Humanitas exists to encourage those who create contemporary media to use their immense power in a humanistic way, to enrich as well as entertain their viewers.

Enriching them means:

• Giving them some piece of the truth about what it means to be a human being.
  
  
• Challenging them to take charge of their lives and use their freedom in a responsible way.
  
  
• Motivating them to reach out in respect and compassion to all their brothers and sisters in the human family.
  

We single out the writer for special attention because the value orientation of a story - what it says about the meaning and purpose of human life, about what's important and what's not - begins in his or her mind, heart, and psyche.

With this award, we seek to encourage the communication of those human values which will help its viewers grow and develop and become the fulfilled human beings God made them to be.

Human values are those which enable us to grow and develop and become fulfilled persons. We are not born fulfilled persons. We come to fulfillment only after we have discovered, decided and done certain things. But we are born with needs and desires which propel this rigorous and demanding process.

We gravitate toward reality so that we can extract its meaning. Just as our stomachs feed on food, our minds feed on the truth. And the rejoice in the light by which they discover it.

We desire the full flowering of our lives with a passion that sometimes surprises us. We want to develop our talents, actualize our potentialities and give what we have to give. We hunger for deep and personal communion with our fellow human beings. We want to give love. We want to receive it. We know that we can realize the fullness of our humanity only with and through other people, not apart from them.

All human beings yearn for light, life and love. Somehow we know our fulfillment is bound up with satisfying this yearning.

Somehow we also know that in their fullness light, life and love are other names for that transcendent mystery in which we all live and move and have our being. Some people call this mystery God.

This, then is a tentative sketch of the process by which human beings become fulfilled persons. You can see how intrinsic values are to the whole process. As a writer, you can also see the artistic challenge involved:

To capture in story some small part of this fascinating process.

To get inside your characters as they grapple with its complexities

To so involve your viewers in the struggle that they grasp its meaning and put aside their fears.

By bringing to the creative process your own struggle for light, life and love, you can help your viewers progress in theirs.

In search of meaning, life and love, we embark on a journey of the spirit which includes the following twelve stages.

Openness & Trust
We open ourselves up to reality, because we sense that it has something to give us; that the pain and chaos that sometimes seem to characterize it are mostly on the surface; that in its depth, it is benevolent and meaningful.

Curiosity
We begin to explore the world outside ourselves -- the world of nature and of other people. Why are things the way the are, we ask? How do they fit together? Where are they going?

Self Knowledge
We move on to explore the even more fascinating subjective world inside ourselves. Who am I? Why do I feel the things I do? Where did I come from and where am I going? What is the meaning, the purpose of this life of mine?

Self Affirmation
Now we face our first crisis. Have I any value? If so, what is it? Can I say yes to myself, or must I say no? American culture has a basic premise - the sacredness of the human person -- which derives from its Judaic Christian roots. From a Judaic Christian perspective, we are able to say yes to ourselves because we are made in the image and likeness of God. We are good because we are replicas and residences of God.

Honesty
The second crisis follows immediately on the first. If I am good, why do I find myself doing evil things? If I love the truth, why am I sometimes dishonest, lying to other people, and to myself? If I am made for freedom, why am I so willing to trade it for a slavish kind of security? If I want to live fully, why do I on occasion take the easy way out and opt for a kind of death? If I find my fulfillment in loving other people, why do I frequently succumb to resentment, narcissism and apathy? If God does, in fact, live within me, why do I do demonic things? There are no easy answers to these questions. We are ambivalent creatures, alternately cowardly and courageous, flawed yet beautiful. Honesty demands we face this truth about ourselves and not expect perfection from other people when we do not possess it ourselves.

Discipline
Because of our ambivalence, we must struggle to possess ourselves. This means learning to delay gratification and discipline ourselves, saying no to those impulses of body, emotion and ego which would compromise our dignity. It also means learning to think, choose and act in accordance with that dignity.

Freedom
This is the essential human quality. We are worlds unto ourselves, good in ourselves. We were not made to be someone else's satellite. Nor were they made to be ours. Autonomous, radically independent of material things, we can decide how we will respond to reality. Like malleable clay, we have the power to shape our own lives. Like a driver at the steering wheel, we can choose our destination, the route we will travel and how fast we will go.

Creativity
We can also choose how we express ourselves, in language, life style, personal relationships and artistic creation. At the deepest level, we are all artists and what we create reflects the uniqueness which is ours.

Responsibility
Our attitudes and actions are truly our own because we freely beget them. Since we are free, we are responsible for what we think, choose and do. We cannot in good conscience walk away from our decisions, nor can we refuse to live with their consequences.

Love
Human love is the exquisitely beautiful flower that grows in the good soil of human freedom. It is our way of reaching out and sharing ourselves with other human beings. We will their welfare. What is good for them becomes good for us. What is bad for them becomes bad for us. A kind of spiritual fusion takes place, so that we identify with them and they become for us other selves. Love arises from, expresses itself in and is nourished by honest, deep and trusting communication. Love is the most fulfilling of human activities. It is the perfection of freedom. It is the highest of all human values.

Family
For most people love will express itself in the marital commitment and be lived out in the family. From parents, family life will demand great generosity, courage and loyalty. To children it will give identity and self worth. To both it can give great fulfillment.

Universal Concern
We cannot restrict our caring to our own families, but must concern ourselves with the society in which we live and with our brothers and sisters in other parts of the globe, whether or not they share our skin pigmentation, religious faith or political persuasion. If any human being lacks the food, clothing, shelter, education, health care or employment he or she needs for the full flowering of his or her humanity, then we are all diminished. Together we must work to build a global society where no child ever goes hungry, no man lives in fear, no woman sleeps on a street -- a society, in short, of peace and freedom, justice and human dignity.