Our role in the progressive movement in Maryland is to build power for working families and workers in the workplace – hence the observances of Labor Day. Now that Labor Day has passed, most schools are back in session and … local governments are back in business and need to be checked by grassroots progressives. Read about a bill hearing in Anne Arundel County Council TONIGHT, below.
Â
Progressive Maryland Weekly Memo for Tuesday September 3 2019
Our role in the progressive movement in Maryland is to build power for working families and workers in the workplace – hence the observances of Labor Day. Now that Labor Day has passed, most schools are back in session and … local governments are back in business and need to be checked by grassroots progressives. Quickly. How quickly? See our notes below on Anne Arundel County government and the fight to ensure safety in local telecommunications policy, because it’s all about making our voices heard tonight. That’s right, tonight, Sept. 3. Read on…
THE AGENDA THIS WEEK
On Saturday, Sept. 7 join Progressive Maryland and 2018 Gubernatorial nominee Ben Jealous in Prince George's for an organizing conversation on the issues in our criminal justice system, mass incarceration and the current realities of structural racism in our legal system. The event is called “When They See Us: An Organizing Conversation” and will focus on ways to reform Maryland’s criminal justice system, particularly in Prince George’s County, using the Netflix series When They See Us to guide the conversation. It’ll be held at ATU 689’s Union Hall in District Heights, Maryland on Saturday, September 7th at 11 AM – RSVP here.
During this event, we’ll be discussing the prison industrial complex, mass incarceration and the school to prison pipeline. Arrest and sentencing policies, racial bias, and socioeconomic inequity contribute to racial disparities at every level of the criminal justice system, as people of color make up 37% of the U.S. population but 67% of the prison population, are more likely than white Americans to be arrested,  convicted, and face harsh sentences. Black and LatinX men especially face bad odds in the system. During this conversation we will discuss entities that play a role in fueling the mass incarceration machine.
We need your voice in the room: Join us on Saturday, Sept. 11 at a time for uniting our voices and leveraging our People Power. Â
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 below) 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 – there are forty-plus schools in Prince George’s that will become Community Schools in the next two school years. Watch for the next public meeting of the AROS coalition and 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.
Medicare for All – progress report
Medicare just turned 54 years old so 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 (chairman is Frank Pallone of New Jersey) – tell him you are from Steny Hoyer’s home state)
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.
Â
OUR CHAPTERS AROUND THE STATE
On Saturday, Sept. 7 join Progressive Maryland and 2018 Gubernatorial nominee Ben Jealous in Prince George's for an organizing conversation on the issues in our criminal justice system, mass incarceration and the current realities of structural racism in our legal system.
 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
Anne Arundel County Council considers a bill TONIGHT (Tuesday, Sept. 3 at 7 PM) to regulate Small Cell/5G telecommunications transmitters and it does not protect communities -- including vulnerable populations in locales like Hanover – from radiation emissions as these small cell-tower transmitters are scattered around the county.
Speak out tonight about Bill 65-19 at the Council meeting -- we need to show the County Council that we have a strong coalition of residents who are engaged in keeping our community safe, despite laws stacked in favor of the telecom industry. Find out more about the dangers that unchecked corporate behavior poses to out-lawyered local government.
-- Randye, Peggy and Brian from Take Action AAC’s team on Small Cell/5G issues.
Lower Shore Progressive Caucus
EVENTS FROM OUR PROGRESSIVE ALLIES
TONIGHT, Tuesday, SEP 3 – Hearing at Anne Arundel County Council on Telecommunications Bill 65-19 that threatens community health from cell towers placement. 7 PM, county council chambers, 44 Calvert St., Annapolis.
