As the state begins its patchy and sometimes risky emergence from stay-home orders and business shutdowns, Progressive Maryland continues its work to humanize the state response and demand that working families don’t get sacrificed to the needs of the ownership class—or to “justice” gone bad.

We are fighting for transformational change in policing, for decarceration, for better state government response to the needs of the state’s over 20 percent unemployed, and for relief for the many who can’t afford to meet rent or mortgage payments to the few. Plus reports from our increasingly active chapters around the state, and our recent blog posts. Read on in the Memo. Note correction to Prince George's Chapter meeting; email Memo is in error.

Gov. Larry Hogan is getting plenty of flak on the many areas where his administration has failed to meet the challenge of the COVID-19 virus in Maryland.

Both out-of-work Marylanders and their representatives in Congress are bringing the heat on Hogan’s lagging Labor Department and slow or no unemployment compensation payments.

Wednesday June 17 Maryland workers will unite in protest against the state's broken unemployment system.

Ahmaud Arbery

Breonna Taylor

George Floyd

Nina Pop

Tony McDade 

We are angry. We are hurt. We are grieving. We are fighting. And we won’t stop saying their names. We are calling on everyone to join our critical fight for racial justice and Black lives.

Elections are an important part of organizing – though there’s more to it than that, of course. But elections get people moving and show how power can be built, voter by voter, person by person. And progressives can win. See below for our winners in Baltimore, MoCo, the Lower Shore and Prince George's. And for the "more to it than that" part, read on for chapter meetings in Baltimore and MoCo, responding to protests (Larry Hogan as bad example) and how history comes along and makes demands, ready or not, on us. Plus COVID-19 response, chapter news and our recent blog posts -- all in the Monday Memo.

Elections, as we say, come and go, but revolutions are continuous.

The way that paradox plays out is clear today, after the June 2 election. Although progressives won some, and lost some, the progressive needle moved in a positive direction in numerous Maryland jurisdictions.

Our issues are constants, and continue to be the building blocks of our campaigns -- and the way we measure our officials when they take office and we engage in co-governance with them.

Even as folks around the world and right here in Maryland struggled to cope with COVID-19 in all the ways we live, Progressive Maryland and Marylanders United, along with activists from across the state, have focused on critical issues of health care, housing, education, voting in a pandemic and prison reform/decarceration in our series of weekly Zoom events. Find out how that went here, as we look back and ahead.

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While we step up to vote for change and a progressive path here in Maryland tomorrow, we mourn the death at police hands of George Floyd and the crushing of hopes for change that every fresh death can bring. We stand with the protesters around the nation and the world. Vote for change and work for justice.

Thanks to all who joined us on last Thursday's statewide meeting, focusing on the upcoming Primary Election and what damage Gov. Hogan did to our schools with his veto of the Blueprint for Maryland's Schools. Make sure you vote by June 2 and take action to urge our legislative leaders to override Hogan's veto sooner rather than later.

America's health care system is what's creating wide disparities in the outcomes of COVID-19 infections. The virus hits everybody the same way -- so if everybody had great health care, all their lives, the differences in misery and death wouldn't be showing up.

Because we don't all have great health care -- many have none at all -- the differences are stark Here's a refresher from Progressive Breakfast summarizing what we learned at last week's statewide Marylanders United virtual meeting on health care.

How much more can we learn TODAY (Thursday, May 28) at our 5:30 meeting on the June 2 election and the importance of electing Strong Schools advocates in Maryland. Sign up here to join the conversation, take action, have impact! And thanks to folks who stuck with us through some tech trauma; we had a fine discussion of how to keep the state's schools strong.

Join us tomorrow -- Thursday, May 28 -- at 5:30 PM for a statewide discussion of critical educational needs in these tough times, and how to elect leaders who will listen. The pandemic is straining all of our  institutions and systems, especially our public school system. Once we begin to rebuild our economy and communities, our public schools will be central to how well we recover. That’s why  the fate of the Blueprint for Maryland’s Future, which was passed by the General Assembly and vetoed by Governor Hogan, is so important. Be active -- have impact!

Marylanders United and Progressive Maryland continue to work in tandem to trace the pathways out of our pandemic dilemmas. Sure, we want to get back to work -- but not with sacrifice zones that somehow seem to include our most vulnerable people. Find out RIGHT HERE what we are doing on health care, equitable legislation to strengthen our communities and justified demands of our public officials.

It's all in the Memo.