Online Training Courses and Programs Help Workers and Employers During Pandemic – University of Arkansas Newswire
Posted: August 28, 2020 at 5:56 am
ROGERS, Ark. Registration is open for fall online training classes through University of Arkansas Professional and Workforce Development. Professional and Workforce Development provides quality online training classes and workshops virtually during this time of social distancing.
"U of A Professional and Workforce Development is excited to offer new courses and workshops in an online format that will allow you to advance your career and social distance at the same time," Nicole Zimmerman, marketing and education specialist for Professional and Workforce Development, said. "The fall lineup offers options of live-instructor led programs and self-paced courses."
Featured online training programs and courses include:
COVID-19 and the History of Pandemics Online, on-demand. Each of six modules explore the impact of a pandemic, including COVID-19, and how those pandemics altered the course of history. The cost is $25 per module.
2020 SHRM Learning System for SHRM-CP / SHRM-SCP Online, live stream and recorded sessions. This 15-week program runs 4:30 to 7:30 p.m. Thursdays, beginning Aug. 27. Prepare for SHRM certification exams to help establish yourself as a globally recognized human resource expert. The cost is $1,300.
Free Webinar Series Online, live stream beginning Sept. 3. Register for free, one-hour sessions on various topics, ranging from software basics to personal and professional improvement.
Innovative Management Series Online, live stream on Sept. 18. New and experienced managers can explore best practices and the practical 'how to' of management. The cost is $199.
APICS Certified Supply Chain Professional (CSCP) Exam Prep Course Tuesday evenings, 5:30 to 8:30 p.m. Sept. 22 through Dec. 8. Gain premier certification for end-to-end supply chain management. The cost is $1,699.
Product Management Training Online, instructor led, 10 Thursday sessions from 8 to 9 a.m. from Oct. 1 to Dec. 3. This practical program helps management acquire skills and competencies to define, develop and launch products, services and features. The cost is $1,299.
NN/g User Experience (UX) Certification Program Online and live stream sessions from Oct. 2 through Nov. 13. This five-day workshop prepares you for exams to earn UX certification from Nielsen Norman Group. Register for all five workshop sessions for $1,999. Previous UX attendees can register for individual sessions for $399 each.
IT Readiness Program Six-month program begins Oct. 12. Earn entry-level certifications in front-end, back-end, and Java development. The cost is $2,999.
More Training Options
U of A Professional and Workforce Development has temporarily shifted face-to-face training courses to online delivery to align with the U of A's response to the COVID-19 pandemic. All professional and workforce development classes, conferences and workshops for fall 2020 will be offered online. For a complete listing of courses, please visit the U of A Professional and Workforce Development website.
Customized Training
Businesses and organizations can get training customized to fit specific needs. Get an initial needs assessment meeting at no cost to help identify needs and to craft solutions. Qualified companies may be eligible for grants to offset training costs.
For more information on these or other Professional and Workforce Development classes, contact the Rogers office at uarogers@uark.edu or 855-402-3300.
About University of Arkansas Professional and Workforce Development:University of Arkansas Professional and Workforce Development, a division of the Global Campus, is a hub for professional and workforce development programs. TheGlobal Campus provides expertise in developing and delivering both academic and training courses and provides instructional design services, media production and assistance with program planning and marketing.
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Online Training Courses and Programs Help Workers and Employers During Pandemic - University of Arkansas Newswire
Metallica drive-in show, Jason Aldean backyard concert top this weeks virtual concert picks – cleveland.com
Posted: at 5:56 am
CLEVELAND, Ohio Metallica has filmed a special concert that will be shown at drive-in theaters nationally on Saturday, Aug. 29. The Mayfield Road Drive-In in Chardon, the Blue Key Drive-In Theater in Wadsworth and the Magic City Drive-In Theater in Barberton will show the concert locally. Check ticketmaster.com/encore-metallica for times and tickets.
Other online events this week (all subject to change)
Country star Jason Aldean will deliver a virtual backyard performance at 6 p.m. Friday, Aug. 28, on Live Nations Twitter page (@LiveNation) as part of the companys Live From Home series.
