Category: Holidays

Posted inCivil Liberties, Holidays, Policy Topics

Martin Luther King, Jr.: “Justice too long delayed is justice denied”

by Andrew Villeneuve

Today is Mar­tin Luther King Jr. Day, and we do every year in hon­or of Dr. King’s mem­o­ry, I’m post­ing an excerpt from his Let­ter From Birm­ing­ham Jail. In these pas­sages, he is explain­ing why he has reject­ed calls to wait on advanc­ing civ­il rights. King makes the point that peo­ple who wish to expand […]

Posted inHolidays

Banished Words for 2015

by Andrew Villeneuve

Every year since 1976, Michigan’s Lake Supe­ri­or State Uni­ver­si­ty has released a thought­ful and humor­ous “List of Words Ban­ished from the Queen’s Eng­lish for Mis­use, Overuse and Gen­er­al Use­less­ness”. Here is the 2015 (and for­ti­eth annu­al) edi­tion, for your read­ing enjoy­ment on this New Year’s Day: BAE — One of the top nom­i­nees. “Mean­ing ‘before […]

Posted inHolidays

In memoriam, thirteen years later

by Andrew Villeneuve

Today is the thir­teenth anniver­sary of the Sep­tem­ber 11th attacks, which destroyed New York’s World Trade Cen­ter, dam­aged the Pen­ta­gon, and claimed the lives of thou­sands of inno­cent Amer­i­cans. In hon­or of those who died that day, we’re repub­lish­ing a poem that we post annu­al­ly here on The Cas­ca­dia Advo­cate. Two thou­sand one, nine eleven […]

Posted inHolidays

The Declaration of Independence, two hundred and thirty-eight years later

by Andrew Villeneuve

In accor­dance with tra­di­tion, we are post­ing the text of the Dec­la­ra­tion of Inde­pen­dence here on The Cas­ca­dia Advo­cate for your enjoy­ment. The Dec­la­ra­tion was pri­mar­i­ly authored by our third pres­i­dent, Thomas Jef­fer­son, who drew heav­i­ly on the think­ing of Enlight­en­ment philoso­phers such as John Locke to per­sua­sive­ly lay out the case for the independence […]

Posted inHolidays, Humor & Satire, Series & Special Reports

Banished Words for 2014

by Andrew Villeneuve

Every year since 1976, Michigan’s Lake Supe­ri­or State Uni­ver­si­ty has released a thought­ful and humor­ous “List of Words Ban­ished from the Queen’s Eng­lish for Mis­use, Overuse and Gen­er­al Use­less­ness”. Here is the 2014 (and thir­­ty-ninth annu­al) edi­tion, for your read­ing enjoy­ment: SELFIE — Has the hon­or of receiv­ing the most nom­i­na­tions this year. “Peo­ple have taken […]

Posted inHolidays

Happy Thanksgiving 2013!

by Andrew Villeneuve

Hap­py Thanks­giv­ing, every­one! Since World War II, Amer­i­cans have gath­ered togeth­er on the fourth Thurs­day of Novem­ber to cel­e­brate the year’s boun­ty and bless­ings, shar­ing food, friend­ship, and — in many hous­es — foot­ball. This year, the fourth Thurs­day of Novem­ber hap­pens to fall very late in the month, and unusu­al­ly, it also coin­cides with […]

Posted inHolidays, Public Service, Views & Reviews

President Obama’s Second Inaugural Address: A heartening, uplifting call for progress

by Andrew Villeneuve

Four years ago, I stood on the Nation­al Mall in our nation’s cap­i­tal and wit­nessed the swear­ing-in of Barack Oba­ma as the forty-fourth Pres­i­dent of the Unit­ed States of Amer­i­ca. It was a his­toric day — a hap­py and joy­ous day that offered a wel­come respite from weeks of bad eco­nom­ic news and feel­ings of […]

Posted inHolidays, Legislative Advocacy

New laws for 2013, Washington State edition

by Andrew Villeneuve

New Year’s Day is more than just a fes­tive hol­i­day and a turn­ing point on the Gre­go­ri­an cal­en­dar. It’s also the occa­sion when many laws and admin­is­tra­tive rules go into effect, as pre­scribed by our Leg­is­la­ture. Here’s a sum­ma­ry of some of the new laws and rules tak­ing effect in Wash­ing­ton today: The min­i­mum wage in […]

Posted inHolidays, Series & Special Reports

Banished Words for 2013

by Andrew Villeneuve

Edi­tor’s note: This post was orig­i­nal­ly pub­lished on Decem­ber 30th, 2012, and repub­lished on New Year’s Day 2013. Every year since 1976, Michigan’s Lake Supe­ri­or State Uni­ver­si­ty has released a thought­ful and humor­ous “List of Words Ban­ished from the Queen’s Eng­lish for Mis­use, Overuse and Gen­er­al Use­less­ness”. Here is the 2013 (and thir­­ty-eighth annu­al) edi­tion, for […]

Posted inAnnouncements, Holidays, Legislative Advocacy

Happy New Year: Welcome 2013!

by Andrew Villeneuve

2013 has begun! On behalf of the team at NPI, I’d like to wish all of our read­ers, donors, and vol­un­teers a hap­py, healthy, and pros­per­ous new year. 2013 holds spe­cial sig­nif­i­cance for us, because it is NPI’s tenth year. We’ll be cel­e­brat­ing this remark­able mile­stone that you’ve helped make pos­si­ble all year long — online, at […]

Posted inHolidays

In memoriam, eleven years later

by Andrew Villeneuve

Today is the eleventh anniver­sary of the Sep­tem­ber 11th attacks, which destroyed New York’s World Trade Cen­ter, dam­aged the Pen­ta­gon, and claimed the lives of thou­sands of inno­cent Amer­i­cans. In hon­or of those who died that day, we’re repub­lish­ing a poem that we post annu­al­ly here on The Advo­cate. Two thou­sand one, nine eleven Two […]

Posted inHolidays

The Declaration of Independence, two hundred and thirty-six years later

by Andrew Villeneuve

In accor­dance with tra­di­tion, we are post­ing the text of the Dec­la­ra­tion of Inde­pen­dence here on The Advo­cate for your enjoy­ment. The Dec­la­ra­tion was pri­mar­i­ly authored by our third pres­i­dent, Thomas Jef­fer­son, who drew heav­i­ly on the think­ing of Enlight­en­ment philoso­phers such as John Locke to per­sua­sive­ly lay out the case for the inde­pen­dence of […]

Posted inHolidays, Humor & Satire

Banished Words for 2012

by Andrew Villeneuve

Every year since 1971, Michi­gan’s Lake Supe­ri­or State Uni­ver­si­ty has released a thought­ful and humor­ous “List of Words Ban­ished from the Queen’s Eng­lish for Mis­use, Overuse and Gen­er­al Use­less­ness”. Here is the 2012 (and thir­­ty-sev­enth annu­al) edi­tion, for your read­ing enjoy­ment on this New Year’s Day: AMAZING — Received the most nom­i­na­tions. LSSU was surprised […]