Relationships and Going Places
Jo Freeman: There’s Plenty To Do at the RNC – If You Have the Right Credentials
by Jo Freeman
Every national nominating convention has plenty of auxiliary events, some authorized, some not. Getting space can be a challenge; getting the word out even more so. But they do it nonetheless. Press were given a RNC 2024 Master Event Calendar, which was updated a few days later. Events began on Sunday and ended on Thursday. The actual convention sessions were just one item on the list. The calendar said if an event was Open or Closed to press, and also whom to contact to register. I’m going to describe some of the events, including a couple I went to, and a couple I was turned away from.
Since my focus is on women, I obviously wanted to go to those events – if I could.
The National Federation of Republican Women is the largest grassroots Republican women's organization in the country with hundreds of clubs. Founded in 1938, its members made the phone calls and knocked on the doors that elected Republican candidates for decades. It’s Tuesday luncheon featured Arkansas Governor Sarah Sanders. The Master Calendar said it was SOLD OUT and they wouldn’t let me in. I was able to get into their lounge at the Fiserv Forum Wednesday evening, where I was repeatedly asked if I was a member, and if not, would I join. “I’m press,” I said. “I can’t join anything partisan.” I then said: “What brings you here?” On hearing that, finding anyone willing to chat with me was like pulling teeth.
Moms for Liberty met in a concert hall that afternoon. I had pre-registered, and I got in. From high in a balcony seat I listened to several people talk about the evils of transgenderism. It’s webpage says WE BELIEVE Power Belongs to the People. Sound Familiar? With a focus is on parental rights, it wants to “STOP WOKE indoctrination.”
Tuesday I went to “The New Mavericks” reception co-hosted by the Black Republican Mayors Association and the Georgia Republican Party. They honored Sen. Tim Scott, four Congressmen and two Georgia delegates – all male. There was only one mayor on stage, from Aurora, IL. The chair of the Georgia Republican Party was the one white man on the stage. At that event, women served; they didn’t speak. The RNC reported that 55 delegates to the 2024 convention are Black, up from 18 in 2016.
I missed the Independent Women’s Forum toast to “Women Who Make Our Country Great” because I went to Convention Fest: The Official Delegate Experience, which was held in the streets outside the Fiserve Forum and Baird Hall as well as some space inside Baird. To get to that one you not only needed a credential of some sort, but a USSS pass (which I have).
Concerned Women for America parked its pink bus across from the Baird Center the week before the RNC. No one was home. When Convention Fest opened on Tuesday afternoon, they set up a pink tent, from which its leaders preached to whomever passed by. It calls itself “the nation’s largest public policy women’s organization” but its focus is evangelical Christian. The slogan on the side of its pink bus captures this emphasis: “She Prays, She Votes.” A prayer precedes each sermon.
A Sweet Valentine's Day Greeting
Do you visit public lands that charge entrance fees often? Consider purchasing a public lands pass. There are a number of pass options but they give you access to more than 2,000 national parks, forests, wildlife refuges, grasslands and other federal lands. Of the 400 + US national park sites, only 120 charge an entrance fee (which range from $3 to $30 per vehicle for an entire week). For the national wildlife system, 31 refuges charge admission (ranging from $3 to $8 per vehicle) to help fund their recreation-related projects. more »
Airing My Dirty Laundry: I Was a Nude Model
Roberta McReynolds writes: My mother asked me, out of the blue, to model for a painting she wanted to do ... minus clothing. Ever so slowly I turned my head 90 degrees to peer at this strange woman who looked and sounded exactly like my mother. Yet how could this be? Once my mother had effectively shamed me to the core with a single laser-beam glare from across the room because I had shortened the hem of one of my dresses above the knees. All my friends were sporting mini-skirts while I wore clothes more appropriate for a middle-aged woman. So, who was this woman and was I even in the right house? more »
Book Review by Joan L. Cannon, Of War, Maturing, and Class: A Bundle From Britain by Alistaire Horne
Joan L. Cannon reviews: Alistaire Horne is the author of over a dozen books of modern history. In this narrative, we realize that the half-century surrounding World War II has lost much of its impact, if only perhaps because of the wars that have succeeded it. A Bundle from Britain is a completely engaging account of Alistaire Horne's evacuation from England near the beginning of the Nazi onslaught on Europe and especially England. As it happened, he was sent to a section of the American world that can hardly stand in as typical of the USA. more »
A Conundrum: Preserving Fertility When It Is Threatened By Life-Saving Medicine
Angela Thomas thought her breast cancer diagnosis and the double mastectomy that followed were the most traumatic things she would ever experience. When the 32-year-old actress sought fertility treatment so she could have a baby after the cancer care was finished, her insurance company refused to pay. Thomas didn't need chemotherapy, which can affect fertility. But her doctors told her she shouldn’t get pregnant for the next five years, while she was on a cancer-related medication, and that having a healthy baby could be harder in her late 30s.
more »