San Franciscos Outside Lands goes virtual as Inside Lands, posting archival footage of performances by Jack White, Gorillaz, LCD Soundsystem, Anderson.Paak and many more Friday and Saturday, Aug. 28-29, on Twitch. More details via sfoutsidelands.com/insidelands/.
The British dance festival Creamfields, meanwhile, moves to the virtual realm this weekend with a House Party Edition at 7 a.m. Saturday and Sunday, Aug. 29-30, with performances by Tiesto, Pete Tong, Fatboy Slim, Faithless, Jamie Jones, Carl Cox and many more. The party will be available via creamfields.com/houseparty, YouTube and Twitch.
String Cheese Incidents Friday Night Cheese comes from an Aug. 1, 2010 show at Hornings Hideout in North Plains, Ore., via nugs.tv. Tickets are $14.99.
South of Eden celebrates the release of its debut EP, The Talk, with a streaming show at 8 p.m. Friday, Aug. 28 live from Flannagans in its native Columbus, Ohio, on the bands Facebook page and YouTube channel.
Chris Janson will perform as part of Live At The Ryman at 9 p.m. Friday, Aug. 28, via ryman.com. Tickets start at $10.
Pianist Lafayette Gilchrist and saxophonist David Murray team up for livestreamed concerts from New Yorks Village Vanguard at 9 p.m. Friday and Saturday, Aug. 28-20. Access is $10. villagevanguard.com.
American Idol winner Lee DeWyze will stream live from the Hotel Cafe in Los Angeles at 10 p.m. Friday, Aug. 28. Tickets are $20 and available at viddd.co.
GRiZ hosts a Virtual Kulabunga! retreat online from 10 a.m.-9 p.m. Saturday and Sunday, Aug. 29-30, via Zoom. The event includes sessions on creative writing. philosophy, yoga, self-improvement fitness and other subjects. Tickets are $38.50 via eventbrite.com. The retreat takes the place of the Camp Kulabunga GRiZ has staged in Ortonville since 2018.
Progstocks online series episode for Saturday, Aug. 29 features Melanie Mau and Martin Schnella, Potters Daughter and more. Tickets are available via stageit.com/ProgStock. More information and updates at ProgStock.com.
One Directions Liam Payne is back online with The LP Show Act 2 at 3 p.m. Saturday, Aug. 29 -- the singers 27th birthday. Tickets are pay-what-you-want via liampayne.veeps.com.
Hard rockers Trivium stream a free concert, The Deepest Cuts, at 3 p.m. Saturday, Aug. 29 -- live from the groups Orlando, Fla. rehearsal space -- via frontman Matt Heafys Twitch channel.
Los Angeles Leimert Park Jazz Festival goes virtual at 3 p.m. Saturday, Aug. 29, via Facebook Live, with performances by Munyungo Jacksons Jungle Jazz Quartet, Michael ONeill & Friends, Dwight Trible and others. More details at leimertparkjazzfestival.com.
The Celtic troupe We Banjo 3 hosts its Follow The Light festival via livestream starting at 5 p.m. Saturday, Aug. 29, joined by Gaelic Storm, Sharon Shannon, Nathan Carter and the East Pointers. A variety of ticket packages can be found via webanjo3.com.
Heavy rock supergroup Down celebrates its 25th anniversary with The Quarter Century Throwdown at 6 p.m. Saturday, Aug. 29, via livefrom.events.com. Tickets are $9.
Keb Mo plays four solo acoustic shows, one early and late each day, on Aug. 29-30 for City Winery in Nashville. Tickets and other information can be found via citywinery.com/nashville/.
The Avett Brothers celebrate the release of their new album, The Third Gleam, with a streaming concert from the Charlotte Motor Speedway in North Carolina at 8:30 p.m. Saturday, Aug. 29 via nugs.tv. Free, with HD and 4K versions available for $24.99 and $34.99 respectively.
Players such as Stanley Jordan, David Broza, Rory Block, Laurence Juber and more will be part of Muriel Andersons All Star Guitar Night, moving to virtual space (allstartguitarnight.com) at 9 p.m. Saturday, Aug. 29 to benefit Guitars in the Classroom and Andersons Music for Life Alliance. Registration can be made at the shows web site.
