How can we pro­tect and expand the free­doms that we cher­ish so deeply at a time when pow­er­ful forces in this coun­try are deter­mined to con­tract them?

That’s a ques­tion pro­gres­sive activists and orga­ni­za­tions all over this coun­try are wrestling with as the 2018 midterms approach.

It’s tough to go on offense when the right wing has com­plete con­trol of the fed­er­al gov­ern­ment — but it’s not impossible.

Progress is pos­si­ble even in the most try­ing and dif­fi­cult of times, par­tic­u­lar­ly at the state and local lev­el. For exam­ple, look at what’s hap­pen­ing in Olympia, where the Wash­ing­ton State Sen­ate has been trans­formed from a grave­yard of progress into a pro­duc­tive, car­ing, and delib­er­a­tive leg­isla­tive body thanks to the arrival of Sen­a­tor Man­ka Dhin­gra (D‑45th Dis­trict: Red­mond, Kirk­land, Wood­inville, Sammamish).

That trans­for­ma­tion did not just hap­pen on its own.

Found­ing NPI board mem­ber Lynn Allen (Pho­to: Lin­coln Potter)

Under­pin­ning every hard-won pro­gres­sive vic­to­ry is a sto­ry… a sto­ry of peo­ple knock­ing down bar­ri­ers and over­com­ing obsta­cles, often over a peri­od of many years.

These sto­ries deserve to be told, and their heroes celebrated.

In this age of fear, uncer­tain­ty, and doubt, it’s hard to keep a cheer­ful atti­tude, which the clos­ing words of NPI’s Creed remind us to do.

Nev­er­the­less, that must be our aim.

It’s eas­i­er to keep a cheery out­look when one has rea­son to be hope­ful and pre­pared to work for change. Find­ing that moti­va­tion is the key.

We know that we can find inspi­ra­tion in the good works of our best and bright­est peo­ple. Rec­og­niz­ing them is valu­able not just because of the impor­tance of say­ing thank you, but because of the pow­er of their example.

That’s why, last year, NPI decid­ed to cre­ate the Lynn Allen Awards. Named for our found­ing board­mem­ber Lynn Allen, who trag­i­cal­ly died of ovar­i­an can­cer in 2011, these awards hon­or peo­ple who have made extra­or­di­nary con­tri­bu­tions to pro­gres­sive pol­i­tics and pub­lic policy.

Each year, we rec­og­nize two recip­i­ents of dif­fer­ent gen­ders with Lynn Allen Awards. Lynn was a big believ­er in thank­ing peo­ple for their work, so it is tru­ly fit­ting that these awards are named for her.

Major Gen­er­al Paul Eaton (Ret.)

We are delight­ed today to announce our first 2018 Lynn Allen Award hon­oree: Major Gen­er­al Paul Eaton (Retired), the Man­ag­ing Direc­tor of the VetVoice Foun­da­tion. Major Gen­er­al Eaton served our coun­try with dis­tinc­tion for over three decades as a com­mand­ing offi­cer in the Unit­ed States Army, with com­bat and post-com­bat assign­ments in Iraq, Bosnia, and Somalia.

Here’s an extend­ed bio­graph­i­cal sketch:

As a major gen­er­al he was assigned to Iraq from 2003 to 2004 as Com­mand­ing Gen­er­al of the Coali­tion Mil­i­tary Assis­tance Train­ing Team (CMATT), where he designed, manned, trained and equipped the Iraqi armed forces for the Iraqi Min­istry of Defense and the secu­ri­ty forces for the Inte­ri­or Min­istry. Pri­or to that assign­ment, he com­mand­ed the Army’s Infantry Cen­ter and was Chief of Infantry for the Army.

Eaton has appeared on a num­ber of news and com­men­tary pro­grams includ­ing Face the Nation, Hard­ball and all major networks.

Dur­ing the 2008 cam­paign sea­son, he advised can­di­dates for both con­gres­sion­al and pres­i­den­tial campaigns.

For the past five years, he served as a senior advi­sor to the Nation­al Secu­ri­ty Net­work. Addi­tion­al­ly, Eaton has recent­ly par­tic­i­pat­ed with the Depart­ment of Ener­gy in non-pro­lif­er­a­tion work.

He holds a bachelor’s degree from West Point and a master’s in French Polit­i­cal Sci­ence from Mid­dle­bury Col­lege. He is mar­ried to PJ, has two sons and a daugh­ter, all soldiers.

