Healthcare Justice Campaign: Calling All Healthcare Justice voters and volunteers!
Â
Please take a few minutes this week to sign up for one of our door knocking or early voting shifts! We appreciate all that many of you are already doing here in Maryland and in other states to protect the vote, reach infrequent voters and to save our democracy. There’s a lot at stake in Maryland in the race between Angela Alsobrooks and Larry Hogan. This is a must win election. Join us on October 26th for the Save The Senate canvass: sign up here. We will provide training and the materials you need. Â
Â
Help us let voters know the big difference between County Executive Angela Alsobrooks and former Governor Larry Hogan, the two major candidates running for the US Senate seat. The vast majority of Marylanders are with us on the need to lower high prescription drug costs, expand paid family and medical leave, restore reproductive freedom, and to crack down on greedy insurance companies denying our care. But they may not know that Hogan is getting millions of dollars to fund his campaign from MAGA mega donors which tells us whose side he’s on. By electing Alsobrooks we will have a Senator who will fight for everyday Marylanders and push for these important healthcare priorities.Â
Â
Some of our Healthcare Task Force leaders are organizing critical election activities in Anne Arundel, Frederick and Harford counties. Contact Patty for dates and details.Â
Â
Environmental Justice: EJTF Plan of Action Unveiled
Â
With much anticipation for the words of former Ohio State Senator Nina Turner, the Environmental Justice Task Force (EJTF), in dazzling attire, attended Progressive Maryland’s gala at YellowFin Steakhouse in Edgewater, MD. Five EJTF leaders were present.
During the gala’s award ceremony, Delegate Vaughn Stewart of District 19 in Montgomery County, the two-year bill sponsor of the Reclaim Renewable Energy Act (RREA), received an award for his leadership and efforts to pass the bill. He also raised political awareness among his colleagues about the urgent need to end the financial exploitation of frontline EJ communities, who have been forced to pay into the wealth generated by an incinerator that has caused their demise. The EJTF roared with ebullience after witnessing one of its legislative heroes honored.Â
Â
Next, EJTF leader Shenae Thomas was recognized for her bravery in voicing her objections to the Bresco incinerator and its health impacts on her family before the Education, Energy, and the Environment Committee in Annapolis on January 25.
Â
Fervency increased, as Trinidadian Delegate Gabriel Acevero of District 29 in Montgomery County called Nina Turner to the front of the room to deliver her jaw-dropping speech. With passion, she delivered a powerful speech about power and being a liberator. For each point made about elected officials compromising their moral values, she effectively used iteration and shouted “amen or ouch.” Her speech resonated with the vision of the EJTF, which is to liberate frontline communities from the destitution of air pollution, and reduced life expectancies. After hearing Nina’s enlivening speech, the EJTF’s inspiration to build unadulterated power in South Baltimore to end the incinerator was amplified. View Gala here.
Â
On Friday, September 27, at the Boys & Girls Clubs of Metropolitan Baltimore Brooklyn O’Malley club, the EJTF unveiled its next strategy to win on issues of environmental injustice. As of this writing, the EJTF and councilwoman Phylicia Porter are planning an in-person meeting to have a discussion on the trash in the alleyways of Brooklyn, Westport, and Cherry hill neighborhoods. Â
Â
Nina’s words were worth its weight in gold, and the EJTF is in alignment with her worldview of saving our community from corporate greed and degradation. As Nina passionately stated during her fiery gala speech, quoting the revered Black novelist Toni Morrison, “the true function of freedom is to free somebody else.”
Â
Acknowledgments and Gratitude: EJTF leaders Shenae Thomas (Awardee), Theo Thompson, Kamal Nkele, Mikal Rashid, Aaron Knishkowy, Delegate Vaughn Stewart (D) District 19, Montgomery County, Zack Buster, and PM’s Communication Department.