Singer-songwriter Anders Osborne streams at 9 p.m. Saturday, Aug. 29, from Tipitinas in New Orleans via nugs.tv. $11.99.
Hard rockers Seether celebrate the release of a new album, Si Vis Pacem, Para Bellum with a livestream concert at 3 p.m. Sunday, Aug. 30. Tickets start at $20 via seether.veeps.com.Pre- and post-show sessions are also available.
Singer-songwriter Pete Yorn hosts a full, acoustic performance of his 2003 album Day I Forgot at 6 p.m. Sunday, Aug. 30. Tickets start at $15 via peteyorn.veeps.com.
CAM, Lindsay Ell, Cassadee Pope, members of Dr. Dog and Gone West and others perform as part of Get Your Vote On! a free virtual concert at 6 p.m. Sunday, Aug. 30, presented by the Nashville Action Committee and HeadCount.org via nugs.tv.
Chris Daughtry resumes its Live From Home virtual acoustic tour, performing from Nashville for the Machine Shop in Flint at 7 p.m. Sunday, Aug. 30. Tickets are $10, with VIP options, via daughtryofficial.com/events.
Peruvian-born singer Cecilia Noel will be joined by her husband, Men At Work frontman Colin Hay, and San Miguel Perez for an Ark Family Room streaming concert at 7:30 p.m. Sunday Aug. 30 via theark.org/ark-family-room-series. Free, with donations accepted for the performers and venue.
Brandy and Monica, who teamed for The Boy is Mine in 1988, will join together again for Verzuz event at 8 p.m. Monday, Aug. 31 from Tyler Perry Studios, via Instagram Live.
Billboard magazine hosts Live at Home Sessions concerts at 1 p.m. Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays via its Facebook page. This weeks lineup will be announced Monday, Aug. 31.
Los Angeles rockers The Aces stream a pair of concerts, at 2 and 7 p.m. Tuesday, Sept. 1, via the bands official website. Tickets and other details via theacesofficial.com.
The venerable Colorado concert venue Red Rocks will host a Red Rocks Unpaused virtual series at 10 p.m. Tuesday through Thursday, Sept. 1-3, via Twitter and visiblexredrocks.com. Performers include Nathaniel Rateliff & the Night Sweats and Phoebe Bridgers on Tuesday, Megan Thee Stallion and Lil Baby on Wednesday and Sam Hunt and Brett Young on Thursday.
SummerStage Anywhere hosts a special Solidarity For Sanctuary concert will Carla Morrison, il.e, Kaina, Alaina Castillo and more at 7 p.m. Tuesday, Sept. 1, via Amazon Musics Twitch channel.
Versatile Canadian singer-songwriter AHI plays an Ark Family Room series streaming concert at 8 p.m. Tuesday, Sept. 1 via theark.org/ark-family-room-series. Free, with donations accepted for the performers and venue.
The Reverend Peytons Big Damn Band will make some big damn noise from his log cabin in Brown County, Ind. at 7 p.m. Thursday, Sept. 3. Catch it on the groups Facebook page.
Britains The Magic Gang will take fan phone calls for seven hours, starting at noon Wednesday, Sept. 2, in a Death of the Live Stream event to celebrate the release of its new album Death of the Party. The session will stream live via Facebook and YouTube, with guest appearances from Sports Team and members of the Vaccines, Swim Deep, Spector and the Maccabees.
The Honey Straws will be joined by members of Phil Leshs Terrapin Family Band and Midnight North for a free streaming concert at 8 p.m. Thursday, Sept. 3 via nugs.tv.
Ghost of Paul Revere plays its entire Good At Losing Everything album at 9 p.m. Thursday, Sept. 3, from the State Theater in Portland, Maine, via nugs.tv. $14.99 or $44.99 for a four-show pass.
South Carolinas NEEDTOBREATHE celebrates its new album, Out of Body, with an immersive concert experience from Nashville at 9 p.m. Friday, Aug. 28. Tickets are available through the groups official web site, needtobreathe./merchmadeeasy.com.
Singer-songwriter Alan Williams begins a streaming series, Live From the Aviary, at 4 p.m. Sunday, Aug. 30, via ditty.tv.com.
