I submitted an op/ed piece to The Knoxville News-Sentinel a few weeks back. It was about the newly expanded, two weekend celebration in Oak Ridge, Tennessee known as The Secret City Festival. The history component of the festival was isolated, amputated from the rest of the festival, to its own weekend. The first weekend was about history, presentations by World War II and Manhattan Project veterans and honoring all veterans.
The attendance was off by 90%, at least that first weekend. They had a World War II reenactment, which they've had for many years. Again the attendance for the reenactment was off by at least 90% from the 2016 show.
I had a booth at the festival to sell my book. With the tiny crowds, sales were disappointing. I paid a premium for a vendor booth, but after eleven hours, I packed up my stuff and headed home.
Since that weekend, I've been doodling about the dust-up in New Orleans to remove Confederate Memorials, the decision to amputate history from The Secret City Festival, and how this relates to our national initiative to sanitize our history. It seems like The Manhattan Project and the lost cause of the Confederacy are now very odd bedfellows.
More later.