Can you sign the letter to Rep. Sarbanes? Can you help deliver it on Wed., June 17 at 4:30 PM? Can you sign the letter to Sen. Cardin? Can you help deliver it on June 17, 18 or 19?

Rep. John Sarbanes
600 Baltimore Ave.
Suite 303
Towson, MD 21204

June 17, 2015

Dear Representative Sarbanes:

Members of the Pledge of Resistance-Baltimore are voters and supporters of Progressive Democrats of America. Some of us live in District 3. We call upon you to join with us observing Juneteenth also known as Independence Day, Freedom Day, or Emancipation Day. To honor this celebration of freedom, justice, and participation in America, we call upon you to cosponsor the following legislation to protect and promote voting and civil rights, (if you haven't already):

Please direct your staff to contact Rep. John Lewis' office at (202)-225-3801 to cosponsor the Voter Empowerment Act (H.R. 12), to "modernize voter registration, promote access to voting for individuals with disabilities, protect the ability of individuals to exercise the right to vote in elections for Federal office, and for other purposes."

Please direct your staff to contact Rep. John Conyers' office at (202)-225-5126 to cosponsor 3 bills: the Democracy Restoration Act (H.R. 1459), to "secure the Federal voting rights of persons when released from incarceration";

Also to cosponsor the End Racial Profiling Act (H.R. 1933), to "eliminate racial profiling by law enforcement, and for other purposes";

And to cosponsor the Commission to Study Reparations for African Americans Act (H.R. 40), to "acknowledge the fundamental injustice, cruelty, brutality, and inhumanity of slavery in the United States and the 13 American colonies,” and “to establish a commission to examine the institution of slavery, subsequently de jure and de facto racial and economic discrimination against African-Americans, and the impact of these forces on living African-Americans, to make recommendations to the Congress on appropriate remedies, and for other purposes."

Please also direct your staff to contact Rep. Hakeem Jeffries' office at (202)-225-5936 to cosponsor the Formerly Incarcerated Voter Registration Act (H.R. 871), to "amend title 18, United States Code, to direct the Bureau of Prisons to provide certain voting information to Federal prisoners upon their release from prison."

Please also direct your staff to contact Del. Eleanor Norton's office at (202)-225-8050 to cosponsor the New Columbia Admissions Act (H.R. 317), to "provide for the admission of the State of New Columbia into the Union."

Finally, we are seeking an end to the use of killer drone strikes, which we believe to be illegal and unconstitutional.  We ask you to speak out against this assassination program, which ignores any veneer of due process.  Consider as well a request for the full, unclassified release of information surrounding the administration’s drone policy. 

We look forward to your response. And when you are ready, we would like to meet with you, preferably in Baltimore. But if necessary, we will travel to your D.C. office.  We thank you for your consideration regarding these critically important issues, and look forward to ongoing discussion and engagement with you in the coming months.

Peace,

Max Obuszewski, on behalf of Pledge of Resistance-Baltimore/Fund Our Communities -- Apt. 206, 431 Notre Dame Lane, Baltimore 21212

Senator Ben Cardin

100 S. Charles Street
Tower 1, Suite 1710
Baltimore, MD, 21201
 
June 17, 2015

Dear Senator Cardin,

Members of the Pledge of Resistance-Baltimore are voters and supporters of Progressive Democrats of America. We call upon you to join with us in observing Juneteenth also known as Independence Day, Freedom Day, or Emancipation Day. To honor this celebration of freedom, justice, and participation in America, we call upon you to cosponsor the following legislation, (if you haven't already): the New Columbia Admissions Act (bill number pending), the End Racial Profiling Act (S. 1056) and the Democracy Restoration Act (S. 772).

Please direct your staff to contact Sen. Thomas Carper's office at (202)-224-2441 to cosponsor the New Columbia Admissions Act (bill number pending), to "provide for the admission of the State of New Columbia into the Union."

 
We want to congratulate you for cosponsoring the Democracy Restoration Act (S. 772), which would secure Federal voting rights of citizens who've paid their debt to society and want to re-enter the mainstream. Currently, several states refuse to restore voting rights in an arbitrary and capricious manner, disproportionately impacting racial minorities.

Also we are extending our thanks to you for cosponsoring the End Racial Profiling Act (S. 1056), legislation that would prohibit "any law enforcement agent or agency from engaging in racial profiling.” As you know, it grants the United States or an individual injured by racial profiling the right to obtain declaratory or injunctive relief and require federal law enforcement agencies, and other law enforcement agencies that apply for grants under certain federal programs, to "maintain adequate policies and procedures to eliminate racial profiling and to cease existing practices that permit racial profiling."

Finally, we are seeking an end to the use of killer drone strikes, which we believe to be illegal and unconstitutional.  We ask you to speak out against this assassination program, which ignores any veneer of due process.  Consider as well a request for the full, unclassified release of information surrounding the administration’s drone policy. 

We thank you for your consideration regarding these critically important issues, and look forward to ongoing discussion and engagement with you in the coming months.

And when you are ready, we would like to meet with you, preferably in Baltimore. But if necessary, we will travel to your D.C. office.  We thank you for your consideration regarding these critically important issues, and look forward to ongoing discussion and engagement with you in the coming months.

Peace,

Max Obuszewski, on behalf of Pledge of Resistance-Baltimore/Fund Our Communities -- Apt. 206, 431 Notre Dame Lane, Baltimore 21212

"The master class has always declared the wars; the subject class has always fought the battles. The master class has had all to gain and nothing to lose, while the subject class has had nothing to gain and everything to lose--especially their lives." Eugene Victor Debs