History
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 Power of Poison and Unique Gifts at the American Museum of Natural History
Humans have long marveled at the secrets of poisons and sought to detect their presence and protect against their toxic powers, as many fascinating artifacts on view at the exibition will reveal. Prized objects included celadon dishes, believed to detect poisons; fossilized shark teeth, thought to be dragon tongues that could "purify" food of deadly compounds; and fossilized sea animals called crinoids, believed to be antidotes to common poisons. more »
Selfie, Science and Twerk: The English and American Premier Dictionaries Reveal Their Word of the Year Lists
The Selfie word popularity has resulted in the creation of related showcasing particular parts of the body like helfie (a photo of one’s hair) and belfie (a photo of one’s posterior); an activity – welfie (workout selfie) and drelfie (drunken selfie), and even items of furniture – shelfie and bookshelfie. The Merriam-Webster results show that words that prompted the most increased interest in 2013 were not new words or words used in headlines, but rather they were the words behind the stories in this year's news.
SPRINGFIELD, MASS., December 3, 2013—Merriam-Webster Inc., America's leading dictionary publisher, has announced its top ten Words of the Year for 2013. This year's list was compiled by analyzing the top lookups in the onli… more »
Beauty's Legacy, Material Opulence and Personal Excess: Gilded Age Portraits
With the amassing of great fortunes came the drive to document the wealthy in portraiture, echoing a cultural pattern reaching back to colonial times. A brilliant generation of American and European artists rose to meet that demand. The exhibit examines those portraits of famous society beauties and powerful titans of business and industry. more »
A Measure of Courage
Doris O'Brien writes: So what really defines courage? In the case of those chosen by John F. Kennedy for their "acts of bravery and integrity," the common measure lay in the degree of risk to themselves for the bold actions they undertook. In times of crises — whether in war or peace — true heroes are those who put at risk all that they have striven to possess: their reputations, livelihoods, futures — even their very lives. more »
