Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., whose revered memory may hit us most sharply today, was one of us.

In his breakthrough 1967 Riverside Church address in which he overtly opposed the Vietnam War, he confessed “Over the past two years, … I have moved to break the betrayal of my own silences”. …  Nor does the human spirit move without great difficulty against all the apathy of conformist thought within one’s own bosom and in the surrounding world. Moreover, when the issues at hand seem as perplexing as they often do in the case of this dreadful conflict, we are always on the verge of being mesmerized by uncertainty.”

We can all be paralyzed by such doubt and fear. Dr. King showed us that a true “revolution of values” requires a radical departure from those concerns. Richard Eskow makes some informed speculations how King’s uncompromising realism would see the challenges since his death in 1968.

Progressive Maryland legislators, worker organizations and economists in the Maryland Fair Funding Coalition are backing a package of tax reform bills that could increase state revenue by $1 billion and make the state's tax system more equitable. This account from Maryland Matters has the details.

In the Progressive Maryland Memo today: General Assembly launch and info, education, health care, Progressive Maryland is hiring, February training, and more.

The Assembly session is under way, and already 200-plus bills have been filed. Here’s a heads-up from the Maryland Legislative Coalition on hearings this week, plus lots more.

Much-studied and much-delayed, a light rail option to end the commuter nightmare for Southern Maryland's three counties needs to be moved from the bottom of the state priority list.

Now.

Sen. Arthur Ellis demands relief, declares that Charles, Calvert and St. Mary's counties are being treated "like a toilet" by MDOT planners.

The Maryland General Assembly begins its three-month session with formal openings today (January 8). When we look at the list of issues that many analysts say will top the agenda of this 2020 General Assembly session, we get the itchy feeling that one sentence could clear away some of the confusion.

“Stop bad jobs; start good jobs.”

Welcome to 2020, to the first Memo of 2020, and whoa! here comes the 2020 Maryland General Assembly session barreling around the bend with an ETA of this Wednesday (January 8). Learn how to keep up with events and navigate the three-month session with Progressive Maryland's help (and that of several nonprofit news sources you'll want to know about).

Conversations are taking place around Maryland on diversity, equity and inclusion practices (DEI). The writer, a Baltimore attorney, provides context about where various parties are starting from, historically, in terms of power and emphasizes “Those most impacted must also be the ones most empowered in the conversation to shape the discourse and the decision made.” This appeared Dec. 20 in Maryland Matters.

As opposition rises to Gov. Hogan's high-dollar toll road plans fueled and controlled by private-sector money, lawmakers tout plans to trim or stop the project in the upcoming 2020 Assembly session.

Many are calling for more mass transit and fewer cars on the road -- not new lanes on the Interstates. Bruce DePuyt of Maryland Matters covers a rally against the road-widening project Monday in Silver Spring.

It's a wind-down and reflective time of year. Not much going on. Except, well, impeachment, trial and removal from office. But we know you were already paying attention...

Use Facebook? Yup, we do too. It's a natural monopoly and a public utility, privately controlled by a young(ish) know-it-all and claimed idealist who looks more and more like a typical profits-first corporate greedhead.

As progressive radio host Thom Hartmann outlines here, it's probably time to take this public utility into public ownership or control.