This series of postings will describe my journey to the Democratic National Convention in Boston with media credentials and a seat in the press area of the Fleet Center. Past postings are here:
Day 0 Posting 1 - Blogging: Journalism or Activism or Both?
Day 1 Posting 1 - Arriving in Boston: Saturated Air & U.S. Topography
Day 2 Posting 1 - Clinton a No-Show at Rock the Vote, Disappointed Grassroots Young Dems
Day 2 Posting 2 - a not-so-typical day for delegates and others
While more than 5,000 Democratic women-- including Hillary Clinton and Madeleine Albright-- attended an event Tuesday afternoon called "Revolutionary Women" in Boston's new convention center, I reflected on my experience as a female blogger among the predominately male bloggers on the first night of the Convention. Later, Teresa Heinz Kerry provided her wisdom on gender issues to the nation during her prime-time address at the Convention. Here are the details...
Wives Only
When I saw the DNC's first outline of prime TV speakers for the Convention some weeks ago, I was struck by the lack of women politicians. The only two listed were wives of politicians -- Teresa Heinz Kerry and Elizabeth Edwards. I have nothing against wives, but it seems like there are many Democratic women leaders whose merit reflects more than who they married. Hillary Clinton's fans led an effort to have her added to the roster. Even she was asked to speak as a wife and not as a Senator, though she snuck in "a few words" on policy that lasted about 8 minutes. Yes, there are some female elected officials speaking, but they were added later to the roster and most are in the 4-7pm time slot when the Fleet Center is largely empty and the TV cameras aren't rolling.
Thinking back to previous Democratic Conventions or even the 2000 Republican Convention, this definitely seems like a step backward.
The "Revolutionaries"
Along those lines, a Boston activist named Barbara Lee organized a major gathering of over 5,000 Democratic women to coincide with the national Convention. The event was called "Revolutionary Women," I suppose because of Boston's historic Revolution against King George. The goal of the gathering was no more revolutionary than to inspire women to run for political office. An EMILY's List luncheon preceded the event in the same building.
After entering the large hall to his campaign song "We Can," Howard Dean introduced Hillary Clinton, Carol Moseley-Braun, Michigan Governor Jennifer Granholm, Madeleine Albright, Nancy Pelosi, and the first African-American female sheriff in Massachusetts history. Each speaker was more electric than the one prior. Carol Moseley Braun explained the math: at the rate of women being elected to state and federal offices, there will be equity in the year 2300. She said the pace needs to be accelerated so we achieve equity by 2020 in time for the anniversary of women's suffrage.
Workshops at the event offered practical advice on running for local office, stories of women serving in elected office, and stories of press coverage of women with celebrity media like Eleanor Clift and Helen Thomas. There was also an emphasis on encouraging women to vote and especially single women - one speaker noted that 60% of single women did not vote in 2000 and asked us to imagine how the last 3 years would have been had more women voted.
Here are Oregon Delegate and Blogger Jenny Greenleaf's two postings on the event, with details of the speakers' comments:
Wanted: Single Women and
Women in the Political Media.
At the opening of the event, Barbara Lee told a story: The Mayor of Santa Barbara-- a woman named Marty Blum-- once visited an elementary school and a boy asked her if a man can be Mayor... This story clearly illustrated the impact of an elected official's gender on people's perception of what's possible.
Women Bloggers and Other Aspects of Life
Speaking of what's sometimes assumed impossible, this past week I found my blog postings promoted to the front page of three blogs after a year of occasional blogging-- some weeks I wrote more than 10 entries in the Blogosphere and other months none when parenting or other responsibilities didn't allow any blogging--
and only one posting on a front page (Blog for America in Fall 2003) before this week. It's been both humbling and thrilling to be one of 16,000 members of the press and about 100 bloggers all looking for a good story at the same event, and to find comments on my stories like "This is the kind of blogging of the Convention I've been hoping for," and other times to read other bloggers' or journalists' stories and question whether mine could compare.
Over the year, I've wondered about the definition of "blogger" and whether I count since I don't have my own site-- I'm more of a nomadic blogger posting on others' sites. It reminds me of part-time working mothers who choose consulting jobs because of the flexibility to take on work when time permits.
Mixing it in the Blogger Roost
The bloggers have been assigned a small section on the 7th floor of the Fleet Center overlooking the Convention hall. Having been a computer science major undergrad, I felt right at home in the "blogger roost." It reminded me of a Silicon Valley start-up: Predominately guys all staring intently at computers crowded together in a small area. Despite receiving As on final exams and in my college classes, professors almost never called on me or any of the other 1-2 women in classes of 80 men. I learned not to bother raising my hand. When class ended, lots of guys wanted to hang out with me socially. Eventually they discovered that they wanted to do problem sets with me also-- because of my brain-- but they didn't expect that initially.
In the blogger roost, I talked for a while with Christopher Rabb of Afro-Netizen. He is the only African-American blogger credentialed by the DNC for the Convention. We shared some thoughts on being minorities within the blogger world. I also checked out his blog and it's really good.
Teresa Heinz Kerry also spoke about wisdom during her Convention speech. She talked about how she's called "opinionated." Teresa said that's a word used to describe women who are smart and well-informed.
More coverage soon. . .