Nothing going on in the fall? Think again. Congress is back and feuding with the president, but that does not mean the rest of us are safe. We’ll have to watch out for the collateral damage and keep pushing to make health care for all an idea and a reality that the GOP will have to deal with – or else.

And the Maryland General Assembly is only 120 days from the opening gavel. Watch out for legislative briefings in the meantime, including those sponsored or supported by Progressive Maryland and our allies.

Welcome to the Progressive Maryland Weekly Memo for Sept. 4-10

In fall begins school and we’ll watch how the Gov.’s enforced late start affects spring break. But we have other worries, like adequate funding for the state’s schoolkids.

Nothing going on in the fall? Think again. Congress is back and feuding with the president, but that does not mean the rest of us are safe. We’ll have to watch out for the collateral damage and keep pushing to make health care for all an idea and a reality that the GOP will have to deal with – or else.

And the Maryland General Assembly is only 120 days from the opening gavel. Watch out for legislative briefings in the meantime, including those sponsored or supported by Progressive Maryland and our allies. We at the Weekly Memo will try to keep our readers up to date on these meetings across the state.

CHAPTER ACTIVITIES AROUND THE STATE

Progressive MoCo

Saturday, September 09, Fight for $15 Community Meeting 5 p.m.  Helen Burns Apartment in Takoma Park, MD --- Progressive Maryland Montgomery will be holding an informational meeting for members of the community interested in becoming involved in advocacy for raising the minimum wage in Montgomery to $15. Any are welcome to stop by and share their thoughts on how wages stack up against today's cost of living in the county, real implications for business owners, and ways to share our perspectives and strategies moving forward on this issue.) rsvp

Progressive Prince George’s

You matter!  Get involved and get your issues addressed.

Progressive Maryland members are participating in the Progressive Cheverly program on “Returning Citizens and Our Community – see Allied Events, below.

Immigration Forum with Maryland Attorney General Brian Frosh - Sunday, September 24th Location and RSVP link coming soon.

 Join an Issue Group Today!

Email the issue leads below to join a group.

 Join Our County Council Teams Today!

We are looking for a point person for each County Council District. This team will mobilize when needed to advocate with their councilperson on a progressive issue, or to support new candidates for the office. If you are interested in this, please reach to Diane Teichert, County Council Lead [email protected].

Frederick County Progressives

Saturday, Sept. 10 FCP tabling at this year's In the Street festival to get the word out about our group -- as well as the upcoming Frederick City Elections. We're looking for members to man the table (show all info) 10 a.m. rsvp

Sunday, September 10th September Meeting and Potluck at 1:15 p.m.  Please join us for our September General Meeting and potluck. Alongside normal business we will be participating in an LGBTQ Ally Training led by transgender activist James VK, view a screening of TransMilitary, a short film about transgender service members, and having a potluck lunch. Please bring some food to share. Agenda forthcoming.) C. Burr Artz Public Library - Community Room in Frederick, MD rsvp

 Take Action Anne Arundel County

Tues Sep 5 Monthly Meeting featuring Citizens' Climate Lobby  5:30-7 p.m. at 49 West Coffeehouse, Winebar & Gallery  49 West Street, Annapolis, MD 21401,   Our guest speaker is Colie Young from Citizens’ Climate Lobby, empowering people to experience breakthroughs in exercising their personal and political power and working to create the political will for a livable world. CCL is a nonprofit, nonpartisan, grassroots advocacy organization.
CCL is working for the passage of Carbon Fee and Dividend, the climate change solution economists and climate scientists alike say is the “best first-step to preventing the worst impacts of a warming world."

Note: Our Take Action AAC meetings are normally first Monday of each month. Due to Labor Day and the timing of the County Council meeting, it will be Tuesday in September.

