A new message from your friends at People For the American Way.
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Friend,

Happy Fourth of July!

Two hundred and fifty years ago, a group of American colonists signed a
bold Declaration of Independence declaring that they and their fellow
Americans were no longer the subjects of the tyrannical British king.

That declaration could have been short-lived. Making it real took years of
hard fighting against the world’s most powerful empire.

But Americans don’t celebrate the defeat of the British forces at Yorktown
in 1781, or the signing of the Treaty of Paris in 1783, or even the
ratification of the U.S. Constitution in 1789, as the country’s birthday.

We celebrate the assertion of self-determination signed on July 4, 1776.
The radical declaration that all men (people) are created equal and share
equally the rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. The
equally radical declaration that government draws its legitimacy from the
consent of the governed.

Those principles are worth celebrating, even though we as a country have
often failed to live up to them.

It is undeniable that for most of our 250 years, the ability to
participate in self-governance was denied to Black people, women, and
others. Our country has sometimes sided with tyrants to squelch the
aspirations of other oppressed people.

It is also undeniable that the principles of the Declaration inspired the
people who have fought to change all that, who fought to abolish slavery
and the brutality of the Jim Crow era. The principles in the Declaration
inspired the African American civil rights movement and other movements
for freedom and justice from around the world.

They also inspired People For’s founder Norman Lear. In 2000, Norman and
his wife Lyn purchased a rare original printing of the Declaration of
Independence. They sent it on a decade-long road trip to every state so
that people of every faith and political persuasion could experience the
feeling of reverence and awe at being in the presence of this document
that was printed secretly on July 4, 1776 and carried on horseback to
spread the news of independence. Now that’s patriotism.

[1]Image of People For founder Norman Lear with a copy of the Declaration of
Independence.

It is a tragedy that President Donald Trump has hijacked the 250th
anniversary of the Declaration of Independence while he and his allies are
working so hard to whitewash our history in favor of empty glorification
of our “greatness.” It is even worse that he and his MAGA movement are so
aggressively working to reverse progress on voting rights, women’s rights,
LGBTQ equality, and equal opportunity.

Under better leadership, our 250th anniversary could have become a rare
moment for Americans to reflect together on our founding promises, the
ways we have failed to fulfill them, and also the ways that we have come
together time and again to move the nation toward them.

We could have made this anniversary a celebration of the abolitionists,
suffragists, and freedom riders, the advocates and average citizens who
put their lives on the line, the millions and millions of Americans who
have fought for freedom and justice at home and abroad.

I’ll be celebrating that American spirit on this Fourth of July. I’ll be
celebrating the spirit of the people in Minneapolis who rallied to protect
their neighbors from the violence of our current authoritarian regime.
I’ll be celebrating all of the people and civic organizations who work –
under great threat to themselves – to protect the people’s right to vote.
I’ll be celebrating the spirit of the millions of people in every state
who have turned out for joyful “No Kings” rallies in defiance of the
corrupt would-be king and his court.

Those rallies directly invoke the spirit of the Declaration of
Independence, whose authors declared, “A Prince, whose character is thus
marked by every act which may define a Tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of
a free people.”

Today, we are being led by unfit rulers who are corruptly abusing their
power to make us less free.

There is no greater act of genuine patriotism than to resist them.

We are four months from elections that can help us reclaim our country.

Let us pledge to each other our lives, our fortunes, and our sacred honor.

We, too, can make history!

[2]Svante signature.

Svante Myrick
President
People For the American Way

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