Lee Burridges All Day I Stream hosts Bross, Flowers On Monday and Amonita at 2 p.m. Sunday, Aug. 30 via twitch.tv/alldayistreamof.
Arturo OFarrill & the Afro Latin Jazz Orchestra, along with guests plays a Virtual Birdland concert at 8:30 p.m. Sunday, Aug. 30, via Facebook and on YouTube.
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Metallica drive-in show, Jason Aldean backyard concert top this weeks virtual concert picks - cleveland.com
Soldier on Afghanistan ambush that earned him Medal of Honor – Brinkwire
Posted: at 5:56 am
The Medal of Honor-winning soldier depicted in chart-topping Orlando Bloom war movie The Outpost has spoken out about his trauma from the bloody battle and the stress that led to his comrades drug overdose death.
Ty Carter, 40, was awarded the militarys highest decoration for bravery in the 2009 battle where 53 US troops at an Afghanistan base fought off almost 400 Taliban fighters.
The soldier described his struggle reliving the fight that took eight of his units lives when he played a cameo role in the Hollywood movie about his experience, in an interview this week with new lifestyle and self-improvement site Mr Feelgood.
OnOctober 3, 2009, Carter woke to the sound of bullets as hundreds of insurgents descended on Combat Outpost Keating, 14 miles from the border with Pakistan.
The Taliban attack had been planned for months and the 4th Infantry Division were outnumbered seven to one.
In the first of a sting of heroic acts during the fierce battle that ensued, the soldier repeatedly ran a 300 ft gauntlet of open ground to resupply his comrades with ammunition.
When he and four others were pinned down in a Humvee under gun and grenade fire, Carters thoughts flashed to his family back in California before he decided to step out the vehicle into the hail of bullets with his fellow infantryman Specialist Stephan Mace to give cover for the others to escape to shelter.
I had a four-year-old daughter. And my brother Seth was shot dead at a party in 2000. So when we were in that Humvee and I looked out there, I saw my brother or my daughter and I felt that I needed to get out there, Carter told Mr Feelgood. I knew I could help, and I knew I would.
Two of the three men were killed in that sprint, and Mace was left wounded on the ground.
Carters sergeant at first refused to let him go back for the injured man shouting Youre no good to him dead over the gunfire and explosions.
But after persuading the officer, Carter dodged rocket propelled grenades and rounds zipping over his head to get to Mace, giving first aid and then carrying him another 300 ft to safety.
Mace was airlifted away for medical treatment, but later succumbed to his wounds.
There was no love lost between Carter and Mace, but the war hero was still left wracked with guilt over his fellow soldiers death.
Stephan Mace and I were not friends, the veteran said. But just because I dont get along great with somebody doesnt mean I dont care about them or value their life.
So I wasnt going out there to save my loved one or my best friend. He was wearing the uniform so was part of my family, so I will do what I need to do.
When you see someone you know can help out there, suffering, it turns your brain to lava and your stomach into acid, and then your limbs turn numb but are full of negative energy. You feel so angry you can hardly breathe.
But as I was running out there I wasnt thinking about the bullets that were hitting all around or the explosions. All I was thinking was that I need to help this person.
And thats one of the reasons I had severe post-traumatic stress because I survived but Mace didnt.
Carter said at first he refused to accept the impact the battle, which killed eight US soldiers and was one of the bloodiest in the Afghan war, had on his mental health, fearing for his career if he was labeled as damaged goods.
When you are going through severe post-traumatic stress you dont actually notice it, he said. Its a complete mental changer you just know youre not feeling quite right, or a little off. But the people around you notice.
I was forced to go into counseling for the next two and a half years. My superiors ordered me to go or they were going to take my rank. I was very resistant at first I was escorted the first time I went to counselling.
The stigma is still out there. If youre in the military and you go to a counselor and you are labelled with PTSD [Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder], then you may get passed over for rank and you will probably be treated differently. But I would rather be passed over for rank than drink a handle of Jack Daniels and follow it with a .45.
Tragically, one of the Battle of Kamdesh survivors chose the latter.
In September 2010, less than a year after the skirmish, Pvt. Ed Faulkner Jr. died of an overdose on the drugs he had turned to in an attempt to deal with his trauma.
