MILWAUKEE — I started writing this at Milwaukee’s Mitchell Airport waiting to catch a long-delayed flight back to Newark having spent the full week covering the Republican National Convention. I am stationed on the floor near an electrical outlet to recharge my phone. From my on-the-ground vantage point, I have a bird's eye view of the airport wheelchair attendants who are people of color straining to push RNC attendees to their gates for their departure flights back home.
I came here as the executive producer of Pacifica Radio Network’s "We Decide: America at the Crossroads 2024," a community-based reporting project I created that’s been funded by some of the nation’s largest unions as well as state and regional locals. The concept, inspired by my reporting on the City of Trenton, that lies beyond the State Capitol Complex, was to cover the national political conventions through the context and experience of the neighborhoods surrounding these multi-million dollar spectacles.
