GC Prep
This is what we see of General Conference 2019 from the newsroom. (Photo by Mike Dubose, UMNS)
Famed Scottish poet Robert Burns was right when he penned “The best laid schemes o' mice an' men / Gang aft a-gley.” Our plans for United Methodist Insight’s coverage of General Conference 2019 went awry in a couple of regrettable ways. It’s midnight on Saturday, and I’m taking stock of our revised situation.
First, we joined the thousands of travelers whose plans were disrupted by winter storms. Our first flight was cancelled, then the next flight we were able to book six hours later was another 90 minutes late. Arriving at one’s hotel at midnight, leaving barely seven hours before the start of the next day’s proceedings, doesn’t allow necessary recuperation and prep time.
Physically, the distance from our hotel to the correct entrance at The Dome proved far more arduous than I anticipated. I had pridefully considered myself rehabilitated enough for the trek. I didn’t expect that my back disability would be as much a mobility obstacle as it has turned out to be. I can walk short distances, but not the long treks required by a huge venue like the St. Louis Convention Center. I can sit for a while, but then I have to get up and find a semi-secluded bit of floor to do some stretching exercises. I had to borrow one of the wheelchairs thoughtfully loaned by a local congregation to get around the convention center – a concession to disability and age that has destroyed my journalistic sense of rugged individualism.
I’m trying to envision myself like the late Sarah McClatchy and Helen Thomas, two other tough old broads of journalism who covered the White House from their wheelchairs well into their 80s. Still, being confronted with one’s mortality in this way whacks a big bruise on the ego, even though handicapped access routes provide scenic tours into the bowels of the convention center. I hope others will understand that I’m not whining; I’m just gobsmacked that my ability to function is now so impaired. When this is over, I'll be seeking out our friends with UM Disability to give me some pointers on how to adapt to my new mobility challenges.
What dismays me most about this General Conference, however, is the obvious sequestration of both public and press away from the delegates. Whether it’s an accident of venue or the leadership’s intention, delegates are being kept at a distance from those who want to express their views, and those who seek governing transparency. European and Eurasian delegates who complained previously about lobbying demonstrations ought to be somewhat mollified; protesters can’t get anywhere near them on the conference floor.
The venue, called The Dome, is basically an indoor football field with stadium seats rising up around it. The delegates are seated on the floor, the public is seated on the concourse level above them, and the media is ensconced in the “nosebleed” section of a press box high above. Terrible visibility and worse sound, and again, no access. There is also a media section in the public concourse seating, but the drawbacks are the same.
These disadvantages are not the fault of United Methodist News Service, which is doing its usual masterful job of running the on-site newsroom. UMNS has been particularly gracious in accommodating my new handicapping condition in the press box. Still, one journo described the scene as “total bedlam,” and she was right.
Veteran United Methodist communicators like me are soldiering on, highly aware that our requests for conducive working space are privileges, not rights. Still, it’s hard not to see the sequestration of press and public as the final act of authoritarian control that began when the Council of Bishops closed the proceedings of the Commission on A Way Forward in clear violation of both the letter and the spirit of the “open meetings” rule of Book of Discipline Paragraph 722. General Conference 2019 is “open,” all right, but nobody is really in the room where it happens. The decision-making and those who make decisions are out of reach.
I regret that access and disability are keeping me from making the rounds of General Conference as in times past. It’s also difficult for visitors to meet up with me at the GC newsroom, which is accessible only by an entrance completely separate from the rest of the convention center. The best alternative I can offer is that I will make my way to the concourse in my wheelchair and tweet and post when I’m there. I regret that you’ll have to come to me rather than my going to you, which I consider the proper professional approach. Let’s agree that our meet-ups will be by mutual effort. We may be cut off from direct access to the delegates, but we can still meet up with one another and share our observations on what’s happening.
United Methodist Insight Editor and Founder Cynthia B. Astle reports from her ninth General Conference.