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

I have some exciting news to share with you!

A brilliant young leader named Svante Myrick will become the new president
of People For the American Way on Jan. 1, 2023. I want to introduce him to
you, and then allow him to introduce himself.

Svante is one of those exceptional people you meet, take an immediate
liking to, and think to yourself, “Now, this is someone to watch.”

I’ve been watching Svante for more than a decade through his leadership in
People For the American Way’s Young Elected Officials network. Here’s a
guy who faced challenges that most of us do not have to experience—like
poverty and homelessness as a child—and who went on to become a city
council member while still in college, and then to be elected at age 24 as
the first Black mayor of Ithaca, New York, and the youngest mayor in the
whole state!

He was a popular and effective mayor, getting reelected twice. He forged a
creative approach to reducing abusive policing and making communities
safer at the same time. And over the past two years, he helped People For
the American Way develop a policy roadmap for other mayors and local
officials to follow.

Svante left public office and became People For the American Way’s
executive director this January, motivated by his concern for rising
authoritarianism and other threats to democracy. It reminds me of how I
put my television work on pause to start People For the American Way when
I had similar concerns.

Friends, I am grateful every day for People For the American Way and for
all of you. And I am grateful to our outgoing president, Ben Jealous, who
has taken on an exciting new challenge as executive director of the Sierra
Club. We thank him for his leadership and service.

I am looking forward to the work we will do together with Svante as our
president. Please be sure to read the note from him below, and the
[ [link removed] ]press release announcing our leadership change.

Norman Lear

----[From Svante]----

Hello friends,

It’s a wonderful thing to be introduced as People For the American Way’s
next president by our founder Norman Lear. Norman started People For the
American Way before I was born. And he’s still at it. And that says
something about the nature of our mission and the work we do. We have to
be in this for the long run.

As much as each election matters—and we have just been reminded how much
they matter—elections are just part of a longer ongoing struggle that is
cultural as well as political. It is the all-important struggle over what
it means to be American, what we mean by “the American Way.”

I like summarizing People For’s work with the motto of the comic book icon
Superman: “Truth, Justice, and the American Way.” Superman was created by
a couple of Jewish writers at a time when fascists were building power in
Europe and its admirers were spreading antisemitism at home. Superman gave
people hope as well as confidence in the power of democratic values.

Norman talks about being a young boy listening to his radio and coming
across an antisemitic preacher. Fifty years later, Norman heard
televangelists spreading their own kind of hatred, and he found others to
join him in starting People For the American Way.

Our era has its own fascists, its own authoritarians, its own bigots and
bullies. And it has people who are hurting and lost and vulnerable to
manipulation by demagogues.

That’s why our era also needs us.

Norman mentioned a bit of my own story. My single mother was able to feed
me, and I was able to get through school, get accepted into a great
college, and find my way to make a difference—all because there were
policies and people in place to support me. But there are political forces
intent on dismantling those policies and putting the kind of opportunities
I had out of reach for future generations.

We are here, together, to say, “that’s not the American Way.”

I will be in touch with you soon about the work we have ahead of us. For
now, I thank Norman and People For the American Way board members for
their vote of confidence. I thank Ben for his leadership and support over
the past several years. And I thank you for all the ways you support our
work.

Svante Myrick

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