We’ve heard a good deal of discussion about a public option in the healthcare system – the option that was too politically hard to wedge into the Affordable Care Act (Obamacare).

Here’s a proposed public option for production and sale of prescription drugs – one that could very well ratchet down the prices of drugs from the grasping, pill-pushing Big Pharma, star attraction in the Wall Street Casino.

A new report published this week by The Democracy Collaborative proposes the creation of a public pharmaceutical industry as an alternative to privately owned drug companies, which are focused on the pursuit of profit at the expense of the needs of patients and communities.

"Now we all have a choice," climate scientist and activist Danielle Meitiv told a MoCo climate emergency town hall Saturday. "We can create transformational action that will safeguard the future living conditions for humankind, or we can continue with our business as usual and fail. That is up to you and me.”

Progressive goals and proposals are continually under attack by the people in power – not only the wealthy and corporate business interests in Maryland, but also the corporate Democrats who parrot neoliberal “wisdom” about staying in the middle of the road because that keeps their campaign coffers filled.

You know them when you see them, and so do we.

Their dependence on big money and its big spenders endangers the interests of everyday working families in Maryland.

Next Friday, Sept. 20, students around the world will strike to take control of the future that today's adults are denying them.

Here's a missive of hope that it's a teachable moment in which the students, who know better, do the teaching.

Because they are not asking. They are telling the unlistening, unwilling holders of power how it is going to be.

A national study showed that food deserts – Maryland has its share – are more often solved by co-op grocery outlets than by major chain grocery relocations, because community support is immediate and bottom-up. Food deserts – simply, communities where full-service groceries are too far away to be accessible – are leading indicators of many other community woes that can affect health, school success and neighborhood prosperity and mobility. As you can guess, the bottom line is inequality – of income and wealth.

This article is a little wonky but has a wealth of links to further information. Some boldface emphasis has been added by the PM BlogSpace editors.

It’s not out of character for a top member of the Hogan cartel (Budget Secretary David R. Brinkley) to snipe that the goal of school reform should “make wanting to be in the classroom something that people really want to do and don’t have to be bribed to do it.”

But it signals that the neolib establishment, including the tell-both-sides media, are already taking aim at the Kirwan Commission’s serious attempt to compensate teachers according to their value and provide a working classroom environment that helps kids succeed and keeps good teachers in the game longer than the three-year average. Progressives will have to fight from day one to reclaim our schools from the budget hawks.

A packed main room in the ATU union hall in District Heights saw many testify from personal experience Saturday about the need to reduce incarceration, end cash bail, stop enabling ICE, get a grip on police misconduct and many other reforms.

As this Maryland Matters report indicates, headliner Ben Jealous became the news simply because he came back in public view – even though he was fighting for the same social-justice principles he has espoused whether a candidate or not.

We told you. All those local governments, city and county councils, that were taking a leisurely summer off have started their new sessions. Big money doesn’t sleep during the summer, though, and there are early alarms out about what local governments may be doing with big money on the sidelines urging them on. As you see below, it’s never too early to push back – and sometimes it’s getting late

"Make no mistake, those profiting from the status quo have been pitting workers against each other for centuries, and it is a strategy designed to stop us from realizing our collective power," union leader Lisa Brown writes. "There is a good reason that those on top want to stop workers from building this collective power – because when we organize together, we win."

Our role in the progressive movement in Maryland is to build power for working families and workers in the workplace – hence the observances of Labor Day. Now that Labor Day has passed, most schools are back in session and … local governments are back in business and need to be checked by grassroots progressives. Read about a bill hearing in Anne Arundel County Council TONIGHT, below.