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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.
The Other Side of Silence; What Sounded Appealing Regardless of its Horror
Joan L. Cannon writes: “If we had a keen vision and feeling of all ordinary human life, it would be like hearing the grass grow and the squirrel’s heart beat, and we should die of that roar which lies on the other side of silence.” George Elliot, Middlemarch. Are we in a time when we forget that the silence at the end of a disaster of whatever kind hides a roar that only saints and philosophers have the stomach for? more »
Woman of Note, Ellie Kinnaird: What's Going On in North Carolina?
Why did I resign? I was one of only seventeen Democrats in the 50 member North Carolina State Senate. After this discouraging and disheartening session, I realized I could contribute more to turning this tide by leaving the North Carolina Senate and starting a voter ID project to make sure that every voter has the proper ID and correct precinct they vote in. To assure that thousands of voters will not have their ballots counted, the types of photo identification required is so narrow that it could prevent 160,000 people from voting. more »
"Fly Me to the Moon": LADEE, a Robotic Probe Via a Minotaur Rocket
In an attempt to answer prevailing questions about our moon, NASA plans to launch a probe on Friday, Sept. 6. The small car-sized Lunar Atmosphere and Dust Environment Explorer will orbit the moon to gather detailed information about the structure and composition of the thin lunar atmosphere. While at the NASA site, ask an expert about Climate Change, such as how scientists know changes seen in recent decades are the result of human activities, not natural causes? more »
An Interested Party Presents: For Whom the Troll Dwells
Trolls are symbolically linked to the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge East Span Replacement Project in many ways. The statue, designed by local blacksmith Bill Roan, was affixed to the upper deck of the old bridge by a team of ironworkers who helped repair the East Span after the Loma Prieta earthquake. The Bay Bridge troll appeared in secret, without Caltrans’ approval but the troll has garnered considerable local popularity. Renowned for their protective powers, longevity and superhuman strength, trolls represent a history and spirit that deserve to be both commemorated and continued. more »