Scott Bruun: Jim Westwood’s Declaration of Independence

Wednesday, July 01, 2015

Scott Bruun, GoLocalPDX MINDSETTER™

Westwood showing off his “1783” tattoo to this year's Classroom Law championship winners from Grant High School.

How is it that Oregon ranks dead last among the states in high school graduation? How is it that Oregon keeps eliminating school days? How is it that Oregon schools rank in the bottom-quartile nationwide in just about every measure of performance?

How is all this possible, yet every year teams of students from Oregon high schools stand above peers from around the country on one of the biggest stages of academic prowess? How is this possible indeed?

In a name, it’s possible because of Jim Westwood.

Jim Westwood is a Portland attorney and highly-regarded constitutional scholar with a passion for American history. He is senior counsel at Stoel Rives law firm, and focuses his practice in appellate courts on issues of constitutional law.

He’s kind of a big deal around here.

What makes him exceptional however, especially this week as we celebrate Independence Day, is his work as coach and leading volunteer for Grant High School’s “We the People” teams.

“We the People” is a platform begun by congress in 1987 in response to growing student ambivalence toward America’s founding heritage. For whatever reasons, whatever distractions, America’s public schools were failing to fuel constitutional passion among American students. “We the People” was launched to fix this.

Today, the hugely-successful “We the People” initiative uses volunteers like Westwood to promote programs at all grade levels. The pinnacle program is the Classroom Law Project, which consists of 5,000 teams from high schools around the country. Teams of students that study and debate the Declaration of Independence and U.S. Constitution.

Every year, the country’s top teams come together in a national competition. The 2015 national champion was Portland’s Grant High school, led by Jim Westwood. Grant also won in 2013. Lincoln High School, ably led by Portland attorney Steve Griffith, won the national championship in 2014. Remarkably, over the event’s 28-year history, Oregon teams have won the national championship seven times and almost always place among the top three.

Jim Westwood is a humble guy. He is the first to say that a successful “We the People” team is not about him, or any other single person. Success for these teams combines a collective effort among parents, volunteers, teachers, sponsors, and of course the best and brightest students in Oregon.

Yet passion is contagious, and mastery of skills demonstrated by one inspires others to strive for the same. Just as Bach inspires would-be pianists, Jim Westwood has inspired hundreds of Oregon students to study, understand, debate and love our great country and its constitutional underpinnings.

I first met Westwood years ago. I was giving a forgettable campaign speech and extoling the virtues of Barry Goldwater. To my surprise, Jim came up to me later and told me that he had volunteered for Barry Goldwater’s presidential campaign. I later found that not only had Westwood been an officer in the U.S. Navy, but had also been captain of Portland State’s 1965 College Bowl team. A team which, to the surprise of Harvard, Yale, Stanford and MIT, won the national championship.

Westwood’s habit of leading brain-powered teams to national championships continues. Yet smart, ambitious people are not uncommon. Westwood’s Midas touch has as much to do with a patriot’s passion and servant’s heart as it does with IQ alone.

In other words, you can teach the Federalist Papers all day long. But if you really want to instill love for our nation’s rich constitutional heritage in students? Well, you prove that you’re all in. You walk the walk. You might even do what Jim Westwood did just a few weeks ago.

You get “1783” tattooed on your arm.

As Westwood will tell you, 1783 was the year that George Washington resigned his commission as commander in chief of the Continental Army. By retiring to private life, by not grabbing political powers which could have easily been his, Washington proved the morality of America’s revolution to a watching world.

This coming Saturday, July 4th, will be a day for neighborhood parades, barbeques, flags, family and fireworks. No cards, no presents, just the year’s best holiday.

More importantly, Independence Day serves as an opportunity to reflect, with gratitude and appreciation, upon America’s place in history. A day to remember our Declaration’s “self-evident truths.” A day to consider our Constitution’s “more perfect union.” And a day to renew our commitment, as Lincoln implored at Gettysburg, “that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.”

That our nation, conceived in liberty, can long endure will be up to ours and future generations. Jim Westwood, a patriot with passion and dedication for teaching, has done as much as anyone in Portland, ever, to ensure our success through those future generations.

This July 4th, enjoy your family, eat some barbeque and watch fireworks. Love your country. And remember to tip your hat to Jim Westwood.

Scott Bruun is a fifth-generation Oregonian and recovering politician. He lives with his family in the 'burbs', yet dutifully commutes to Portland every day where he earns his living in public affairs with Hubbell Communications.

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The Speaker of the State House of Representatives was re-elected to represent North and NE Portland with 83 percent of the vote. She's also leader of the House Democratic Caucus, which gained a member in the election.

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2) Oregon Attorney General Ellen Rosenblum (D)

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7) Secretary of State Kate Brown (D)

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