Building power happens everywhere and all the time. As folks living in this US, we have to fight to see people-killing armaments kept in military hands and lethal weapons in general made harder to get unless they come with accountability and responsibility pre-required. The tragedies in El Paso and Dayton are only the most recent events to underscore this.
We are, in Maryland, lucky that we have space to fight for these things and to build power with different forms of risk – but we have to press our case on progressive change across the board as firmly as possible, at the polls and in the streets, because the business-as-usual establishment won’t respond to politics as usual.
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Building power happens everywhere and all the time. As folks living in this US, we have to fight to see people-killing armaments kept in military hands and lethal weapons in general made harder to get unless they come with accountability and responsibility pre-required. The tragedies in El Paso and Dayton are only the most recent events to underscore this.
We are, in Maryland, lucky that we have space to fight for these things and to build power with different forms of risk – but we have to press our case on progressive change across the board as firmly as possible, at the polls and in the streets, because the business-as-usual establishment won’t respond to politics as usual.
STATEWIDE ACTION
For instance, as our executive director Larry Stafford Jr. says here,
“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.”
 Onward,
Larry Stafford, Jr.
Executive Director, Progressive MarylandÂ
Saturday, August 17 M4A comes 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!
2 PM – 4 PM Mt. Ennon Baptist Church 9832 Piscataway Rd., Clinton, MD (Prince George’s, south county) in coalition with the Maryland Progressive Health Care Coalition
AND
July 30 was Medicare’s 54th birthday. It’s time for Medicare for All, a single-payer program that guarantees quality healthcare to all people as a right, not a privilege. 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 took a big step last week when the latest AROS Civic Academy (pictured here) focused on the forty-plus schools in Prince George’s that will become Community Schools in the next two school years.
 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
Saturday, August 17 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!
2 PM – 4 PM Mt. Ennon Baptist Church 9832 Piscataway Rd., Clinton, MD in coalition with the Maryland Progressive Health Care Coalition
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
Lower Shore Progressive Caucus
EVENTS FROM OUR PROGRESSIVE ALLIES
Wednesday, August 14 Prison and Police Abolition – Socialist Night School comes to MoCo! 7:00 PM to 9:30 PM Bethesda-Chevy Chase Regional Services Center 4805 Edgemoor Ln # 100 · Bethesda, MD -- Wisconsin room on the 2nd floor. Join Montgomery County DSA and MDC DSA's Socialist Night School for a discussion on the politics of police and prison abolition situated in the context of our community and the larger region.
 Through SUN Aug 11 Plans to Prosper You  9:00 AM – 5:00 PM, Hosted by Save Bethesda African Cemetery and 2 others: https://www.facebook.com/events/2053174084987910/Â
 The exhibit “Plans to Prosper You: Reflections of Black Resistance and Resilience in Montgomery County’s Potomac River Valley”. runs until August 11 at the Katzen Arts Center, American University. Macedonia Baptist Church and Moses Cemetery, which are featured in the exhibit, are threatened by development. Come one, come all: this is history revealed.
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 01, 2019 What "Abolish ICE" really means
While the deliberate noise from the White House fills the infospace, the threat to immigrant families in the US remains despite the few actual results from Trump’s claimed sweep. Here is a personal account of why “Abolish ICE” is hardly a radical demand, given the abuses itemized by Cummings and many others.
July 31, 2019 PG Civic Academy tomorrow charts course for school and community improvements
Tomorrow’s Prince George’s Civic Academy tackles the challenge and promise of community schools in the Kirwan proposals. Keeping those proposals fresh and defending them against the business-as-usual impulses of political leadership has to happen at the community level.
July 29, 2019Â Progressive Maryland Weekly Memo for Monday, July 29, 2019
Building power with Medicare for All (hellooo, Steny!) and strengthening our schools in the Kirwan framework of community schools. Read all about it, and more, in the Progressive Maryland Weekly Memo.
July 26, 2019 Medicare for All Town Hall Aug. 17 challenges Hoyer to engage
Saturday, August 17 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!
2 PM – 4 PM Mt. Ennon Baptist Church 9832 Piscataway Rd., Clinton, MD
>>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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