Issues
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.
Rose Madeline Mula: It Was Here a Minute Ago
Yes, my car. I'm always losing it ... on city streets, parking lots, and once in front of my own house. I used to rent a garage from the neighbors across the street, you see. One night I came home late, and instead of driving into the garage, I parked smack up against a stairway that leads up an embankment to my house. The next morning, a slave to habit, I headed for the garage. No car! It must have been stolen! I rushed back across the street to call the police, but something stopped me. My car. It was blocking the stairs. I had actually had to squeeze past it a few minutes earlier when I went to the garage.
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Jo Freeman Reviews: Revolutionary Feminists: The Women's Liberation Movement in Seattle; A Good Read and Reference Book
Jo Freeman Writes: "The women’s liberation movement (wlm) flowered in the late 1960s. Seattle was one of the seeds, as one of five cities in North America where small groups formed independently, without an outsider bringing the news from someplace else. It pollinated much of the northwest. As was true elsewhere, wlm groups divided and multiplied. Within two years there were three independent women’s liberation organizations. As was not true elsewhere, the founders, and most of their followers, thought of themselves as revolutionaries before they became feminists."
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A Proclamation on Women’s Equality Day 2023 and the 100th Anniversary of the Introduction of the Equal Rights Amendment
"My Administration is committed to realizing the promise of the suffragists, who knew that equality begins at the ballot box and requires women to have a seat at the table. That is why we will keep fighting to pass the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act to restore and strengthen the Voting Rights Act and the Freedom to Vote Act to ensure fair Congressional maps give all Americans an equal chance to be heard. It is also why I have delivered on my promise to build an Administration that looks like America — with courageous leaders like Vice President Kamala Harris and the record number of women who serve in our Nation’s first gender-equal Cabinet leading the way." more »
Crosswalks and Pedestrian Safety: What You Need to Know From Recent Research
In recent months, news organizations have covered crosswalk construction or changes to existing crosswalks, including new, decorative pavers in Slidell, Louisiana, proposed infrastructure changes aimed at improving pedestrian safety in Phoenix, and decorative, themed crosswalks, such as rainbow crosswalks painted in towns across the country for Pride month. Such stories call attention to the dangers of pedestrians and vehicles sharing roadways -- and the rising rate of pedestrian deaths nationwide. The Governors Highway Safety Association estimates at least 7,508 pedestrians were killed as a result of crashes on U.S. roadways in 2022. more »
