{"id":8685,"date":"2024-04-22T16:34:08","date_gmt":"2024-04-22T22:34:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/georgerrmartin.com\/notablog\/?p=8685"},"modified":"2024-04-22T16:34:08","modified_gmt":"2024-04-22T22:34:08","slug":"women-of-the-press","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/georgerrmartin.com\/notablog\/2024\/04\/22\/women-of-the-press\/","title":{"rendered":"Women of the Press"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Last month I zipped down to the Isleta Resort south of Albuquerque for an afternoon, to deliver the keynote speech for the 75th anniversary luncheon of the New Mexico Press Women, and to receive their Courageous Communicator Award.<\/p>\n<p>That was a singular honor, and one that really set me to thinking.\u00a0\u00a0 Our world needs courageous communicators more than ever in these dark divided days, when so many people would rather silence those they disagree with than engage them in debate and discussion.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 I deplore that&#8230; but had I really done enough, myself, to be recognized for courageous speech?<\/p>\n<p>I am not sure I have, truth be told.\u00a0 Yes, I&#8217;ve spoken up from time to time, on issues both large and small&#8230; but not always.\u00a0 It is always easier to remain silent, to stay on the sidelines and let the storms wash over you.\u00a0\u00a0 The more I pondered, the more convinced I became that I need to do more.\u00a0\u00a0 That we <em>all<\/em> need to do more.<\/p>\n<p>I started by delivering a 45 minute keynote address, on the subject of free speech and censorship.\u00a0\u00a0 Which, I am happy to say, was very well received (I was not entirely sure it would be).<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-large wp-image-8689\" src=\"https:\/\/georgerrmartin.com\/notablog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/04\/GRRM-NMPW-7-1024x683.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"960\" height=\"640\" srcset=\"https:\/\/georgerrmartin.com\/notablog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/04\/GRRM-NMPW-7-1024x683.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/georgerrmartin.com\/notablog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/04\/GRRM-NMPW-7-300x200.jpg 300w, https:\/\/georgerrmartin.com\/notablog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/04\/GRRM-NMPW-7-768x512.jpg 768w, https:\/\/georgerrmartin.com\/notablog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/04\/GRRM-NMPW-7-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https:\/\/georgerrmartin.com\/notablog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/04\/GRRM-NMPW-7-2048x1365.jpg 2048w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 960px) 100vw, 960px\" \/><\/p>\n<p>After the luncheon plates had been cleared away and the speeches delivered, retiring NMPW president Sherri Burr handed out the awards, including the Courageous Communicator.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-large wp-image-8686\" src=\"https:\/\/georgerrmartin.com\/notablog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/04\/GRRM-NMPW-Presentation-3-1024x683.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"960\" height=\"640\" srcset=\"https:\/\/georgerrmartin.com\/notablog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/04\/GRRM-NMPW-Presentation-3-1024x683.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/georgerrmartin.com\/notablog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/04\/GRRM-NMPW-Presentation-3-300x200.jpg 300w, https:\/\/georgerrmartin.com\/notablog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/04\/GRRM-NMPW-Presentation-3-768x512.jpg 768w, https:\/\/georgerrmartin.com\/notablog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/04\/GRRM-NMPW-Presentation-3-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https:\/\/georgerrmartin.com\/notablog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/04\/GRRM-NMPW-Presentation-3-2048x1365.jpg 2048w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 960px) 100vw, 960px\" \/><\/p>\n<p>The text on the trophy reads, &#8220;New Mexico Press Women On the Occasion of its 75th Anniversary Bestows its COURAGEOUS COMMUNICATOR AWARD on March 15-16, 2024 to George R.R. Martin for building new worlds and creating strong, yet nuanced, women characters in his books and television shows.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-large wp-image-8687\" src=\"https:\/\/georgerrmartin.com\/notablog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/04\/GRRM-NMPW-10-1024x683.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"960\" height=\"640\" srcset=\"https:\/\/georgerrmartin.com\/notablog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/04\/GRRM-NMPW-10-1024x683.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/georgerrmartin.com\/notablog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/04\/GRRM-NMPW-10-300x200.jpg 300w, https:\/\/georgerrmartin.com\/notablog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/04\/GRRM-NMPW-10-768x512.jpg 768w, https:\/\/georgerrmartin.com\/notablog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/04\/GRRM-NMPW-10-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https:\/\/georgerrmartin.com\/notablog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/04\/GRRM-NMPW-10-2048x1365.jpg 2048w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 960px) 100vw, 960px\" \/><\/p>\n<p>My thanks to Sherri, and to all the members of the NMWP.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Last month I zipped down to the Isleta Resort south of Albuquerque for an afternoon, to deliver the keynote speech for the 75th anniversary luncheon of the New Mexico Press Women, and to receive their Courageous Communicator Award. That was a singular honor, and one that really set me to thinking.\u00a0\u00a0 Our world needs courageous [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[218],"tags":[29,308,19],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/georgerrmartin.com\/notablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8685"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/georgerrmartin.com\/notablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/georgerrmartin.com\/notablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/georgerrmartin.com\/notablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/georgerrmartin.com\/notablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8685"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/georgerrmartin.com\/notablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8685\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8692,"href":"https:\/\/georgerrmartin.com\/notablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8685\/revisions\/8692"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/georgerrmartin.com\/notablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8685"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/georgerrmartin.com\/notablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8685"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/georgerrmartin.com\/notablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8685"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}