Carter calls Faulkner the ninth victim of the battle, and says his death spurred him to campaign to remove the stigma around seeking help for post-traumatic stress.
We need to just call it what it is: its just stress from the past. Its not a disorder, it is something thats supposed to happen. And as soon as people realize that, they are more likely to talk about it, Carter said.
The 40-year-old father-of-three retired from the military in 2014 a Staff Sergeant, after receiving the Medal of Honor from then President Barack Obama, and now spends his time encouraging military and first responders to seek help for stress.
His medal was given in August 2013, six months after another survivor, Staff Sergeant Clinton Romesha, received the same decoration for the battle, making it the only one since the Vietnam War to lead to two Medal of Honor awards.
The war hero said when he was offered a role in The Outpost movie, he took it on as a chance to tackle head on the trauma from the battle that still plagues him.
I helped to make The Outpost and Ive got a little cameo in it, Carter said. They flew me out to Bulgaria and I was there for most of the filming. I assisted the writers with the story since the beginning.
Every time I speak or do a lecture, I am reliving the worst day of my life. By talking about it, or watching The Outpost or the Netflix show, I am forcing myself to relive it so I dont get those nightmares or those flashbacks; so my heartrate doesnt rise every time I hear gunfire.
So every time I am feeling stressed or anxious, I grab a good whiskey and I watch the episode of the Netflix show about my story. The emotions come back sometimes, sometimes they dont, but then it relaxes me.
Its mentally draining, but then Im OK afterwards and I can do my own thing for the next two or three weeks until I start feeling stressed again, and I know thats my subconscious letting me know I need to relive it again. It doesnt work like this for everyone, but this is my process.
The new magazine that interviewed Carter, founded by model John Pearson and journalist Pete Samson, also aims to remove the stigma around men discussing and improving their mental health with inspirational stories, wisdom and pragmatic health advice.
Carters character in the movie was played by Caleb Landry Jones, and other members of his unit by Orlando Bloom, Scott Eastwood, Milo Gibson, and Jack Kesy.
The movie was based on the book The Outpost: An Untold Story of American Valor by CNN anchor Jake Tapper.
The Outpost was set to premiere at South By Southwest Film Festival this year, but due to the coronavirus pandemic was instead released on demand last month.
The movie spent two weekends as iTunes and AppleTVs top rented film.
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Soldier on Afghanistan ambush that earned him Medal of Honor - Brinkwire
How To Support Racial Justice, Diversity and Activism This Week In Louisville (8/24) – Louisville Eccentric Observer
Posted: August 27, 2020 at 3:53 am
MONDAY, Aug. 24
#BreonnaConVarious LocationsFree | Times varyBreonnaCon, by the national social justice organization Until Freedom, continues with a full day, including an Organizing Bootcamp and Breonnas Law Policy Roundtable at Simmons College, starting at 11 a.m. And, a Praise in the Park mass spiritual revival at Waterfront Park at 7 p.m. Tomorrow, Until Freedom is hosting a march on the LMPD Training Academy at 2 p.m., starting at South Central Park. LMPD is aware of the demonstration. Some local organizers and leaders have criticized BreonnaCon. You can read about why there is tension between local and national organizers here.
Lunch with Louisville Evolutionary Ricky Jones ZoomFree | NoonRicky L. Jones, the chair of UofLs Pan-African Studies Department and a former LEO columnist, joins Jud Hendrix, the executive director of Louisvilles Interfaith Paths to Peace for an insightful, lunchtime conversation.
Racial Justice Virtual Programming: Youth Should be Seen AND Heard OnlineFree (or $10 donation) | 5 p.m.I Am America is a new virtual program from the Muhammad Ali Center generating conversations about pressing racial justice challenges. This iteration is about amplifying youth voices and leadership in social movements. Panelists are senior fellow with the Youth Violence Prevention Research Center Jailen Leavall, One Love Louisville Youth Implementation Team member and Youth Coalition Louisville organizer Imani Smith and Muhammad Ali Center Council of Students alum and youth organizer Aubri Stevenson. Registration is required.
