Freeman Wicklund Bio
Cute dogs, but who’s the guy?
Hi there! My name is Freeman Wicklund. I’m the guy behind this Web site. So what got me interested in wanting to save the world? A lot really.
Why Do I Care?
First, my folks raised me to live by the Golden Rule: do unto others as you would have them do unto you. Living by the Golden Rule continually pushes me to serve others and strive to live a life of love, mercy, forgiveness, peace, and a host of other right-on values; (BTW, consider my living this way to be a work-in-progress 
).
My parents also instilled in me a respect for all life, by taking me out into nature on camping and hiking trips. I fell in love with the wildlife and wild-lands, and knew they had to be protected.
My Family: I’m the one on my mom’s lap
Then my country instilled in me the values of justice, freedom, and courage. Learning in school about the struggles of abolitionists, suffragettes, and civil rights activists and the sacrifices they made to be treated with respect and dignity left a big impression on me.
I developed a first-hand appreciation for these country-instilled values by being gay and growing up in a school where “fag,” “faggot,” and “gay” were the insults of choice. Being gay in a society that was (and still is) hostile towards gay people has given me empathy for all beings whose needs are ignored and discounted for no fault of their own.
Honestly, most beings endure fates far worse than mine; suffering the indignities of slavery, racism, sexism, abject poverty, homelessness, war, speciesism, etc. Still, having personally experienced the sting of injustice and the violence of the intolerant, I have an empathy for all oppressed beings; and it fuels my fire to work for a better world.
Farrah (dog), my brothers, and me (far right)
Another huge influence on me was my late dog Farrah, who taught me that animals have unique personalities, are sensitive, and have rich emotional lives. Frankly, they love their lives; just like you and I do. She helped me realize that any ethical system worth its salt needs to include animals. So all those great values: the Golden Rule, Justice, Freedom, Compassion, etc. need to be applied to our treatment of animals as well.
Finally, I’ve seen too much to feign ignorance. People think human slavery is over, but there are more enslaved people now than ever before in human history. People think animals raised for food are treated well, but I’ve visited the farms, and seen sick and injured animals languishing untreated in filthy, over-crowded, dung-covered cages. Through books, the Internet, nonprofit groups, and personal experiences, I’ve learned about many of the cruelties, injustices, and sickening violence that still festers in our world. So there’s nothing to do but roll up my sleeves and get to work.
Smile for the camera!
My Teen Years
Having been raised as a Christian, in high school I decided to actually read the Holy Bible cover-to-cover. Doing this shattered my faith. All of the wars, bloodshed, hatred, jealousy and vengence of God horrifed me. I found God to be flippant and — quite frankly — evil. I didn’t care if I would burn in hell forever, I wouldn’t worship anyone so unworthy; even if he was all-powerful.
Having abandoned my faith, my activism developed a “fight fire with fire” approach. I became a very passionate and vocal animal rights fanatic. Many of the things I did during this time, I am still pleased with, such as running in front of loaded guns at the Hegins, Pennsylvania pigeon shoot and freeing sixteen birds before being hauled off to jail. And staging a sit in at the University of Minnesota’s President’s Office in opposition to the U’s primate drug addiction experiments. This landed me in jail where I went on hunger-strike for 14 days before being released.
Other things I did during this time I still kick myself for, such as being a spokesperson for the Animal Liberation Front, trick-or-treating at the homes of animal researchers to challenge them on their own turf, and promoting confrontational forms of advocacy in the pages of No Compromise — a magazine I founded and edited.
Embracing Love & Nonviolent Action
Then I had a few scary experiences that crushed my idealistic naiveté that all activists were involved for the right reasons. Not long after this, I found Martin Luther King, Jr., Gandhi, and Gene Sharp’s wonderful trilogy, The Politics of Nonviolent Action. I did yet another 180 degree reversal.
Comprehending the power of nonviolent action and the need for any movement seeking to inspire people to ethical behavior to be above reproach, I wrote my swan song to the militant wing of the movement in a booklet called, Strategic Nonviolence for Animal Liberation. I printed several thousand copies of it. I also included it in the last edition of No Compromise that I published before handing control of the magazine over to others.
Talk about drama! My break caused a rift in the militant wing of the movement with many siding with me, and others wanting to lynch me! But as with most drama, it eventually blew over.
O yeah, and somewhere in there—1996, I believe—I graduated from the University of Minnesota with a Bachelor of Science in Nutrition.
My folks and me at my college graduation
My Life After College
I was now a reformed fanatic. In 1999, I started Bridges of Respect, an organization that provided (and still provides) free humane education presentations to Minnesota schoolchildren with the aim of inspiring in them a respect and reverence for all life. I did that for the next five years; even working with the youth at Minneapolis’ Juvenile Detention Center.
Finally, at the age of 25, I came out of the closet and started dating. I also went back to my Alma Mater, Apple Valley High School, and spoke to the diversity club about my experiences being gay. I lobbied the Principal and School Board members for them to allow a Gay Straight Alliance to be formed at the school. The Principal and student group were behind me, but the Board said such a group would be too controversial. Thankfully, only a year later, one was allowed to form. Yay!
Modeling Gandhi’s nonviolent direct action and the work of Patty Mark in Australia, I organized the first open rescue of hens in January of 2001. I corresponded repeatedly with Michael Food’s President and requested a tour of their battery cage egg facility, but they repeatedly denied me and eventually stopped responding to my letters. A half-dozen of us members of Compassionate Action for Animals decided to visit the farm, document conditions, and rescue a few of the many sick and injured hens we found.
The first act of compassion Lois the hen has ever known
Since then, other groups such as Compassion Over Killing, Mercy for Animals, Utah Animal Rights Alliance, East Bay Animal Advocates, and Compassionate Consumers have conducted their own open rescues, and done a much better job at obtaining media coverage and opening the eyes of the American consumer to the horrors of battery cages and modern-day farming.
In other news, my dad is a triathlon buff, and he has so far managed to get me to do four half-ironman triathlons with him. I did most of them as fundraisers for various nonprofits and managed to raise five grand for Compassion Over Killing in 2005. Yay!
My Life These Days
These days, I am living in Columbus, Ohio and working as the Director of Campaigns for Mercy For Animals as I write a book of memoirs focusing on my experiences in animal rights. I am also a Sowing Seeds Workshop facilitator for the Institute of Humane Education, which is based in Maine.
And my faith? Well, I’ve reclaimed it in a sense; but now it is new and improved. I am no longer a Christian and I’ve dropped the idea that the The Bible is the infallible word of God. Having learned how it was written, translated, and compiled makes me quite confident that it is a very human document, fraught with errors and injected with prejudices. A lot of it is simply a historical record of wars and craziness—not an example we are to emulate.
When I read it these days, I take to heart all that inspires and pushes me to be a better person; while not sweating the prejudices, slavery, violence, and warmongering it contains. I still try to follow Christ’s teaching to “do to others what you would have them do to you” (Matthew 7:12), yet I now believe that all religions and spiritualities have a part of the truth in them and can aid a person in living a spiritual life of service, truth, and justice.
So there you have it: My fabulous life up until Saturday, February 9, 2008!
Contact Me
You Couldn’t Possibly Want More Info on Me, But Here It Is Anyway
My Introductory speech at Toastmasters
My bio at the Institute for Humane Education
My bio at Bridges of Respect (You will need to scroll to the bottom of the page)
This text was written in 2007 and 2008 by Freeman Wicklund of FreemanWicklund.org, and it may be freely reprinted or distributed in any e-zine, e-mail, newsletter or blog as long as this sentence and Web link are included.