Dear Friend,
Happy Earth Week! As we come together this week to celebrate our planet, we’re given the opportunity to highlight the intersectionality of environmental issues and social justice. It's important to recognize that the fight for a sustainable future goes beyond just planting trees and reducing plastic waste. It also encompasses the need for equitable and inclusive environmental policies and practices that address the disproportionate impacts of environmental degradation on marginalized communities. While the legislature failed to pass some critically important environmental laws for our state this year, our work in environmental justice is not done. So, as we commemorate Earth Week, let's not only celebrate the beauty of our planet, but let’s also raise awareness, take action, and promote environmental justice as an integral part of our commitment to protecting our precious planet. Check out our Earth Day events section of the memo for ways to get involved!
Now that the legislative session has come to an end, we’re pivoting to focus on organization building, launching new initiatives, expanding our task force work, and building more chapters and coalitions across the state. Look out for more announcements as we continue to advocate for progressive policies and create positive change in our state. Don’t forget to check out the Blog section of our memo each week to check out news you can use! This week’s piece is loaded with plenty of updates from our state and other parts of the country!
In Solidarity, The Progressive Maryland Team |
Here’s what’s in today’s memo: - PM Events
- PM task forces & issue campaigns: EJTF, & HCTF
- Local chapter updates: Harford County & PG County
-
Earth Day Events
- State & National news
|
PM Events:
New to Progressive Maryland? Register for our Introductory Webinar where you can learn more about our mission, our work, and how you can get involved in our efforts. The webinar will take place on Wednesday at 7:00pm, and will provide an overview of our organization and the impact we're making in our communities. Click here to register.
|
Updates: PM Task Forces & Issue Campaigns |
Healthcare Justice Campaign
Thank you!!! to our awesome leaders and supporters; and to our amazing allies for all the outreach, organizing, lobbying, action planning, and communications work that everyone did to help us make considerable progress in Annapolis this year. After we catch our breath we plan to launch our healthcare justice community organizing drive! To learn more about it and to get involved please contact Patty. And stay tuned for news about our plans to join the powerful Care Over Cost campaign that People’s Action has launched in a number of states. It’s a campaign that calls out the high cost of insurance and demands that something be done about the growing problem of insurance companies turning down claims and requests for treatments.
Annapolis Healthcare Issues in Review: We made some progress in expanding healthcare and lowering healthcare costs: 💗 The MGA voted to fully fund the Prescription Drug Affordability Board and to grant it authority to work on a plan to set upper payment limits on what the state of Maryland and local governments are spending for Rx purchases. We remain excited about the Board’s potential to reduce what we’re spending every year as a state and as individuals on life sustaining medicines. 💗 The Hospital Patient Reimbursement Bill is also on its way to Governor Moore. This measure makes sure the process for reimbursing patients wrongfully charged by hospitals (they were eligible for free care but nevertheless were charged) get the reimbursements they deserve. We will continue to organize and push for more rights and protections for low income Marylanders who need hospital care, in tandem with the End Medical Debt Campaign.
💗 The Trans Health Equity Act, an important bill that will provide coverage for additional gender-affirming treatments has also become law.
💗 Our friends at CASA waged a strong campaign with allies like us to win the Access to Care Act. We had great results in the House, winning by a vote of 100-34 vote in March but the Senate leadership refused to take action on the measure. While the MGA failed in this area, they did do the right thing by passing the Reproductive Health Equity Act of 2023.
💗 The Reproductive Health Equity Act of 2023 re-commits our state to reproductive rights after the Supreme Court’s overturning of Roe v. Wade in 2022. The Act ensures that all individuals have access to reproductive healthcare regardless of income or immigration status. Having this law on the books makes Maryland one of the most progressive states in the nation when it comes to guaranteeing the fundamental right of all individuals to have access to comprehensive reproductive health care.
|
Returning Citizens Task Force
The 10 participants at the April 4 Returning Citizens Task Force (RCTF) meeting heard a presentation by Antoin Quarles, founder of Hope in Baltimore. He described his personal journey that led him to prison and to the work he is now engaged in. Quarles stressed the importance of family bonding, the need to heal scars and wounds created by prison impacting those behind bars and impacting their loved ones. And, after release, he added, people need to relearn how to live independent lives and, at the same time, need to know how to be part of their family.
Quarles made three key points about the work Hope in Baltimore does amongst people still in prison and with people after their release: - Organizing is about allowing people to see and be part of the work. And, most important, is to be honest
-
The key way to reach people is through the networks they form as part of the community where they live. And for those not yet released, it is important to find ways to contact them while still incarcerated, or just at the point of release.
-
Building political strength means registering people to vote, and it means educating people as to how to evaluate candidates so they know how best to decide on whom to support come election time.
