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. Read more about our issues -- and how you can be a part of change and building power -- in the Memo, every week.

Progressive Maryland Weekly Memo for Monday July 8 2019

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. Read more about our issues -- and how you can be a part of change and building power -- in the Memo, every week.

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 email; just sign up here.

TOMORROW … RSVP here.

Tuesday, July 9^th and Thursday, July 11^th Community meetings this week on ensuring a complete U.S. Census count in Prince George’s County –

Tuesday, July 9 Four Cities and Vicinity Advisory Neighborhood Community (ANC) Meeting , 6:30PM-8:30PM New Carrollton Public Library 7414 Riverdale Rd, New Carrollton, MD 20784 -- Main topics: -The 2020 Census and Ensuring a Complete Count in Prince George’s County and Update on the Expansion and Reconstruction of U.S. Route 1. All welcome

Thursday, July 11 Southern Gateway Communities Advisory Neighborhood Community (ANC) Meeting , 6:30PM-8:30PM Hillcrest Heights Community Center 2300 Oxon Hill Drive, Temple Hills, MD 20748  Topics: The 2020 Census and Ensuring a Complete Count in Prince George’s County; Update on the Construction of a New Suitland High School; Support and Services for Veterans in Prince George’s County

OUR CHAPTERS AROUND THE STATE

Progressive Prince George’s

PMD Montgomery

Frederick County Progressives

Take Action Anne Arundel County

Progressive Howard County

Talbot Rising

Lower Shore Progressive Caucus

PMD Baltimore

EVENTS FROM OUR PROGRESSIVE ALLIES

TUE July 9 County Council Hearing on a Police Citizen’s Advisory Council, 7:30 PM, Council Office Building 100 Maryland Avenue Rockville, MD 20850  Montgomery County Council will be hearing testimony on creating a Citizen’s Advisory Committee on Policing Policy. Progressive Neighbors urges turnout and advocacy. Here is the press release, bill, and signup site.

WED July 10 School Desegregation Discussion–Impact Silver Spring and other groups are joint-hosting a forum on changing school boundaries to help desegregate the schools. Begins 6 PM at Arts on the Block Pop-Up Studio, 8510 Fenton Street Silver Spring MD 20910 See these Spanish and English flyers.

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/ 
  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. On SAT July 20 from 3 to 4:30 pm, there will be a special panel featuring expert discussants about Macedonia Baptist Church and Moses Cemetery, which are featured in the exhibit. Come one, come all: this is history revealed.

SUN Jul 21  Maryland Legislative Coalition Forum, Legislative Education Series on Immigration. Delegates Joseline Pena-Melnyk and David Fraser-Hidalgo discuss the challenges involved in getting immigration legislation passed in Maryland. 1:30-4:30.  Avalon Room, Ellicott City Miller Branch Library, 9421 Frederick Rd, Ellicott City, MD 21042, RSVP

 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.

"Policing and prisons are ubiquitous features of our world, yet these institutions, widely seen as both necessary and oppressive, have not always existed, nor played as great a role as they do today. /qe will discuss: what abolition means, what abolitionists do, how abolitionist approaches differ from more mainstream critiques (like mass incarceration), and the relationships between capitalism and the carceral state… ."

 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:

July 03, 2019 State faces $27B cost of mitigating climate change over next two decades

The $27 billion-plus Maryland faces in climate change defense over two decades puts the state at No. 5 when it comes to states facing massive expenditures to prepare for sea level rise, behind only Florida, Louisiana, North Carolina and Virginia. That would be half the state’s current annual budget. And almost 3,000 miles of seawalls.

July 02, 2019 Prince George's asked to fund a returning citizens' assistance group

Prince George's advocate for returning citizens Kurt Stand describes testifying at a budget hearing about the need for the county to allocate funds for reentry services, specifically, to reestablish, this time with funding, a reentry advisory council that had passed as a county resolution in 2013. The advisory council never got off the ground because it was never funded in the county's budget and advocates asked that that, um, oversight be corrected.

July 01, 2019 Progressive Maryland Weekly Memo for Monday, July 1, 2019

It's the Progressive Maryland Weekly Memo, with upcoming events, actions taken and the permanent agenda of social justice in our state at all the points of the compass.  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. Read more about our issues -- and how you can be a part of change and building power -- in the Memo, every week. Get it here.

>>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