Pens to Power
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posted 7/31/26
Happy August, Pens Members!
Summer is winding down, but with midterm elections in a couple of months, we're just getting started! We have so many opportunities coming up for you to meet candidates, get out the vote, and become involved in election activities, so stay tuned to this weekly email and our weekly Washington County Indivisible Newsletter for info! If you're not signed up for the newsletter, please visit wcindivisible.com and sign up today! Pens to Power will host multiple in-person writing events in the coming weeks as we begin our general election mailer campaign. Dates and other info are on the attached flyer. If you can only make one, we'd love to have as many people as possible at the October 4 event to write and send election mailers ahead of early voting. Please also join us if you can at our Tuesday morning Board of County Commissioners Rise & Grind protest. This week we will be handing out free coffee and donuts to all attendees as we work to keep up the pressure on the Commissioners and let them know we're not going away until ICE camps and data centers are no longer a threat to Washington County. Flyer attached. Washington County Indivisible is hosting a unique candidate meet and greet event on October 7. Join us at Hub City Vinyl for Candidate Speed Dating, where candidates for local office will rotate between tables and talk to small groups at a time and answer your questions. The event is free. Please RSVP so we can plan accordingly. Flyer attached. We will have more events scheduled very soon and I will keep you posted! ________________________________________________________ WEEKLY TOPICS FEDERAL: The House passed its version of the NDAA and now the Senate must act. This bill would merge key aspects of the US and Israeli militaries, sharing intel and reducing oversight. Please click here to write to your Senators and tell them to oppose this integration. STATE: Last month, there were more fatalities at the nearby Roxbury Correctional Institute. These deaths continue an alarming trend across the state in recent years. The same reasons apply to these detention facilities and to the ICE warehouse we are opposing. Human rights should come first. While legislators continue to meet and talk about possible solutions, staffing issues and poor conditions in these state detention centers will keep causing more health problems and violence within these facilities. Officials say staffing is the biggest issue and since that's not improving, let's write to the governor and request a real, meaningful, look at ways to safely decrease the prison population. Options include releasing those who are incarcerated for non-violent offenses and/or toward the end of their sentences, diverting individuals whose primary needs involve mental health crises or substance use away from the criminal justice system and toward more targeted facilities, etc. This has been done in other places under various circumstances and worked, so it's worth a look at doing it here. Write to: Governor Wes Moore 100 State Circle Annapolis, Maryland 21401-1925 LOCAL: This week, instead of writing to someone locally, I would love to try using our collective reach to increase voter turnout in the upcoming general election. Between now and next Wednesday, reach out to at least one person who you think may need a gentle nudge, and remind them to check their voter registration ahead of the general election in November. They can visit Vote411.org to check. Let's see how many people we can get to the polls who may not have originally planned on it! I'll be back next week with more. Hope to see you on Tuesday morning for some coffee, donuts, and good old fashioned protest!
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Don't stand back and stand by. This is the time to stand up and speak out.
WASHINGTON COUNTY Indivisible / Washington County, Maryland