WE ARE MAKING THE MOST OF 2018. On Saturday, Dec. 29, Progressive Maryland’s statewide meeting convenes at 11 a.m. at the Universalist Unitarian Church in Annapolis. This mass meeting will shape Progressive Maryland’s activism for 2019 and beyond. Register and find a ride below.

WE ARE MAKING THE MOST OF 2018. On Saturday, Dec. 29, Progressive Maryland’s statewide meeting convenes at 11 a.m. at the Universalist Unitarian Church in Annapolis. This mass meeting will shape Progressive Maryland’s activism for 2019 and beyond – first, preparing for the 2019 General Assembly session that begins Jan. 9, but more broadly to build power for working families as we push the legislators to shake loose from business as usual. That’s a process that will continue.

Saturday December 29th at 11am, our Progressive Maryland statewide meeting will celebrate our victories, discuss our challenges, and prepare our next steps. Building power is on the table and on the horizon. Many of you have already RSVPed and we’ll be calling you to confirm your attendance and find out what YOU think should be on the agenda.

You can RSVP here.

Need a lift? Want to offer a ride? Fill out the form for carpooling here. https://goo.gl/forms/gHIQhVmBRItmfla12 (this link is also at the RSVP registration page).

What do you want to see on the agenda? Email the moderator at [email protected].

We have included this message in every Memo this year – but in case you missed it, here it is up front:

 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. You know you meant to do it last week and now here you are again...

OUR CHAPTERS AROUND THE STATE

Progressive Prince George's

Saturday, Dec 15 Participatory Defense Community Meeting at 01:00 PM -- Oakcrest Community Center rsvp

And every Saturday through December – see our events calendar

TUE  Dec 18^th The Prince George's County House Delegation Public Hearing on local bills,  6:30-9 PM. At PRA Auditorium, 6600 Kenilworth Ave, Riverdale Park, MD 20737.  For more information on the hearing, see their website: 

https://www.princegeorgeshousedelegation.com/calendar   RSVP HERE

PMD Montgomery

Frederick County Progressives

Take Action Anne Arundel County

Action Report

Sarah Elfreth, Senator-elect District 30 and Seth Howard, State Delegate District 30B hosted a Town Hall at the Edgewater Community Library on Tuesday, December 4. Senator-elect Elfreth will be on the Budget and Taxation Committee and will be chairing the Chesapeake Critical Areas Committee in the Senate. State Delegate Howard is on the Economics Committee and the Bond Bill subcommittee. Elfreth's priorities will be re-evaluating funding of the education budget for K-12 with the goal of addressing poverty this time. She noted 60% of Anne Arundel public school children participate in free meal programs. She also briefly summarized key bills she expects during the session including the Forest Conservation Act, the Clean Energy Jobs Act, the Oyster bill, controlling the cost of prescription drugs and the ban of 3D printed plans for guns.

Over 50 residents attended the District 30B Town Hall to share the issues they are most concerned about.

• Investment for children and parents in poverty and using schools to provide services
• pre-K funding for 4-year-olds
• medical and social services for children and their parents, 
• mentoring programs
• job training programs for parents, 
• locating after-school programs in more communities using empty retail buildings  
• Reduce mass incarceration and create a path to reintegrate former inmates through community support (eg. faith communities) 
• Energy plan moving from fossil fuels to clean energy including job retraining
• Cell tower locations on public school property
• Wetland, development, and accountability for critical area management
• Gerrymandering
• Public transportation
• Increased population density along the shoreline and the lack of policing by DNR of hunters shooting within 300 feet of residences during hunting season. 

The most heated exchange of the night was over the issue of gun violence. Several residents were asking for more to be done given we continue to have mass shootings in Maryland at our schools and at places of business. Senator-elect Elfreth talked about the Red Flag Law that was recently passed in Maryland and that this law, had it had been in place last summer, could have prevented the Capital Gazette mass shooting. Delegate Howard pushed back on the conversation about banning assault weapons by raising the question of how to define an assault weapon. This started a shouting match between Delegate Howard and residents which Senator-elect Elfreth defused by first acknowledging that she and Delegate Howard have different opinions on how to address gun violence and inviting residents to talk to her and Seth after the meeting about ways to address this issue.  

