in our worldview, it is the right idea because the more power to the people, the more able you are to safeguard them, right?

And I think that was what the founding fathers, what the leaders had in mind.

And I don't know if every single person, I don't even know if I, back then, would've been able to see that in a large scale.

It was very much about getting it through the war then, okay, we're kind of the next step, the next step.

But I do like to think that there was this change in understanding that, you know what?

Maybe the power does lie with the people, and giving them a voice is the only way to protect them in the long run.

I just really personally want to thank everybody who has just taken this passion to the next level, right?

Who have really used their time and their money and their energy to remember and to honor them in some way.

And I don't think people in the colonies would've even really understood that they too would one day be a part of it.

I get chills sometimes when I think about, you know, you read the name of somebody, a random person, and that may be the first time that person's name has been spoken in 250 years.

♪ Oh this is the story of us ♪ Not in gold ♪ But in dust ♪ In the echoes we choose to keep ♪ ♪ In the promises buried deep ♪ We stand where they once stood.

♪ ♪ Not just memory, but understood ♪ ♪ Through the years, through the rust ♪ ♪ We are the story of us ♪ ♪ So if you pass by ♪ Don't just see a faded past or memory ♪ ♪ It's a living thread we choose ♪ ♪ The story of me and you ♪