 Progressive Howard County

A voter registration drive is getting under way focusing on underrepresented voters in the county. If you are interested in helping with voter registration in Howard County, volunteer at http://www.progressiveHoCo.org/volunteer

Talbot Rising

ARTWORKS FOR FREEDOM
An upcoming arts event in Easton will raise awareness about human trafficking. The art exhibit will be held at the Waterfowl Building, 40 S. Harrison St in Easton from September 8 - October 1, 2017. It will include indoor and outdoor art exhibits, multi-media installations, lecture, panels and films addressing human exploitation. 
 This exhibit is free to the public and volunteer-run, so please help!
Sign up for one or more shifts to sit with the exhibit at the Waterfowl Building.  If you know someone who may be interested in volunteering, please feel free to share this email.  Sign up here-
 www.signupgenius.com/go/508084fa8a62ba3fa7-easton 
*** 

Lower Shore Progressive Caucus

ALLIES AND EVENTS OF INTEREST 

Thursday, September 7:  7 p.m. Progressive Cheverly Forum on Returning Citizens and our Community. Cheverly United Methodist Church, 2801 Cheverly Ave. Last spring a large number of Cheverly residents objected to the placement of a halfway house in our town.  Yet the fact remains that formerly incarcerated persons live in Cheverly as they do elsewhere in Prince George's County and very few public services are offered to help this vulnerable population.  

Forum speakers will be:

Courtney Stewart, Chairman/CEO, The National Reentry Network for Returning Citizens

Krystal Oriadha, Lead Advocate for Criminal Justice Reform, Progressive Prince George's

Karen Dolan, Criminalization of Race and Poverty Project Director, Institute for Policy Studies

Amity Pope, lead organizer for Progressive Maryland

 They will examine the causes of mass incarceration, the needs and experiences of people when returning home after imprisonment, and action steps we can take going forward.

 Note new location: Cheverly United Methodist Church, Fogle Hall, 2801 Cheverly Ave -- Parking available in parking lot behind the church -- Light refreshments will be served.

Wed. Sept. 6 Greenbelt Climate Action Network: “Maryland Clean Energy Jobs Initiative” outlines CCAN’s plan and legislative proposal to boost clean energy jobs and increase Maryland’s use of renewables to 50% by 2030. Liz Lee, Director of volunteer outreach for CCAN, headlines the meeting at Greenbelt Community Center, 7-9 p.m.

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

To keep up with progressive events in and around DC consult the invaluable calendar at the Washington Peace Center, http://washingtonpeacecenter.org/alerts

 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.

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 posted these blogs:

August 31, 2017 States’ rights – it’s not just about the Klan

Community control of our quality of life is a driving force in our activism. But community control, historically and even today, has its down side. The competing agendas of federal, state and local governments and officials create bad outcomes, because when laws get jostled by circumstance, the result often winds up favoring the wealthy and powerful even more.

August 30, 2017 Port Towns Concrete Batch Plant Zoning Hearing Continued to Sept. 6

A critical Prince George's County Zoning Examiner's Hearing may seal the fate of a controversial Concrete Batch Plant project being sought in Bladensburg, near the Anacostia waterfront and potentially threatening health and safety in the Port Towns. The Aug. 22 hearing was continued after lengthy debate until Wednesday, Sept. 6, when opponents of the plant hope to have, again, a large crowd to let the Examiner -- and County Council -- know that community control of local development is important to many of the county's residents.

August 29, 2017 From Maryland Matters, tangled history of the Purple Line

ln this re-post from the essential political blog Maryland Matters, a deep-dive account of the twisty history of the Purple Line leading up to the tent-revival groundbreaking on Monday. Gov. Hogan gets props (and needs them) for reshaping the path for this crucial piece of mass transit for Prince George's and Montgomery counties, which will serve largely working-class users and was blocked for so long by MoCo country-clubbers, their platoons of lawyers and even a judge or two who shared their class perspective. Maryland Matters founder and chief blogger Josh Kurtz, a seasoned Maryland political observer, provides this great overview.

August 28, 2017 Weekly Memo for Aug. 28-Sept. 4

The turn of Labor Day brings renewed activism. Making Maryland better – more in tune with ordinary people and their/our real needs, less controlled by big moneyed interests – is a big piece of making the nation and the world better.

Let’s keep going.

Keeping up with the blogs is easier with the index. The blogs published in the PM BlogSpace since June 2015 are all available with descriptions and links here.

 

woody woodruff

About

M.A. and Ph.d. from University of Maryland Merrill College of Journalism, would-be radical, sci-fi fan... retired to a life of keyboard radicalism...