Everyone in Bethesda Friends Meeting is invited to Washington DC on Saturday, June 18, to gather at 9:00 a.m. and march at 10:00 a.m. with the Poor People's Low-Wage Assembly. We will march for truth, love and justice, and for a fair sharing of the resources held by the very few in this country. We expect there to be thousands of people at the Capitol from Maryland and around the country. The gathering place is 3rd Street and Pennsylvania Avenue, on the Mall side of the Capitol Building. We hope that many BFM Quakers and other people of faith and goodwill will attend. As we draw closer to the date, we expect to have more information on a Quaker gathering place.
Like to learn more? Want to help organize? See the Poor People's Campaign webpage. It might be possible to gather at BFM and go together to the event. Another possibility is to meet at FCNL, across from the Capitol. Here are some interesting facts which might spur us to action: There are five vacant homes for every homeless person in the country. Maryland is home to 380,555 veterans, making up 8.2% of the adult population. Of those, 83,444 (22.3%) are on disability, and 574 were documented as homeless at a given time. 205,000 Maryland children were living in households that were food insecure during 2018. There were 35,334 people incarcerated in Maryland in 2018, where Black people are incarcerated at 4.7 times the rate of White people.