RCTF’s next meeting will be held tomorrow, Tuesday, April 18 from 6:30 – 7:30 pm. The zoom link is here. If you have any questions or need further information, please contact Kurt.
|
Environmental Justice Task Force
Over 20 community members attended the Environmental Justice Task Force (EJTF) Meeting at the Enoch Pratt Library Brooklyn Park Branch, this past Saturday. Baltimorean Councilwoman Phylicia Porter was also the event’s guest speaker, and shared ideas on how WE can work to put a stop to the incinerator on a local level.
5 community members accepted the call to action and signed up for door-to-door canvassing shifts to bring more residents of South Baltimore to EJTF: with this increase in people-power, we can shut the incinerator down once and for all. If you would like to join this movement and knock doors with members of the EJTF, please reach out.
|
|
|
Progressive Harford County
Progressive Harford County's monthly meeting is tonight, April 17, at 7 p.m. on Zoom. We'll finalize our plans for Progressive Harford's table at the Harford County Earth Day Festival. Then we'll discuss the next events and initiatives the chapter should pursue this year. Join here.
The Harford County Democratic Mixer is this Saturday, April 23, from 1-4 p.m. at TB3 Bar & Grill. Come out and meet Democrats of all stripes in Harford County. This mixer is about Democrats coming together and getting to know each other. Anyone who wants to get active with Democratic politics in Harford is welcome to attend. The host organizations will give a short presentation at 2 p.m. on specific ways to get involved. The mixer is free to attend. Food and beverages will be available for purchase. Register here.
Help confirm attendees to the Harford County Democratic Mixer. Progressive Harford is calling people who have signed up to remind them to attend the mixer. The confirmation phone bank will be on April 20 from 6-8 p.m. on Zoom. Scripts, calling lists and phone banking training will be provided. Sign up here. |
Progressive Prince George's AROS-PG CALLS TO ACTION:
JOIN US at our Progressive Prince George’s: AROS Community Meeting on the PGCPS CEO issue, tentatively scheduled for April 22nd via Zoom, from 4-6 p.m. Please REGISTER to receive the Zoom link and share the registration link with neighbors, family, coworkers and friends.
-
The County Executive has just announced she is holding a community engagement forum on Wednesday, April 26th at 6 p.m. at Charles H Flowers High School located at 10001 Ardwick-Ardmore Road, Springdale, MD, 20774. You must register to speak by 5 p.m. Tuesday, April 25th. It’s SUPER important that we show up in force to let the County Executive know what we need in a CEO and how you are feeling about the careless and perfunctory nature in which the recruitment and hiring process has been handled thus far.
REGISTER for Throwdown Thursday this week to share in the work of spreading the news to the community about the PGCPS CEO campaign and ways they can get involved. The more the merrier! We will be accomplishing phone and door knocking outreach on this very important issue and event several times a week for the next four weeks. Please register to phone bank by clicking the link above or contact Dev, the Prince George's County organizer, to learn more and get involved!
|
EARTH DAY EVENTS🌎: Kick Gas! In Annapolis
Annapolis Green is hosting an Earth Day event on April 22, 2023 at 3:00 pm. |
Earth Day Cleanup at Masonville Cove
The National Aquarium is hosting an Earth Day event on April 22, 2023 at 1:00pm. The event will take place 501 East Pratt Street, Baltimore, MD. “Join your neighbors and community partners to clean up the stream and living shoreline that connect Brooklyn and Curtis Bay to Masonville Cove. Get outside and make a difference in your community while learning about the causes and effects of marine debris and how you can help! Debris data collected at this event will contribute to Ocean Conservancy’s International Coastal Cleanup. Volunteers must be at least 10 years old. All volunteers under 18 must be supervised by an adult.”
|
State and National News:
Maryland, like many states, has a springtime legislative session -- and, like ours, many are wrapping up now and seeking governors' signatures on their hard-forged bills. We feature several takes on what the Assembly accomplished as well as some tidbits from other states legislative bodies that echo Maryland's concerns but may well show opposite tendencies. And Congress is back at work with the GOP caucus in the House still trying to leverage the potential for a US debt default to slash social services and roll back some of Joe Biden's accomplishments. For all of these consequential issues, we can only say,stay tuned. But our legislative session is a wrap and the next metric is what the Moore administration makes of the results. We'll be watching; you should too. It’s News You Can Use for this fast-moving time. Don’t miss it
|
Don't forget to follow us on social media! |
Progressive Maryland
P.O. Box 6988
Largo, MD 20792
United States If you believe you received this message in error or wish to no longer receive emails from us, please unsubscribe or update your preferences in your supporter portal. |
|
|
|