Thursday, SEP 5 Progressive Cheverly Forum: What We Need to Know … and Do About the Epidemic of Gun Violence in Our Country at Spellman Elementary School, Cheverly at 7. Come hear Dist. 4 Rep. Anthony Brown (invited), Jennifer Stapleton of Moms’ Demand Action Maryland and Dr. Woodie Kessel, UMCP School of Public Health for information on state and local gun legislation and on gun violence as a public health issue. NOTE NEW LOCATION -- future forums are held in the multipurpose room at Gladys Noon Spellman Elementary School (3324 64thAvenue, Cheverly, MD; direct access to multipurpose room available from 63rdAvenue entrance), unless otherwise noted. Parking is available. Refreshments will be served. Location is mobility-accessible and ASL interpretation will be provided. Â
Wednesday, SEP 11 Greenbelt Climate Action Network A Just Transition from Coal in Maryland 7:00 - 9:00 pm conversation with Matt Dernoga, Maryland Sierra Club Beyond Coal rep, about Maryland's six remaining coal fired power plants. We will discuss their impacts on public health and the climate, and how we can lead the way in Maryland with a just transition to clean energy. Greenbelt Community Center, Room 114 15 Crescent Road, Greenbelt, MD https://www.facebook.com/events/878344449197887/
Saturday SEP 14 – 350MoCo town hall on climate action, 11 AM t 1:30 PM, Silver Spring Civic Center https://www.eventbrite.com/e/climate-emergency-montgomery-countys-response-tickets-66570745893
Saturday SEP 14 Reversing Global Warming: Introduction to Drawdown, 4-6 PM, University Park Church of the Brethren, 4413 Tuckerman Street, University Park MD 20782 (2 hour workshop begins promptly at 4). Info: Dave Brosch at [email protected] .
Mon, SEP 16 Reversing Global Warming - 6:15 -8:30 PM Severna Park Branch Library, 45 W McKinsey Rd, Severna Park, Maryland 21146 Presented by WISE (Women Indivisible) Interactive climate drawdown workshop. More info here   RSVP here
Sunday, SEP 29 – The path to single payer health care in Maryland, 1:30 - 4:30 PM at Elkridge Library - 6450 Washington Boulevard, Elkridge, MD 21075 -- Join Senator Paul Pinsky, Chair of the Education, Health and Environmental Affairs Committee in the Senate, and Delegate Terri Hill, of the Health and Government Operations Committee in the House, for a discussion of the road map to Single Payer in Maryland. https://www.facebook.com/events/361641874764169/
Sunday, OCT 6-- Eastern Shore Environmental Legislative Summit, 1- 4 PM (Doors open at noon) hosted at Washington College - 300 Washington Avenue, Chestertown, MD 21620
The Eastern Shore is ground zero for climate change in Maryland. It is here where we need to make a stand for ourselves and our children. Explore the issues that face the Shore (and the state), what steps have been taken, and what obstacles we must overcome to defeat the existential crisis of Climate Change and other pressing environmental issues. https://www.facebook.com/events/361641874764169/
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 28, 2019 Medicare for All -- Everybody Active, Everybody In
After a successful Town Hall in Prince George’s challenging Rep. Steny Hoyer to get on board with Medicare for All (HR 1384) or get out of the way, the Maryland Progressive Healthcare Coalition is revving up plans for Montgomery County and Baltimore action. In this account from Progressive Breakfast, Sameena Mustafa describes the kind of grassroots, engaged activism it takes to move the needle when the people’s needs are set aside for the profit of big corporations and the political system they have captured.
August 26, 2019 Progressive Maryland Weekly Memo for Monday, Aug. 26, 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.
August 23, 2019 Panel to fight high drug prices in Maryland stalled by Hogan while activists nationwide call for #PeopleOverPharma
While activists fight around the country to lower the prices greedy Big Pharma charges for high-priced drugs, an innovative panel in Maryland to cut those excessive prices is stalled by the governor's refusal to release its appropriated funding.
August 20, 2019 BATTLE LINES DRAWN FOR STRUGGLE FOR BETTER SCHOOLS IN MD -- $$$ AT ISSUE
Gov. Larry Hogan has waved the no-tax flag in front of his base at the Maryland Association of Counties beach blast in Ocean City. Assembly Democrats are digging in for a fight to improve the state's schools in spite of Hogan's resistance.
>>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
Â
Â
Â
Do you like this page?