Festivals and Culture
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.
Pi Days of Yore: Activity Suggestions Submitted by Teachers, Students & Everyday People
Some examples: (1)We play pi shuffleboard. I draw 3 big circles on the floor, inside of each other and the kids use rolls of masking tape as pucks. They toss and/or slide circles of tape [identifying marks on side] to see who gets closest to center. Players each have 3 circles of tape that they slide to remove others from center. The winner then challenges the next 3 players until we declare Pi shuffleboard winner.(2)For our Pi Day, my school asked all the faculty members if they would be interested in being “pi’d” and their name was put on a plastic jug. Students would place money in their jug throughout the week and the teacher/faculty member with the most money got pi’d at an all school assembly. We raised a total of about $400! We donated all the proceeds to multiple charities. more »
My New Roommates, Alexa and Google Home
Rose Madeline Mula writes: After living alone for over thirty years, I recently acquired two new roommates. The adjustment is proving to be very interesting — not only regarding my relationships with them, but also theirs with each other. Their names are Alexa and Google Home, and they reside in opposite ends of my condo — Alexa lives in my den, and Google in my bedroom. I myself am an insomniac, and they are awake and available around the clock to tell me the time, the temperature, the weather, and the news of the world, or any celebrity gossip. (I was shocked when Google identified the latest person to be accused of sexual harassment!) more »
Which States Send the Most Olympians to the Winter Games? Colorado Is Home to 1 in 8, but Vermont Sends More Per Capita
The nine largest states (California, Texas, Florida, New York, Pennsylvania, Illinois, Ohio, Georgia, and North Carolina), which account for more than half of the total US population, contributed only 3 out of 10 Olympians. Colorado’s workforce has one of the largest number of coaches, umpires and professional athletes on a per capita basis — about 2,000 per million population. more »
A Welcome to Public Domain Day by Duke's Law School; What is Entering Public Domain in the US? Not a Single Published Work
If you live in Canada or New Zealand, January 1st 2018 would be the day when the works of René Magritte, Langston Hughes, Dorothy Parker, Jean Toomer, Edward Hopper, and Alice B. Toklas enter the public domain.1 So would the musical compositions of John Coltrane, Billy Strayhorn, Paul Whiteman, Otis Redding, and Woody Guthrie. Canadians can now add a wealth of books, poems, paintings, and musical works by these authors to online archives, without asking permission or violating the law. And in Europe, the works of Hugh Lofting (the Doctor DoLittle books), William Moulton Marston (creator of Wonder Woman!), and Emma Orczy (the Scarlet Pimpernel series) will emerge into the public domain, where anyone can use them in their own books or movies. more »
