NPI's Cascadia Advocate

Offering commentary and analysis from Washington, Oregon, and Idaho, The Cascadia Advocate provides the Northwest Progressive Institute's uplifting perspective on world, national, and local politics.

Thursday, November 24th, 2011

Happy Thanksgiving 2011!

Hap­py Thanks­giv­ing, everyone!

Today we cel­e­brate a unique­ly North Amer­i­can hol­i­day steeped in tra­di­tion — a hol­i­day that began cen­turies ago as a sim­ple har­vest cel­e­bra­tion in colonies like Mass­a­chu­setts and Vir­ginia, and is now a day when mil­lions of fam­i­lies across this con­ti­nent come togeth­er to share a meal and count blessings.

We at NPI hope today is a day of peace and joy for you and your family.

From Pres­i­dent Oba­ma’s Thanks­giv­ing proclamation:

Though our tra­di­tions have evolved, the spir­it of grace and humil­i­ty at the heart of Thanks­giv­ing has per­sist­ed through every chap­ter of our sto­ry. When Pres­i­dent George Wash­ing­ton pro­claimed our coun­try’s first Thanks­giv­ing, he praised a gen­er­ous and know­ing God for shep­herd­ing our young Repub­lic through its uncer­tain begin­nings. Decades lat­er, Pres­i­dent Abra­ham Lin­coln looked to the divine to pro­tect those who had known the worst of civ­il war, and to restore the Nation “to the full enjoy­ment of peace, har­mo­ny, tran­quil­i­ty, and union.”

In times of adver­si­ty and times of plen­ty, we have lift­ed our hearts by giv­ing hum­ble thanks for the bless­ings we have received and for those who bring mean­ing to our lives. Today, let us offer grat­i­tude to our men and women in uni­form for their many sac­ri­fices, and keep in our thoughts the fam­i­lies who save an emp­ty seat at the table for a loved one sta­tioned in har­m’s way. And as mem­bers of our Amer­i­can fam­i­ly make do with less, let us reded­i­cate our­selves to our friends and fel­low cit­i­zens in need of a help­ing hand.

Here are some of the things we’re thank­ful for:

  • We’re thank­ful that vot­ers defeat­ed Tim Eyman’s I‑1125, which would have jeop­ar­dized impor­tant trans­porta­tion projects like the new Ever­green Point Float­ing Bridge and Sound Tran­sit’s East Link light rail.
  • We’re thank­ful that two reform-mind­ed edu­ca­tion activists, Sharon Peaslee and Mar­ty McLaren, will be join­ing the board of Seat­tle Pub­lic Schools in Decem­ber, replac­ing incum­bents Peter Maier and Steve Sundquist.
  • We’re thank­ful that Belle­vue Col­lec­tion own­er Kem­per Free­man, Jr. failed to knock out Belle­vue City Coun­cilmem­bers Clau­dia Bal­duc­ci and John Chelmi­nak with dis­hon­est attack mailers.
  • We’re thank­ful that pro­gres­sive activist John Stokes remains ahead of Aaron Laing in the con­test for Posi­tion #1, an open seat.
  • We’re thank­ful for Cur­rent TV, the cable net­work co-found­ed by Al Gore, which is now the home of Count­down with Kei­th Olber­mann. Cur­rent will be adding two great new shows with­in the next few weeks: The Young Turks with Cenk Ugyur, and The War Room, with Jen­nifer Granholm.
  • We’re thank­ful that we have an amaz­ing, artic­u­late cham­pi­on for work­ing fam­i­lies in Eliz­a­beth War­ren — who is now speak­ing truth to pow­er as a can­di­date for U.S. Sen­ate in Massachusetts.
  • We’re thank­ful that Ore­gon Sen­a­tor Ron Wyden stands pre­pared to lead a fil­i­buster against a ter­ri­ble bill mov­ing through Con­gress that would destroy the Inter­net as we know it. (Learn more about SOPA and PROTECT IP).
  • We’re thank­ful for the Occu­py move­ment, which has sparked a much-need­ed con­ver­sa­tion about cor­po­rate pow­er in the Unit­ed States as well as around the world… and inspired peo­ple to move their mon­ey away from Wall Street banks to cred­it unions and com­mu­ni­ty banks.

Final­ly, we’re thank­ful for all of the won­der­ful sup­port­ers who joined us at our two major events this year: our Spring Fundrais­ing Gala at the Mer­cer Island Com­mu­ni­ty Cen­ter, and NPI’s FallFest at New­mark Tow­er in Seattle.

Our donors make the work we do pos­si­ble, and we are very grate­ful to every pro­gres­sive who has helped sus­tain our projects and research.

Again, Hap­py Thanks­giv­ing to all.

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One Comment

  1. Hap­py Thanks­giv­ing to you also Andrew. I had heard about Cenk com­ing to Cur­rent but the War room with for­mer gov­er­nor Granholm was great new news for me. I’ve found Ms. Granholm to be infor­ma­tive, deci­sive, insight­ful and a clear voice for demo­c­ra­t­ic val­ues. It’s just out­stand­ing to final­ly see the begin­nings of an effec­tive media counter to the right wing con­ser­v­a­tive nonsense.

    # by stephen s :: November 26th, 2011 at 11:58 PM
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