In May of 2008, we were hon­ored to have Major Gen­er­al Eaton (Ret.) as the keynote speak­er at our very first Spring Fundrais­ing Gala in Red­mond, which was a spec­tac­u­lar suc­cess. We are delight­ed to wel­come him back to the gala this year to rec­og­nize him not only for his exem­plary ser­vice to our nation, but for his sub­stan­tial and deeply appre­ci­at­ed con­tri­bu­tions to pro­gres­sive causes.

Major Gen­er­al Eaton showed great courage in 2007 when, short­ly after retir­ing from the Army, he decid­ed to speak out in oppo­si­tion to the Bush admin­is­tra­tion’s coun­ter­pro­duc­tive plans to esca­late the occu­pa­tion of Iraq. He fol­lowed that up by work­ing with Dar­cy Burn­er and oth­er Demo­c­ra­t­ic con­gres­sion­al can­di­dates to craft what became known as A Respon­si­ble Plan to End the War in Iraq.

At VoteVets.org and the VetVoice Foun­da­tion, Major Gen­er­al Eaton works with North­west Pro­gres­sive Insti­tute Pres­i­dent Rick Heg­dahl to give a voice to vet­er­ans on mat­ters of nation­al secu­ri­ty, vet­er­ans’ care, and every­day issues that affect the lives of those who served and their families.

Eaton con­tin­ues to fear­less­ly speak out in defense of our coun­try’s val­ues, as he did this week after The Wash­ing­ton Post report­ed that Don­ald Trump has instruct­ed the Pen­ta­gon to plan a grand mil­i­tary parade to stroke his ego.

Here’s what Eaton had to say about that (empha­sis is his):

Don­ald Trump has con­tin­u­al­ly shown him­self to have author­i­tar­i­an ten­den­cies, and this is just anoth­er wor­ri­some example.

For some­one who just declared that it was “trea­so­nous” to not applaud him, and for some­one who has, in the past, admired the tac­tics of every­one from Sad­dam Hus­sein to Vladimir Putin, it is clear that a mil­i­tary parade isn’t about salut­ing the mil­i­tary — it is about mak­ing a dis­play of the mil­i­tary salut­ing him.

The mil­i­tary is not Don­ald Trump’s to use and abuse in this way. Our mil­i­tary is the very best in the world — they are not to be reduced to stage­craft to prop up Don­ald Trump’s image. Any com­man­der in chief who respects the tra­di­tions of the mil­i­tary would under­stand that.

Unfor­tu­nate­ly, we do not have a com­man­der in chief, right now, as much as we have wannabe banana repub­lic strong­man.

In an inter­view with WBUR, Eaton added:

This is not about hon­or­ing the troops. This is about the pres­i­dent the Unit­ed States. This has noth­ing to do with hon­or­ing the troops. Parades serve a use­ful pur­pose in the sol­dier­iza­tion phase of devel­op­ing a sol­dier. We do it in basic train­ing, we do it at West Point. Once in a rare, rare moon do we do it, ’91 was the last time we did such a parade to rec­og­nize the return of our troops [from the Gulf War] with Gen. [Nor­man] Schwarzkopf in the lead. That’s the last time we did this. Parades are a huge cost, cost in time and cost in mon­ey, and we don’t have enough of either for the cir­cum­stances that we’re in today.

We at NPI proud­ly asso­ciate our­selves with Major Gen­er­al Eaton’s remarks and thank him for his bold­ness and can­dor. At a time when our coun­try’s val­ues are under attack on an unceas­ing basis, it is imper­a­tive that voic­es like his be heard. We will not allow our democ­ra­cy to be tak­en from us with­out a fight.

Read­ers, we hope you feel the same way. We invite you to join us on Sat­ur­day, April 7th, as we rec­og­nize Major Gen­er­al Paul Eaton (Ret.) with a Lynn Allen Award. 

Here are the details for this year’s gala:

• What: NPI’s 2018 Spring Fundrais­ing Gala
• Where: Ren­ton Com­mu­ni­ty Center
• When: Sat­ur­day, April 7th, 2018 | Recep­tion at 5:30 PM; pro­gram at 7 PM
• Who: Join the NPI team and Lynn Allen Award recip­i­ent Paul Eaton
• Why: Because an effec­tive resis­tance needs orga­ni­za­tions test­ing pro­gres­sive ideas and build­ing per­ma­nent infrastructure

Be inspired to con­tin­ue work­ing for a pro­gres­sive future for our region and coun­try: join us on April 7th at the Ren­ton Com­mu­ni­ty Cen­ter! Fol­low this link to secure­ly buy your indi­vid­ual, house­hold, or liv­ing light­ly ticket.