To set the stage for what you'll find on this website, permit me to reminisce just a bit.

The southern states had summoned up a thundercloud by insisting that they would continue their practice of slavery even if they had to secede from the Union to do it.  In the midst of the resulting turmoil that contended for the integrity of our nation, I began my hopeful vigil:  looking eastward toward the rising sun of freedom.  

Philip Reid was the foreman of the foundry crew that created me - a twenty foot high,  7½ ton bronze statue.  In a fitting bit of irony, Mr. Reid was an African slave.  He did not receive his freedom until midway through the casting process.  Other newly freed slaves finally hoisted me atop the
U. S. Capitol dome in December, 1863. 

The thunderclouds of our current political turmoil are of a different sort, but the threats to our nation's integrity are just as real.  So my vigil continues:  I'm still looking toward that rising sun . . . raising my voice "in order to form a more perfect union."

I'm not the only one raising my voice.  If you want, I can help you raise your own.  Just click on the Take Action tab.

Also, I'm by no means the first to raise my voice.  In fact, let me tell you about another voice that inspires me still.

It was in 1867 that I welcomed back a fellow who, thirteen years earlier, had begun his career as a newspaper reporter here in Washington.  Sam had a new byline now:  "Mark Twain."  Already, he was spinning yarns in order to satire those who deserved it. 

"What brings you back to this fetid swamp, Mark?"  Never at a loss for an abundance of words, he took a long, slow draw on his ever-present cigar and replied:

"Well, Freedom, I heard about the goings on in Washington and thought the time was ripe for this reporter.  Think about it:  'this everlasting compelling of honesty, morality, justice and the law to bend the knee to policy, is the rottenest thing in a republican form of government. It is cowardly, degraded and mischievous; and in its own good time it will bring destruction upon this broad-shouldered fabric of ours. I believe the Prince of Darkness could start a branch of hell in the District of Columbia (if he has not already done it), and carry it on unimpeached by the Congress of the United States, even though the Constitution were bristling with articles forbidding hells in this country. And if there were moneyed offices in it, Congress would take stock in the concern, too.'" **

That was then.  This is now. Some are  even saying our experiment in democracy is "over." 

A U. S. Senator *** once addressed such despondency, thundering:  "Over?  Did you say 'over'? Nothing is over until we decide it is! Was it over when the Germans bombed Pearl Harbor? Hell no!"  Others took up his cry:  "He's absolutely right! We gotta take these bastards. . . . We have to go all out. . . . This situation absolutely requires that a really futile and stupid gesture be done on somebody's part."

Freedom's View is here to play that part.   While many different kinds of voices will be raised, I will fill mine with as much pithy satire as possible and publically direct it at them. **** 

To put the matter more vividly, what the seat of this government in particular needs is a really good whoopee cushion!

Thanks for visiting me here!

*        Leonard Cohen, Anthem
**      Twain in his Letter to Virginia City Territorial
             Enterprise, April 7, 1868
***    The late Senator John Blutarsky, (1949 - 1982)
****  You know who I mean:  the ones Leonard Cohen
             described as "that lawless crowd, the killers in
             high places who say their prayers out loud."