Hello Friends,
The current state of the health care debate reminds us of everything we need to know about stamping out the distortions and fighting back with the truth before lies take root. The rightwing and their allies have spent weeks and months spreading the most egregious mistruths about the health care reforms of Sen. Kennedy and President Obama, and whipping up anger. Now, you can't turn on your t.v. or radio without hearing repetition and repetition of misinformation, trying to drown out real debate.
We can defeat the big lies and achieve health insurance reform, but it won't be easy now that the mistruths and anger have taken hold.
So I need you to help me start now to make sure we knock down the next big lie - false statements about global climate change - before they frame one of the most important debates we'll ever have in our country. And we need to start NOW fighting against the misinformation that the rightwing is already spreading to try to derail the bill i'm working on with Senator Barbara Boxer and our colleagues; we can't wait until the lies take hold again.
Believe me, I've learned this through hard experience - if you let the lies take hold, it gets harder and harder to root them out. Lies are weeds, choking out our debate, and we need to go after them hard and early to keep them from growing.
Can you please contribute to fight back with the truth?
Last year, you fought back against the smears against Barack Obama and other Democrats with TruthFightsBack.com, and you made a difference. So TruthFightsBack.com is coming back, dedicated to telling the truth about climate change. We're going to start spreading the truth now, so that by the time we get well into the debate, the lies of the right will be exposed, and the truth will have a fighting chance.
We're going to track all the misinformation campaigns, so everyone will know the truth. But even more than that, we'll give you the tools you need to take the fight into your own hands. I'll be out there fighting every single day, but - bottom line - I can't do it without you. Without you out there fighting to spread the truth, making sure your friends and neighbors know it, making sure to make your voice heard at townhalls, making sure journalists hear from the truth and not just from the lies, the lies will take hold.
And the first thing I need you to do is help give us the resources we need to build the online tools you need to make this happen.
Can you please contribute to help us spread the truth?
In 20 years, we can't look back and think, "If only we'd done a little bit more, this climate disaster could've been stopped." We don't have much time, and we have to strike now. It won't be easy - the status quo is always strong - so we all need to do everything we can.
But if we do, we can win.
And then, in 20 years, with a new clean energy economy powering unprecedented prosperity of the 21st century, we'll be able to look back on this time and know that we did it, that we fought and won a great victory for all of us.
We've got a lot of work to do, but we can do it.
Thank you,
John Kerry