Despite that one heated exchange, most of the session was a civil conversation between citizens and their newly elected representatives. District 30B is one of a few locations with a Democratic Senator and a Republic Delegate. The attendees applauded them for conducting the session together and challenged them to bring the Democratic Clubs and the Republican Clubs together for a conversation on the issues. I hope they are willing to take the citizens up on that challenge. We need to be able to talk to each other to make positive change happen.

 -- Claire Miller

Take Action AAC Events

Monthly Chapter Meeting

Thursday, December 20 at 7 pm at Edgewater Community Library

Topics: Education, Immigration, Environment, and new issues at a county level

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Other Anne Arundel Events

Thursday, December 13 at 7 pm -- Climate Stewards of Greater Annapolis at the Annapolis Friends Meeting House

Phil Ateto will talk about thinking strategically to create effective activism.  We'll be looking at tactics to get climate change on the agenda for public discussion and collective action.    

Environment and Health Briefings

The Maryland Environmental Health Network is hosting a series of briefings from October through December prior to the 2018-2019 legislative session.  You can register for these webinars by clicking here. 

Progressive Howard County

Talbot Rising

 See the latest newsletter with a post-election letter from the co-chairs https://www.talbotrising.org/newsletters31/2018/11/12/weekly-newsletter-nov-12-2018

Lower Shore Progressive Caucus

Read the Caucus chair’s post-election letter on the website.

PMD Baltimore

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

Events from our Allies

Monday, December 17 — Reel and Meal at the New Deal presents The Unafraid , which follows three DACA-eligible immigrants in Georgia as they try to get an affordable college education and win rights for their families and communities. Film at 7, followed by discussion led by local advocates for immigrants’ rights. We offer a delicious vegan meal for $14 at 6:30 PM. Please RSVP to [email protected] if you are joining us for dinner. The free film starts at 7 PM, New Deal Cafe – 113 Centerway in historic Greenbelt, MD
For more about this month’s program contact Lucy Duff at [email protected].

 OUR BLOG POSTS IN THE PAST WEEK

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:

December 07, 2018 KIRWAN COMMISSION LAYS OUT TENTATIVE NUMBERS: $4.4 B TO BRING SCHOOLS UP TO PAR

Commission chair Kirwan "was cautious about the overall price tag for the commission’s work," Danielle Gaines reports in Maryland Matters. "Recommendations could still change, he said, and it may be necessary to find cost-savings to present a more politically palatable set of recommendations." BUT now we know what to fight for if we are going to have a state that puts people and its future ahead of the greed of corporations and big business. And we might want to take a look at the state Board of Education, stacked with nine (out of 13 members) Hogan appointees like Chester Finn, mentioned below, who are out-front advocates of charters and private school vouchers that drain resources from public education. There are no board members with public school experience, as MSEA points out in a review of the dismal Hogan record on education.

December 06, 2018 GM executives are incentivized to profit from workers’ misery

"Outrageous rewards give top execs an incentive to behave outrageously," Pizzigati says, "to focus more on their share prices than the long-run health of their enterprises — and the workers and communities their enterprises impact so mightily." Though GM execs spent $100 million buying back stocks last year rather than on "the long-run health of the enterprise," Maryland lawmakers ticked off at the closure of the White Marsh plant are urging reconsideration -- or repayment by GM of over $100 million in federal, state and local grants to the facility.

December 03, 2018 Progressive Maryland Weekly Memo for Monday, Nov. 3, 2018

We are inviting progressives from across the state to join together and discuss the next steps for our movement. On Saturday December 29th at 11 a.m. we'll meet in Annapolis for a statewide Progressive Maryland gathering to continue to build power; watch this space for more and RSVP here.

SAVE THE DATE – SATURDAY, DEC. 29 FOR PROGRESSIVE MARYLAND’S STATEWIDE MEETING because we build power locally but exercise it statewide. So we’ll have a statewide gathering before the New Year to consolidate what we’ve learned and build on the power we have built. Save that date, Saturday, December 29 for our statewide meeting in Annapolis.

>>REMEMBER – these blog posts are 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