Medicare for All remains atop this week’s agenda as we tackle the deep need in Maryland and around the nation for comprehensive, universal health care – and the three Maryland members of Congress who have not joined the 118 Democratic co-sponsors of HR 1384, Reps. Steny Hoyer, Dutch Ruppersburger and David Trone. We challenged Rep. Hoyer to sign on at our Town Hall this past Saturday, as you see below (and you can watch it preserved on livestream).
Progressive Maryland Weekly Memo for Monday August 19 2019
STATEWIDE ACTION
Medicare for All remains atop this week’s agenda as we tackle the deep need in Maryland and around the nation for comprehensive, universal health care – and the three Maryland members of Congress who have not joined the 118 Democratic co-sponsors of HR 1384, Reps. Steny Hoyer, Dutch Ruppersburger and David Trone. We challenged Rep. Hoyer to sign on at our Town Hall this past Saturday, as you see below (and you can watch it preserved on livestream).
Here’s how our executive director, Larry Stafford Jr., puts it:
“You love going to see your doctor, dentist, and optometrist on a regular basis because you deeply value your life and your health. All your family members are able to take care of their health care needs consistently, and are never stressed over any out-of-pocket fees.Â
“This is our vision and we invite you to be a part of the movement to make it a reality for all of us, and not just for the wealthy few. Join the fight for Medicare For All! Learn about how YOU can be an important part of the exciting momentum building RIGHT HERE IN OUR STATE to advance our human right to healthcare.” That process is under way.
 Saturday, August 17 M4A came to Prince George’s with a Medicare For All Town Hall -- an open invitation for Majority Leader Steny Hoyer to discuss the healthcare of his constituents within district 5, as well as that of every American. The campaign came to Clinton, MD in coalition led by the Maryland Progressive Health Care Coalition. Want to see what went down? Here is the livestream. We were joined by medical doctors and policy experts who highlighted the pitfalls of the current system and explained Medicare For All. Dr. Sanjeev Sriram (Pediatrician and host of Dr. America podcast), Alex Lawson (Executive Director, Social Security Works) and L.E.Gomez (ER Physician) were among the speakers who laid out the reasons for major change and a universal health care system. See more here. Along with observations from Rev. Delman Coates and others.
Medicare just turned 54 years old so Join other progressive activists and call to request a hearing on HR 1384
Call the House Committee on Oversight and Reform (chairman is Rep.
Elijah Cummings, Maryland 7th Dist.) Committee: 202-225-5051
And House Committee on Energy and Commerce: 202 225-2927
In late July Rep. Cummings’s oversight committee held a hearing on the impact of exploitative drug prices on patients – a huge factor in the outrageous cost of US health care in the era of wild-west Wall Street unregulated health care. Read the excellent testimony of MoCo resident David Mitchell, who also directs a nonprofit advocacy group for lower drug prices, HERE.
PROGRESSIVE MARYLAND DAY IN, DAY OUT
Our ideals are broadly and concretely represented by the campaigns we wage. At Progressive Maryland (and with our progressive allies) we work for environmental justice, reform of the criminal justice/policing system and cutting the school-to-prison pipeline, fair elections that loosen the grip of big money on our politics, and reform of the systems that keep our families trapped in poverty in the midst of wealth. We are formulating our part in campaigns for Medicare for All (see above) and for education reform in the path being laid out by the Kirwan Commission; Progressive Montgomery recently kicked off its participation in the Alliance to Reclaim our Schools (AROS), a statewide initiative with county-level focus. Progressive Prince George’s has been working in parallel with PGC Educators Association on the AROS agenda and the important Kirwan focus on community schools – there are forty-plus schools in Prince George’s that will become Community Schools in the next two school years. Watch for the next public meeting of the AROS coalition and learn more about the Alliance to Reclaim Our Schools at https://reclaimourschoolspg.org
Progressive activism around the Free State, both Progressive Maryland’s action and those of our allied organizations and individuals, are in the Weekly Memo early every week (usually Monday unless a holiday intervenes). It’s a clearinghouse for folks who are building power together; and you can be in that environment of collective action. You can get the Weekly Memo by email; just sign up here.
