What I learned at the Newseum

Sue and I checked it out over the weekend. I found it more interesting than I thought I would, and recommend it. In particular saw a good film on the 1798 Sedition Act. I have a dim memory of it from taking American History as a teenager, but the film did a good job of bringing out what the school course did not (assuming I was paying attention), especially how completely unconstitutional the law was. Sue and I agreed that this museum, like other good museums, leaves you with the feeling you haven't done it justice. You could spend an entire single visit just in one section of one floor.

Something else stood out: it's some kind of DC employment project. An amazing number of workers were milling about, which made it nice in a lot of ways. Typically you didn't walk far without someone paying attention to you, sometimes just to say "watch your step" getting off an escalator, and so on. There were something like 100 different employees I spotted. If I'm right, I can't see how that would be less than something like a 5 million dollar payroll, assuming there isn't some kind of part-time employment going on. This in addition to any unseen folks getting paid. It's an untaxed foundation called the Freedom Forum that runs it, so I guess I can accept that it's none of my business if they are in fact going overboard with it all. But it sure caught my attention. Tickets were $20 apiece.