Open Air Yoga Bicentennial Park, New Albany$10 | 7 p.m.You might have a case of the 2020s if youre feeling anxious and exhausted by life. Luckily Heart 2 Heart Wellness Center, a Black-owned business in New Albany, has a salve: outdoor, healing yoga on Wednesdays and Saturdays through the month of August. Come restore balance & inner peace with our yoga classes that are designed to reduce anxiety, strengthen your mental wellness and your body, organizers say. On Wednesday, Robin leads a traditional flow yoga class at 7 p.m. at Bicentennial Park.
No Fascist USA! Talk #4 ZoomFree | Noon-1:30 p.m.This is the final of four talks about anti-fascist movements, sponsored by City Lights Booksellers, Carmichaels Bookstore and Louisville Showing Up for Racial Justice. Hilary Moore and James Tracey, the authors of No Fascist USA!: The John Brown Anti-Klan Committee and Lessons for Todays Movements, are among those leading the discussion. Susan M. Reverby, the author of Examining Tuskegee: The Infamous Syphilis Study and Its Legacy and Co-conspirator for Justice: The Revolutionary Life of Dr. Alan Berkman will also be there. Register beforehand to participate.
Reparations Roundtable ZoomFree | 9-11 p.m.Louisvilles Reparations Roundtable group continues to collect donations from and educate white people who want to give back to American descendants of slavery on their own instead of waiting on the government. This is one of the organizations monthly learning meetings.
100 Years Later: The Collective Power of Women Muhammad Ali Center/Facebook LiveFree (or $10 donation) | 10-11 a.m.Every year, the Muhammad Ali Center honors female leaders of social change, activism and pursuits of justice with its Daughters of Greatness program. In commemoration of the 100th anniversary of the 19th Amendment (granting women the right to vote), the Ali Center and Metro United Way are hosting this virtual (and in-person) conversation on the collective power of women, the systems that divide us, and the imperative for true unity. A diverse group of past Daughters of Greatness will lead the talk, including founding Daughter Ambassador Shabazz (the oldest daughter of Malcolm X) and Cate Fosl of the Anne Braden Institute.
Black Breastfeeding WeekAnywhereDonation based | Any timeIn celebration of Black Breastfeeding Week, the Kentuckiana Lactation Improvement Coalition is collecting donations to help Black women, including for photo sessions for Black mothers, scholarships for Black lactation education and female Black-owned businesses. Black Breastfeeding Week exists because Black infants have higher mortality rates than white babies, and these Black children could especially benefit from the immunity and nutritional benefits of breast milk, organizers say. You can donate via PayPal to info@klicbreastfeeding.org.
Black Market KY AnywhereDonation based | Any timeIf you missed it, Black Market KY, a Black-owned grocery store with plans to open in The West End, raised $10,000 in one day this weekend by asking 100 people to invest $100. But, you can still contribute your share by sending money via CashApp or Venmo.
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How To Support Racial Justice, Diversity and Activism This Week In Louisville (8/24) - Louisville Eccentric Observer
Japan’s office worker struggles to adjust to a ‘new normal’ – The Japan Times
Posted: at 3:53 am
New normal is an old phrase, traceable to science fiction author Robert Heinleins 1966 novel, The Moon is a Harsh Mistress. Its 2075; the moon is a penal colony; the inmates revolt and look forward to a better future, when life can get back to normal, a new normal free of the Authority, free of guards free of passports and searches and arbitrary arrests.
The crisis-ridden 21st century has given the expression new life and a lurid cast. The Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on the United States; the 2008 Lehman Shock; the 2011 Great East Japan Earthquake and subsequent nuclear meltdowns; worldwide weather events of unprecedented violence; and, now, the COVID-19 pandemic, all spawned warnings of a new normal, more sinister by far than the old, in which anything can happen and much that does is ghastly hitherto unthinkable, now commonplace.
A book published in June by investment company CEO Masakazu Mito bears the title, The New Normal: Can You Live in a World in Which the Salaryman is Extinct?
Were going to have to, it seems. COVID-19 didnt kill the distinctive Japanese type known as the salaryman. Its been an endangered species for years. Globalism stunned it, information technology outpaced it, career women challenged its masculine exclusivity even before artificial intelligence threatened it with terminal redundancy. Then came COVID-19, with its frontal assault on the office culture. Social distancing, remote work, officelessness can salarymen breathe this air?
