Good morning. It's Friday. We'll look at confusion among re-enactors after a new gun law took effect at the beginning of the month. We'll also look at a classroom with no walls or windows, but a lovely view and a teacher who says that teaching there helped him get jobs in more conventional settings. |
 | | Mario Tama/Getty Images |
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For re-enactors — the history-loving types who recreate skirmishes of the past on former battlefields or in parks — the law of unintended consequences seems to apply to a new state law. |
They say that legislation barring people from carrying guns into certain places means they cannot commemorate historic battles with their muskets, their other muzzleloaders or even their World War II-era M1 rifles. Some long-planned re-enactments have been canceled, like an Oct. 1 event at Fort Tribute in upstate Madrid, N.Y. It was to cover everything from the French and Indian War to World War II. |
"Some have taken this seriously, and some are like, they're not going to raid a re-enactment," said Scott Wilson, the volunteer fort coordinator at Fort Tribute, an educational interpretive center about nine miles from the St. Lawrence River that concentrates on the 6,000 men from that area who fought in the Civil War. |
"Sometimes you write a law and you're writing it so broadly, you forget pieces," he said. "If you're not interested or don't know a whole lot about re-enacting, whether it's the French and Indian War, the Revolutionary War or the Civil War, this is probably not on your radar." |
The law in question was passed after the U.S. Supreme Court in June struck down a longstanding New York statute that had set strict limits on carrying guns in public. In response, Gov. Kathy Hochul called the Legislature back to Albany for an emergency session, and lawmakers passed a new law that designated locations as "sensitive areas" where people would be prohibited from carrying guns. |
The sensitive areas listed in the law locations included parks and playgrounds, along with museums, theaters and performance venues — all of which re-enactors say appear to apply to them. One off-limits location was even identified by name: Times Square, although it did not figure in any major military battles. |
"I think this was not a well-thought-out law," said Jim Lennon, the president of the Long Island Military Preservation Association, which is involved with the Museum of American Armor in Old Bethpage, N.Y. "We do programs regularly that consist of us displaying firearms, rifles, all legally possessed. But now we can't do that anymore. I think this law is a knee-jerk reaction to be able to say they did something." |
Different sites reached different conclusions about whether to call off events. State officials "encouraged us to keep doing what we do," said Beth Hill, the president and chief executive of Fort Ticonderoga, which is going ahead with a re-enactment of a 1777 raid this weekend. "Yes, there will be muskets fired," she said. "They are reproduction muskets firing blanks. We do that every day. This will just be on a larger scale." |
But last week's annual commemoration of the Battle of Plattsburgh fizzled. |
"Everybody was jazzed up, and we were really promoting the heck out it," said Tom Donahue, the president of the group that organizes the event. "But the day before it started, I get a call from a guy in Rochester, a re-enactor who asked if it had been canceled. I said, 'What are you talking about?' He started telling me about the gun law and events around him that had been canceled." |
Donahue said the state police told him that re-enactors risked arrest if they brought their guns. |
Later, during a news conference with Assemblyman Billy Jones, a Democrat who represents Plattsburgh, a reporter received an email from Ms. Hochul's office saying the law was not intended to disrupt re-enactments. "My opinion was, I think that means it's OK," Donahue said. |
But the commemoration did not turn out to be the big event he had hoped for. Only 30 to 40 re-enactors attended, he said. |
A spokeswoman for Hochul said on Thursday that re-enactors need not worry — historical re-enactments are permitted. "Individuals who have lawfully participated in re-enactments should continue to do so," the spokeswoman said, adding that new guidance was being drafted by the New York State Department of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation. |
Enjoy a sunny day with temperatures in the high 70s. Tonight will be clear with lows in the mid-60s. |
In effect until Sept. 26 (Rosh Hashana). |
 | | Brendan Mcdermid/Reuters |
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No walls or windows in this classroom, but the backdrop is nice |
 | | Gregg Richards |
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Prof. Eugene Opoku-Mensah will teach two classes over the weekend in what he called his "preferred location," by the lake in Prospect Park. |
He is one of 13 faculty members for University Open Air, a pop-up teaching program run by the Brooklyn Public Library in partnership with the Prospect Park Alliance. All 13 are immigrants — Opoku-Mensah, above, is from Ghana and earned his master's degree and doctorate in China before following his wife to this country — and they are paid $125 an hour, with most classes lasting 60 or 90 minutes, said László Jakab Orsós, who as the library's vice president of arts and culture coordinates University Open Air. |
Orsós said the idea behind the tuition-free program was to provide "a platform for people who came to New York City and don't always have the means to penetrate the system" — professors who "in coming to the U.S. may have had to give up their professional identities." |
Opoku-Mensah said he struggled after arriving several years ago. "It was hard to get an opportunity to teach in a university here," he said, "even though I had all the credentials. I didn't have the experience teaching in the U.S., and I didn't know how U.S. students are, in terms of behavior or their relationships with a professor. The Open Air people gave me the platform, and my confidence in teaching in the U.S. grew to the extent that in the interviews I had, I had much more confidence." |
The interviews he was talking about were job interviews. He said he was now teaching at three schools in New Jersey: Felician University, Middlesex Community College and Essex County College. He said he had worked at Macy's while waiting for teaching credentials that cleared the way for him to work as a substitute teacher in middle schools in New York City. |
"Who knows?" Opoku-Mensah said. "Without University Open Air, I would still be searching for a teaching position." |
My husband and I had just left the Museum of Modern Art when it began to rain. We hoped the rainfall would not become a downpour because we did not have an umbrella. |
Crossing the street, we saw an unfamiliar man and woman approaching us with smiles on their faces. |
"Here," the woman said, extending an umbrella in our direction. "We're on our way home and taking the subway." |
We thanked them, and they walked toward the train station. My husband lifted the umbrella over our heads. |
"Oh, my," he said. "It's a really good umbrella." |
As we waited at the bus stop, a couple who appeared to be tourists walked by us with no protection in what was by now steady rain. |
"Here," I said, extending my arm with the umbrella. "Our bus has just arrived." |
Glad we could get together here. See you tomorrow. — J.B. |
| Francis Mateo and Ed Shanahan contributed to New York Today. You can reach the team at nytoday@nytimes.com. |
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