OUR CHAPTERS AROUND THE STATE
On Saturday, Sept. 7 join Progressive Maryland and 2018 Gubernatorial nominee Ben Jealous in Prince George's for an organizing conversation on the issues in our criminal justice system, mass incarceration and the current realities of structural racism in our legal system.
 PMD Montgomery -- Progressive Montgomery Upcoming Events
A list of power-building events with Progressive Maryland in Montgomery County. Find one that works for you and join us!
Take Action Anne Arundel County
Tuesday, August 20 at 6:30 pm - Forest Conservation Act Town Hall at South River High School in Edgewater, 201 Central Ave E, Edgewater, MD 21037
>>Hosted by County Executive Pittman and Matt Johnston, Environmental Policy Director who will present an overview of the Forest Conservation Act bill planned for Anne Arundel County.
Why should you care about a forest bill in Anne Arundel County? 2,840 acres of forest were cleared for development between 2010 and 2017, according to Anne Arundel County's Office of Planning and Zoning. This is the most acreage lost of all the counties in Maryland.
Protecting our forests is linked to cleaner air and cleaner water. Our trees filter pollutants in the air through their leaves and from the water in the soil before reaching our streams, creeks, and rivers.Â
Attend the town hall and ask questions about whether this bill is going far enough to protect the forests we have left in the county. So sign up to testify about the importance of having clean air and clean water in all parts of our countyÂ
-- Claire Miller
Lower Shore Progressive Caucus
EVENTS FROM OUR PROGRESSIVE ALLIES
 SAT August 24 Prince George’s County’s Environmental Justice Plan discussed by Dr. Sacoby Wilson of the UMD Public Health department 3-5 PM at the Greenbelt Community Center, 15 Crescent Road, Greenbelt MD, room 202. Discussion includes the disparate impacts of environmental policies and decisions in the county and state.
SAT Sept. 14 – 350MoCo town hall on climate action, 11 AM to 1:30 PM, Silver Spring Civic Center https://www.eventbrite.com/e/climate-emergency-montgomery-countys-response-tickets-66570745893
Baltimore progressives, Check in on Max Obuszewski’s highly useful activist calendar and tip sheet at http://baltimorenonviolencecenter.blogspot.com/
 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 blog posts:
August 15, 2019 Saturday it's Medicare for All, Steny or not
On Saturday, August 17th, 2 - 4pm, The Maryland Progressive Healthcare Coalition will convene a Medicare For All Town Hall in House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer’s Congressional District 5. Doctors and policy experts will highlight the pitfalls of the current system and explain Medicare For All. As a coalition of healthcare activists and progressive organizations throughout the state, our goals are to educate the public and challenge the Congressman to stand with his constituents, not with the healthcare industry.
August 12, 2019 Progressive Maryland Weekly Memo for Monday, August 12, 2019
 Medicare for All tops this week’s agenda as we tackle the deep need in Maryland and around the nation for comprehensive, universal health care – and the three Maryland members of Congress who have not joined the 118 Democratic co-sponsors of HR 1384, Reps. Steny Hoyer, Dutch Ruppersburger and David Trone. Hoyer faces questions about it in his own district this Saturday, Aug. 17 -- see more below.
August 09, 2019 White supremacy's role in mass incarceration
Join Progressive Maryland and 2018 Gubernatorial nominee Ben Jealous on Saturday, September 7 in Prince George's for an organizing conversation on the issues in our criminal justice system, mass incarceration and the current realities of structural racism in our legal system.
August 07, 2019 Del. Stephanie Smith: Your voice is valuable
Progressive Maryland campaigned hard for new Del. Stephanie Smith of Baltimore City, and here she talks with Progressive Breakfast about the importance of co-governing -- the work that community activists must do between elections and between legislative sessions to build the kind of power that will pay off in better, more responsive public officials and better community co-governing with them, day by day.
>>REMEMBER – these blog posts are frequently expressions of political opinion from our wide-ranging membership and circle of allies. They are not expressions of opinion by Progressive Maryland. Don’t be surprised if they sometimes vary in their political content. You might even disagree with them – a good reason to contribute a blog of your own. Send it to the moderator, Woody Woodruff, at [email protected].
>>Keeping up with the blogs is easier with the index. The blogs published in the PM BlogSpace from June 2015 through December 2016 are all available with descriptions and links here. You can follow blogs for 2017-18 starting from here
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