Connect with your Governor: take a look at our letter (you can add your signature) demanding that the Governor stop pretending his fellow Republican, Pres. Donald Trump, isn't demolishing democratic governance with every tweet. Plus events for the week and our most recent blog posts.

Welcome to the Progressive Maryland Weekly Memo for Feb. 20-26

 First, a letter for your signature:

Demand Governor Hogan: Hold a Public Town hall to Reveal His Views on Trump's policies

The letter below, written by Nienke Grossman, was sent to Governor Larry Hogan on February 3rd, and posted in the Baltimore Sun. Since then, thousands of Marylanders have signed on, demanding that Governor Hogan tell us where he stands on policies of the Trump administration as they relate to our state and its people. Read it, then sign on.

Dear Governor Hogan:

We are Maryland voters who care deeply about the present and future of our state. We hail from all over Maryland, and we have made thousands of phone calls to your office in the last several weeks seeking your views on a wide range of issues. We are still waiting for your answers.

As you know, hundreds of thousands of Marylanders may lose their health care and many more risk the loss of important benefits, such as the elimination of lifetime maximums, as a result of the repeal of the Affordable Care Act.  We are unable to support refugees fleeing death and destruction as a result of the president’s action, and the federal government is threatening to deputize our local law enforcement for the purposes of enforcing immigration law rather than our own criminal laws and to take away funding from sanctuary cities. Our Jewish Community Centers, mosques, churches and public schools have become targets of hateful speech and acts. Also, recent news reports suggest that the new administration may reduce funds for women’s health care and domestic violence shelters, which provide care and refuge to the most vulnerable among us.

You are our governor. We voted you into office, yet we feel our concerns are being ignored. We deserve to know how you propose to address these issues. What are you going to do about the impending health care crisis in Maryland? What are you doing to help ensure that Maryland continues to be a welcoming place for immigrants and people fleeing from violence and persecution? What do you propose to keep our houses of worship and our schools safe from hate? What do you propose to ensure access to basic women’s health care services and to minimize the harm to victims of domestic violence in the wake of reduced federal funding to shelters?

Because our phone calls have gone unheeded and many of our Facebook posts have been deleted and blocked, we request that you announce and hold an open town hall meeting to share with us your concrete policy proposals on health care coverage, your views on immigration, and how you will show leadership in response to the uptick in hateful acts in our state and the potential defunding of domestic violence shelters and resources.

We want to work with you to make Maryland the best state that it can possibly be and to help Maryland rise to the challenges that it will face in the years to come. We need to know where you stand, and we want you to know that we are motivated, we are concerned, and we are not going away.

 Events this week:

Thursday, Feb. 23 Prince George’s students will be at the School Board meeting to demonstrate their dismay that the PGPS system currently plans on discontinuing coverage of the $93 fee of the Advanced Placement Exam for any student, including those that are on Free and Reduced Lunch.

 Thursday, Feb. 23 A Town Hall on health care issues 6 p.m. to 8 at Kent Island/Stevensville Branch Queen Anne County Library (200 Library Circle, off Main St./MD 18 map). Speakers include:  Sue Ehlenberger and Mark Romaninsky, Maryland Health Connection-Seedco; Jeananne Sciabarra, Consumer Health First; Scot Hurley, Ashley Addiction Treatment;  Katia Callan, MSW, LCSW-C, Insight Wellness of Maryland; Dr. James Burdick, author of Talking About Single Payer: Health Care Equality for America; Dr. Margaret Flowers, Healthcare is a Human Right

 Saturday, Feb. 25 presentation on Community Solar at Suitland Civic Association meeting 12 to 2 p.m. at Suitland Community Center, 5600 Regency Dr, District Heights, MD . Info here. Or visit www.neighborhoodsun.solar. Contacts: Lore Rosenthal, [email protected],  301-345-2234 ; Suitland Civic Assn, Inc:  301-485-9766 or 240-441-6367

 Sunday Feb. 26 our allies at MoCo Our Revolution meet in Bethesda at 2 p.m. Info and RSVP.

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Reading the Progressive Maryland BlogSpace: our blogs for the previous week are shown below, but if you want a handy way to keep track – and never miss a blog post – you can sign up to get this Weekly Memo by email. Remember this is your blogspace and your participation is heartily invited. See something going on that you don’t like – or that you do like and hope to see more of? Send us your thoughts; submit to the moderator at [email protected]. We recently published these:

 February 17, 2017   Progressive activists urge Assembly to hold down prescription drug prices

Progressive Maryland activists and allies submitted testimony to a Maryland Senate committee this week urging passage of bills that aim to hold down rapidly rising prescription drug prices.

 February 15, 2017   UMCP student employees seek collective bargaining rights

Student employees of the University of Maryland in College Park are exempted from the Prince George's County minimum wage requirement of $10.75 an hour, and the state minimum wage level costs them $2 an hour on their paychecks. They want the right to bargain for higher wages, as this Diamondback student newspaper article details.

 February 14, 2017  Protesters demand Hogan end silence about Trump outrages

Last week's protest in Annapolis against Gov. Hogan's silence while his GOP counterpart in DC, Trump, tramples rights is covered by a new online news outlet run by UMCP student-journalists -- the Beltway Bulletin.

 February 13, 2017   Progressive Maryland Weekly Memo for Feb. 13-19

The Weekly Memo: action in Annapolis and organizing throughout the state. The resistance grows and learns.

Keeping up with the blogs is easier with the index. The blogs published in the PM BlogSpace since June 2015 are all available with descriptions and links here.