| Please let me be the first person to welcome you to People For the American Way and www.pfaw.org. Every day, PFAW is fighting hard for the core American values we share: Liberty, Equality, Religious Freedom and constitutional principles like checks and balances and fair courts that provide access to justice for all Americans, not just the very powerful.
In 1981, I became deeply concerned with what I saw as a fundamental attack on the American values I hold dear. Televangelists, then the public face of the growing Religious Right, were increasingly filling the airwaves with divisive messages that mixed religious dogma and politics and that challenged the faith of anyone whose politics were not aligned with theirs. What I was seeing was not what our country was supposed to be about… this was not the American Way. I woke up one morning with an idea for a television commercial to counter their televangelists, and the response was overwhelming. It turned out that the concerns I had weren’t mine alone — they were shared by millions of Americans from every walk of life. Taking the energy created by that ad, I joined with the late Congresswoman Barbara Jordan of Texas, faith leaders and other concerned citizens to form People For the American Way Foundation, and three years later formed People For the American Way, an advocacy organization dedicated to exposing the extremism of the Far Right and defending the constitutional rights and values of all Americans. Over the next few weeks, we’ll help you get more acquainted with PFAW, teach you about the work in which we are engaged, and offer ways to get involved in the fight for issues you care about. For now, I would like to invite you to watch the TV ad that started it all, along with a more recent video that shows you what we’ve been up to in the nearly 30 years since that ad first aired:
And, of course, feel free to explore our web site at your leisure at www.pfaw.org. On behalf of the entire board and staff of People For the American Way and our affiliate People For the American Way Foundation, thank you for your activism and welcome to the family. Together, we can help make sure that America is the best it can be, and that the promises of Liberty, Equality, Justice for All — the American Way — become a reality. Sincerely,
Norman Lear, Co-founder NEXT: Look for an email soon from Michael B. Keegan, President of People For the American Way. |
Be a Seed for Change 
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