They cannot, Mito argues. Only entrepreneurs can, he fears. Thats good and bad good insofar as the vigorous entrepreneurial spirit is; bad because, after all, the salaryman had his virtues as well, whose extinction would be societys loss.
No figure typifies postwar Japan better than the salaryman. He was born prewar fathered, as it happens, by one of the nations most remarkable entrepreneurs. Konosuke Matsushita (1894-1989) founded Matsushita Electric in 1918. We know it today as Panasonic Corp.
He was a round peg in a square hole, a visionary among realists a realist himself, however, one of whose visions, the salaryman, was realism personified to subsequent generations. When the 1929 depression hit and unemployment soared, Matsushita, spurning conventional wisdom (as journalist Mark Weston tells us in Giants of Japan: The Lives of Japans Most Influential Men and Women), laid no one off. Lifetime employment was his unspoken commitment; company loyalty, the anticipated payoff.
Matsushita didnt stop there. Next came garnishes like the company song, the daily morning assembly eccentricities then and quaint now, but in their time a new normal. It molded the salaryman ethos.
When I joined Matsushita in 1937, I hated the daily ritual of morning assembly, Weston quotes Toshihiko Yamashita as recalling in later years as Matsushita Electrics president, everyone reciting the company creed and singing the company song.
The creed consisted of seven principles: Service to the public; teamwork for the common cause; courtesy and humility; and so on platitudes that smack embarrassingly of a return to nursery school; and yet, Yamashita continues, by daily repetition of these laudable ideas you gradually take them to heart.
You had to. Company officials do their best to reinforce employee identification with the company, wrote scholar Ezra Vogel in his 1979 classic Japan as Number One. They provide elaborate annual ceremonies for inducting the new employees. For spiritual and disciplinary training, the employee may go on retreats, visit temples or endure special hardships. To strengthen the bonds of solidarity, the new employee may be housed in company dorms even if it means being separated from his spouse or parents.
Patronizing? Stifling? Some found it so, but for the rest of the 20th century, lifetime employment in the protective environment provided by major Japanese corporations was what college graduates most aspired to an aspiration far from dead even now. A lost generation now in its 40s and 50s, victims of the hiring freeze of the 1990s and 2000s, have ample reason to envy the prosperous stability their fathers and grandfathers took for granted.
Such stability is gone. Society has moved on, the economy has moved on, technological change demands faster responses than traditional corporate consensus-based decision-making can muster. Men want private lives and family lives; women want out of the kitchen and nursery. And now, COVID-19. Company spirit masked is company spirit smothered.
Mito draws our attention to an emerging phrase: bunsan shakai (the dispersed society) the dissolution, in effect, of the bonds of solidarity. If revolution suggests speed as opposed to evolutionary slowness, COVID-19 is a revolution. What it has given us masks, telework, online socializing, takeout-only ghost restaurants is summed up by two old words newly coupled: social distance. Japan had less of it than other developed societies. Its catching up fast. Not fast enough, if rising infection rates are indicative.
Will we ever relate to each other again as we did pre-COVID-19? If dispersion brings out the latent entrepreneur in us, so much the better, says Mito. The economy will be the richer for it, and so may we all be, in ways not merely economic. It could make us stronger and more self-reliant. It could also, he adds ominously, turn us inward to a degree not necessarily conducive to emotional well-being.
Humans, he points out, are communicating animals. As infants we crave skinship. We grow into words and sentences, simple at first, increasingly complex and nuanced as we mature. Children deprived of communication are prone to development problems, he says, and, as adults, no pleasure is complete and no sorrow unrelieved without telling someone about it.
New communication devices in the 20th and 21st centuries have driven us from one new normal to another, making face-to-face communication less and less necessary, more and more irksome. Before COVID-19, it was already possible to live without ever leaving the house. During COVID-19, we are encouraged to in some places, required to. After COVID-19, what then?
Well know eventually not soon, barring unforeseen sudden good news on the medical front. The longer COVID-19 endures, the farther its new normals are likely to take us from old ones.
Big in Japan is a weekly column that focuses on issues being discussed by domestic media organizations. Michael Hoffmans latest book, now on sale, is Cipangu, Golden Cipangu: Essays in Japanese History.
