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 Denver Destination Vacation: Spun, Adventures in Textiles
Whether as warming layers that comfort us during sleep, decorative furnishings on our walls and floors that enhance our waking hours, or shields providing protection from the elements or evil spirits, textiles are present throughout all moments of our lives. more »
A Different Lens for Grief: The Solace of the Familiar
Joan L. Cannon writes: Like everyone in my place, I’m enjoined repeatedly to dwell on happy memories. We all try, but now it’s struck me that our experience as we recall it is as distorted as the present — as if we view it in reverse magnification. If we can manage to look at a photograph, either it brings us to tears or it resembles someone we might have encountered casually once and now no longer recognize. The familiar is all but unrecognizable from the viewpoint of extreme grief. more »
Perilous Crossings and Pedestrians At Risk: Permitted Left Turns Complicated by a Hodgepodge of Confusing Signals
"Some people walk because they choose to do so. Some of these may have chosen not to own a passenger vehicle. Others may have vehicles available but choose to walk for some of their travel. On the other hand, there are people who walk because they have little choice of alternative modes. These are largely captive walkers. While risk of riding in a passenger vehicle has been declining considerably over the last several decades, it is the captive walkers who have been adversely affected by the increased exposure to vehicle traffic." The Fatality Risk of Walking in America more »
Connections
Julia Sneden writes: Children need to be assured that they are their own persons, no matter how much they look like someone from the past. It’s entirely possible that personality types are inherited as easily as the shape and color of eyes, but unlike the physical traits, personality is surely influenced by the nurturing dynamics of each immediate family. It seems to me that those dynamics create what we call character. more »
