Medicare for All

I don’t know about you, but I never look forward to medical bills, and no one should have to delay or decline necessary medical care because of their financial or social status. Medicare for All would improve access for everyone-including current Medicare enrollees by guaranteeing comprehensive healthcare. A Medicare For All system would mean that all doctors and hospitals would be in-network. Coverage would include primary care, specialists, dental, vision, reproductive, and long-term care, all without deductibles or co-pays! Prescription drug costs would also be reduced under Medicare for All which would be a great benefit for our seniors and those of us that are suffering from serious medical conditions. I support Medicare for All because no one should be forced into poverty due to a health crisis and the U.S. has the means to make free healthcare to all possible.

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Trans, Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Queer (TLGBQ+)

Everyone deserves to be able to live a life free of discrimination, hate and danger. Our TLGBQ community are not exempt from this human right. Right now, the TLGBQ community, particularly black trans women are in a state of emergency. They are being murdered at an alarming rate and it’s being overlooked by our Maryland leadership. I support TLGBQ prison reform and for direct financial resources to be allocated to our local Baltimore City TLGBQ organizations that will support the livelihood of our TLGBQ community through housing, healthcare, education, and jobs.

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Education Reform

The conditions of our Baltimore City Public Schools are no secret. I am a product of Baltimore City Public Schools and the issues that we faced in our school system in 1988 are the same issues that we are facing now. We have great teachers, but they don’t have sufficient support or pay to do their job. Our kids need to be taught in healthy and safe school buildings with adequate air-conditioning, heat, and ventilation. We also need to update how we are teaching our children. COVID has exposed the need for updated technology in our classrooms, more creative teaching practices and top-notch 21st century curriculum. We also need to ensure digital equity. Lack of digital access continues to disproportionately impact families with low income, especially black and brown communities across our state. 

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Community-Centered Public Safety

Law enforcement is rooted in slave patrols of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries and police enforcement of Jim Crow laws in the late nineteenth to mid twentieth centuries. Can a system rooted in slavery be reformed? Probably not. Rather than policing the effects of crime, a public safety system should be built that addresses the root causes of crime. We need to tear down the law enforcement system that we have now and rebuild it in a way that works for our communities. Black people are 3.5 times more likely than white people to be killed by police when Blacks are not attacking or do not have a weapon. Black teenagers are 21 times more likely than white teenagers to be killed by police. A Black person is killed about every 40 hours in the United States.  The community-centered public safety system would include reducing the power of police by reallocating funding away from the police department to the community. The community must be at the table when it comes to choosing the officers that serve our communities and police must be held accountable when they have engaged in criminal conduct. As a community, we must build a community-centered public safety system that is against police brutality and racial injustices.