Sightings
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.
Jo Freeman Reviews Formidable: American Women and the Fight for Equality
Jo Freeman writes: "This book is a good introductory overview of US women’s accomplishments and activism over the last hundred years, in only 500 pages. Despite the subtitle, the book is not about feminists. It is about formidable women, many of whom would not think of calling themselves feminists. Eleanor Roosevelt disdained feminism, but, as her chapter documents, she worked hard to improve women’s lives..."If you know little or nothing about women’s history in the United States this book is a good place to start. There is so much more to the story of the fight for equality — which is not yet over." more »
Center for Strategic and International Studies: “The Future Outlook with Dr. Anthony Fauci”
Dr. Fauci: 'We need to make sure that in the realm of the complexity of this outbreak, from a public health standpoint, from a policy standpoint, from a scientific standpoint, the one thing that does stand out as a really unprecedented success story is how science has added to our capability in a very, very big way to address this outbreak. And even though it’s been terrible from the standpoint of the toll of human suffering and death both in the United States and globally, it clearly would have been much, much worse had it not been for what science has brought to the table. Having said that in one breath, we still must be aware of how unusual this virus is and continues to be in its ability to evolve into new variants which defy the standard public health mechanisms of addressing an outbreak where you would expect it that once a certain number of people get infected and/or get vaccinated that you could, essentially, bring an end to the pandemic component of the outbreak." more »
Merrick B. Garland Administers the Oath of Allegiance and Delivers Congratulatory Remarks at Ellis Island Ceremony in Celebration of Constitution Week and Citizenship Day
"In the preamble of the Constitution, those Americans enumerated those hopes: to form a more perfect union; establish justice; ensure domestic tranquility; provide for the common defense; promote the general welfare … And importantly – in their words – “to secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity.” Like them, each of you has now made a commitment not only to this nation and your fellow Americans, but to the generations of Americans who will come after you.
In that commitment, you have given your posterity – and the posterity of all of us – a precious gift. I know how valuable that gift is because it is the same one my grandparents gave my family and me."
~
Saturday, September 17, 202… more »
Ferida Wolff's Backyard: Butterfly on a Sunflower; A Popular Choice of the English Subjects Placing Tributes to Queen Elizabeth
Ferida Wolff writes: "Taking a walk in a local nature center on a hot day. It was pleasant walking along the dirt paths in the cool shade of the trees on another 90-degree day. Each step brought something else to observe. The birds were out in numbers, chirping and flitting from tree to tree...There were still some flowers blooming which added color to the scene... Natalie Prince, a Windsor florist, said she had sold 8,000 sunflowers by Saturday afternoon. “She was a ray of sunshine to so many people,” said Ms. Prince, 35. “She was our sort of ray of hope.”
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