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.
Balloon Bombs and Blackouts in World War II; For Some a Familiar Time of Anxiety; Growing Up in the Second World War From England's Imperial War Museum
"In order to comply with World War II blackout rules, people covered or painted over the upper part of car headlights. The production capacity of Portland’s shipyards made it a likely target. The blackout rules were intended to make it more difficult for enemy planes to hit targets. Portlanders were asked to have all lights turned off within 60 seconds of an alarm. Lieutenant-General J. L. DeWitt, commander of military defense operations in the western United States asked that cities near the Pacific coast be able to meet the 60-second deadline. Portland Mayor Earl Riley issued the rules in response to DeWitt’s request." more »
An Interview With Mikaela Bernhardt, A Maker of Challah Loaves for CoronaVirus Hospital Workers
"Challah for Hunger's mission is to fight hunger globally and locally. There are chapters all across the world who bake bread every week. Each chapter sells the bread and donates half of their proceeds to a globally based organization called Mazon, a Jewish response to hunger and a local organization of their choice. When this global pandemic started ramping up I was happy to donate money to causes and stay at home but I truly wanted to do something more. These health care workers need to have a moment of acknowledgment and being honored; what better way to do this than through a delicious and filling snack made with love?" more »
From the Director of the Met Museum in New York City; Storytime With The Met, MetSketch, MuseumCrushMonday, Met Stories Project
After we ensured that our people and our collections were safe, we began working creatively to bring The Met collection, our digital content, and our staff expertise into people's homes around the world. The Digital, Social Media, and Education teams have led these efforts, which we are calling #MetAnywhere, and we invite you to experience all that The Met has to offer, no matter where you are right now. We are using our website, Facebook, and YouTube to share live streams and exclusive videos. Tonight, Friday, April 3, at 7 p.m., you can watch a recording of The Mother of Us All, a groundbreaking American opera that was performed at The Met earlier this year. Next Saturday, we will also have the exclusive digital premiere of the full-length documentary Gerhard Richter Painting, which is featured in the exhibition Gerhard Richter: Painting After All at The Met Breuer. more »
Creating Poster Session Papers Based on the Exhibit Heavenly Bodies: Fashion and the Catholic Imagination
Professor Maureen Miller asked her students to choose a garment, or a collection of garments, from the exhibit and then guided them through research and analysis of key issues, including the designers’ background, ideas and work, and the meanings evoked in the exhibit by the garments’ juxtaposition with medieval and Byzantine works of art. Emily Su took history professor Maureen Miller’s seminar on the Met’s “Heavenly Bodies” exhibit. Turning her semester paper into a video for the 95th annual meeting of the Medieval Academy of America helped her learn to “display certain things that wouldn’t come through in other forms,” she said. more »
