The turn of Labor Day brings renewed activism. Making Maryland better – more in tune with ordinary people and their/our real needs, less controlled by big moneyed interests – is a big piece of making the nation and the world better.

Let’s keep going.

Welcome to the Weekly Memo for August 28-September 4

 Labor Day is dismissed by purists as a business-unionist distraction from May Day, which is celebrated as the annual worker holiday in most other parts of the world. But it is ours, our national labor holiday, and also happens to be a useful end-beginning gateway for seasonal change, with summer doldrums giving way to the feverish activities of school and, well, renewed resistance and work for positive change.

We have lots to do in Maryland and the Fall is when the savvy get to work on a legislative agenda for the General Assembly 2018 session. January may seem far away, but the prepared get the advantage. Making Maryland better – more in tune with ordinary people and their/our real needs, less controlled by big moneyed interests – is a big piece of making the nation and the world better.

Let’s keep going.

 Progressive Prince George’s

You matter!  Get involved and get your issues addressed.  

Progressive Prince George's is looking for volunteers to participate in the Greenbelt Labor Day Festival Parade -Monday, September 4th from 10am-noon.  The parade route is along Crescent Road, from Greenhill Road to Southway.  We need approximately 10 to 15 people.  

If you are available, please email [email protected].

 Save the Date: Immigration Forum with Maryland Attorney General Brian Frosh - Sunday, September 24th Location and RSVP link coming soon.

Join an Issue Group Today!

Our chapter has identified seven key issues of concern in our county: criminal justice, economic matters, education, fair elections, health care, immigration rights & protection and transportation.  Email the issue leads below to join a group.

Join Our County Council Teams Today!

We are looking for a point person for each County Council District. This team will mobilize when needed to advocate with their councilperson on a progressive issue, or to support new candidates for the office. If you are interested in this, please reach to Diane Teichert, County Council Lead [email protected].


Frederick County Progressives

Sunday, September 10th September Meeting and Potluck at 1:15 p.m.  Please join us for our September General Meeting and potluck. Alongside normal business we will be participating in an LGBTQ Ally Training led by transgender activist James VK, view a screening of TransMilitary, a short film about transgender service members, and having a potluck lunch. Please bring some food to share. Agenda forthcoming.) C. Burr Artz Public Library - Community Room in Frederick, MD rsvp

 Progressive Montgomery

Wednesday, August 30, 2017 PMD Montgomery Chapter Meeting 7 p.m. Marvin Memorial United Methodist Church in Silver Spring, MD Our quarterly meeting to address progressive issues in Montgomery County. If you're interested in learning more about PMD Montgomery, and want to contribute to our fight for a living wage, come join us! rsvp

 Take Action Anne Arundel County

 Progressive Howard County

A voter registration drive is getting under way focusing on underrepresented voters in the county. If you are interested in helping with voter registration in Howard County, volunteer at http://www.progressiveHoCo.org/volunteer

Talbot Rising

Lower Shore Progressive Caucus

With our allies:

 Tuesday, Aug. 29 Health Care is a Human Right Prince George’s chapter meets, 7:30 p.m, Riverdale Park Town Hall at 5053 Queensbury Road. Topics include logistics for the Greenbelt Labor Day Festival (we will have a table on information day, Saturday, Sept. 2) and participate in the parade; and an Update on Medicare for All activism over the summer.

 Thursday, Aug. 31 – Health Care Town Hall with Sen. Ben Cardin, 7-9 p.m. in Main Auditorium, Gilchrist Center, Johns Hopkins U MoCo campus, 9601 Medical Center Drive Rockville 20850

Wed, Sept 6, 2017 Greenbelt Climate Action Network meets: “50% Renewable Energy by 2030?” 7-9 p.m. at Greenbelt Community Center, Room 114, 15 Crescent Road, Greenbelt, with guest Liz Lee, CCAN volunteer outreach coordinator. https://www.facebook.com/events/117403175657944/

Baltimore comrades, Check in on Max Obuszewski’s highly useful calendar and tip sheet at http://baltimorenonviolencecenter.blogspot.com/

To keep up with progressive events in and around DC consult the invaluable calendar at the Washington Peace Center, http://washingtonpeacecenter.org/alerts

 It all happens for free… right? Not exactly. Organizing for change in our society and our high-maintenance politics requires both people and money. Keep change moving with a quick, secure impulse-buy contribution here.

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 posted these blogs:

 August 25, 2017 Trump's betrayal of his fans on peace and trade must be hammered home by Dems

Donald Trump is getting away with many flip-flops on his promises to the working-class constituents who pushed him over the top, studies show. But progressive and Democratic leadership have to make that case forcefully in order to reclaim the mantle of the peace and prosperity forces; it won't happen automatically, Hal Ginsberg asserts.

 

 August 24, 2017 Compromise on carbon pollution better than RGGI exit

Maryland is staying in a strengthened multistate pact to reduce greenhouse gases in electric power generation. It's a compromise, but much better than sulkily pulling out. The pact has been (mostly) holding together for many years and “The [RGGI] program has a track record of cutting emissions fairly painlessly across a densely populated section of the country,” observes Inside Climate News.

August 23, 2017 Voter registration -- starting now -- is more important than ever

"For Progressive Maryland and its parent Peoples' Action, our low and middle income neighbors are our primary constituents.  We need to make an effort to bring these groups into the political process and to help them advocate for themselves," Howard County activist Dave Bazell reminds us.

August 21, 2017 TODAY Port Towns communities fight concrete batching plant at CAB

Residents of the Port Towns communities in Prince George's County are fighting the siting of a concrete batching plant in Bladensburg near Peace Cross, threatening the Anacostia River and the health of residents in the viciinity. Today, Tuesday August 22, they go before the Zoning Hearing Examiner at 9 a.m. to fight for the right of communities to control development in their own backyards.

August 21, 2017 Progressive Maryland's Weekly Memo for August 21-29

Welcome to the Progressive Maryland Weekly Memo for August 21-29. Lots going on, including the health care fight, leadership development opportunities, letting Larry Hogan know he has to listen to more than big donors – he should speak out on protecting Maryland’s health care and pushing back against the white supremacist elements that Trump appears to condone -- plus community struggles like the concrete plant being foisted on the Port Towns of Prince George’s, and much more at chapters around the state. Dip in…

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.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

woody woodruff

About

M.A. and Ph.d. from University of Maryland Merrill College of Journalism, would-be radical, sci-fi fan... retired to a life of keyboard radicalism...