100% of your donation MATCHED for Norman Lear's 100th birthday! Dear People For Supporter, As our friend Norman Lear nears his 100th birthday this summer, we are asking you to celebrate it with him by chipping in a renewal donation to support People For the American Way, the organization he co-founded with the late Barbara Jordan to counter authoritarianism and advance democracy. We have known, admired, and loved Norman for at least half those years, ever since he participated in a series on creativity that we produced for CBS. He later invited us to join other kindred spirits in a retreat to discuss and debate the ideas and objectives that became People For’s mission. Norman’s enthusiasm and patriotism were contagious; the rest is history. But now history has taken a new turn, and democracy faces a triple threat: from a new gilded age that concentrates political and economic power in fewer and fewer hands; from a fundamentalist religious movement eager to use state power to force women to carry unwanted pregnancies; and from a far-right political party willing to employ racism, voter suppression, and extremism to gain power and ruthlessly wield it. As Grover Cleveland once warned the country he led twice as President: “The Ship of Democracy, which has weathered all storms, may sink through the mutiny of those on board.” Our democracy is still fragile, still vulnerable, still the target of usurpers. So we weren’t surprised when we learned that Norman has dedicated the entirety of his centennial year to the work of People For the American Way. He’s still a believer, still a patriot, still tireless in the fight for democracy. – Judith and Bill Moyers
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