Offering frequent news and analysis from the majestic Evergreen State and beyond, The Cascadia Advocate is the Northwest Progressive Institute's unconventional perspective on world, national, and local politics.

Friday, May 20, 2005

The Portal and Me

Frank Sennett from the Spokane Spokesman-Review has a column today in the paper's "Weekend" section about Pacific Northwest Portal, and also, me (Young progressive schools state's right's wing).

The column talks about the portal's founding, its mission, and also details my history of political involvement:
As he finishes 12th grade in Redmond, Villeneuve was excited to have his first newspaper op-ed piece published as well. His commentary, headlined "Eyman out to destroy representative democracy," appeared in Tuesday's Seattle P-I. The young author is identified in a tagline as "the chair of Permanent Defense." That's the group he formed way back in junior high.

Next came the Northwest Progressive Institute, the "volunteer think tank" Villeneuve created in 2003 during his summer break. Most of the institute's work – including the blog portal – has been conducted online. But the group plans to help "progressive candidates and campaigns win elections" in other ways "as more and more people express an interest in our organization," its founder says.
It's true that I became politically active in ninth grade as a freshman. After years of being frustrated by Tim Eyman initiatives, I founded Permanent Defense.

I later realized that Permanent Defense couldn't encompass all the issues I wanted to talk and think about. Something larger, more grand was needed. In August of 2003 I founded this website and this organization - the Northwest Progressive Institute (NPI).

NPI has slowly but steadily grown since its founding. I'm proud of what we have been able to achieve with NPI and I'm delighted that so many people are now involved.

We are approaching our two-year anniversary this August, and I think it's already safe to say that 2004-2005 has been ten times more successful than our first year was. We remain committed to our mission and our vision for making this country a better place.

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