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Japan's office worker struggles to adjust to a 'new normal' - The Japan Times
Teachers Felt Less Successful During the Spring School Closures, Survey Finds – Education Week
Posted: at 3:52 am
The spring semester, in which schools across the country closed their doors and teachers pivoted to remote instruction on a dime, was challenging for everyone involved. But a new survey shows that teachers' sense of success dramatically declineda troubling sign, since many schools have started the new school year remotely, too.
But there is some good news: Teachers who had supportive school leadership were the least likely to experience a dip in their sense of success.
Researchersanalyzed data from working condition surveys that were taken by teachers in both the fall and spring semesters of last school year. The spring survey, which was taken between April 27 and June 23, focused on teaching during the coronavirus pandemic and yielded a sample of 7,841 teachers across 206 schools and nine states, including Illinois, Texas, and New York.
Researchers found that 53 percent of teachers reported a decline in their sense of success. Of those reporting a decline, a quarter reported a significant decrease.
"I think we need to really value teachers' own perceptions of their self-efficacy, because ultimately if a teacher doesn't feel successful, it's really unlikely they're going to be helping students meet the academic standards and achieve the type of success we're looking for on a day-to-day basis in classrooms," said Matthew Kraft, an associate professor of education and economics at Brown University and an author of the study.
Also, teachers' sense of successthe degree to which they feel lke they're making a difference in students' livescan influence whether theystay in the profession, Kraft said.
"Teachers don't make a whole bunch of money. They have a very physically and emotionally and psychologically challenging job, particularly now," he said. "The kind of joy and value that they derive from helping kids is really a key part of what makes teaching rewarding and meaningful, and if that's absent, it's easy to see why teaching would be an even less attractive profession."
Education Week survey data found that teacher morale declined over the spring semester, as teachers grappled with unfamiliar technologies, retrofitted their lessons, responded to an avalanche of emails, texts, and calls from parents and students, and worked to emotionally support their students during a scary, unfamiliar time. On top of all that, teachers had to juggle the needs of their own children andother loved ones.
Teachers said they were more likely to quit at the end of the last school year than they were before the pandemic began, the EdWeek survey found.
A Difficult Work Environment
The working conditions survey found that 40 percent of respondents said that caretaking responsibilites made it difficult to do their job, and 16 percent said they were unable to balance their work with other responsibilities at home. Mid-career teacherswho are more likely to have school-aged childrenwere more likely to have these work-life balance challenges.
See also: Tips for Balancing Work and Life While Teaching Remotely
Meanwhile, 8 percent of teachers were uncomfortable with the technology needed to teach remotely. This was especially the case for veteran teachers: 22 percent of teachers with three decades of experience said they weren't comfortable with online teaching tools.
Teachers also reported that their students were less engaged during the spring semester, and about a quarter of teachers said their students lacked the technology needed for remote learning. Teachers in high-poverty schools reported less student engagement than their peers in affluent schools.
But for all of those teachers, supportive school leadership made a difference. Researchers found that teachers who could depend on strong communication, fair expectations, and a recognition of effort from their administrators, along with targeted professional development and the ability to meaningfully collaborate with colleagues, were much less likely to experience declines in their sense of success.
That support "helped to buffer them against the challenges" of switching to remote learning, Kraft said.
See also: How Principals and District Leaders Are Trying to Boost Lagging Teacher Morale During COVID-19
Researchers wrote that school leaders could work with teachers to set professional expectations and determine the training they need, as well as design structures for both formal and informal collaboration. Effective school leaders also made sure teachers feel appreciatedin the spring, many administrators helped troubleshoot problems teachers were having, encouraged their staff to set boundaries, and offered scheduling flexibility.
Teachers with supportive school leadership felt less isolated, which bolstered their sense of success, researchers wrote.
A New School Year
Although the spring semester was chaotic and many teachers considered it to be emergency learning, Kraft said he worries that the fall semester could present some of the same problems.About half of the 800 districts in Education Week'sdatabase on school reopenings, which is not nationally representative, have opted to resume in-person instruction at least some days of the week, including four of the 25 largest districts.
"I think for those schools starting remotely, the challenges will be even greater because they won't have the personal relationships established to draw upon when starting class online," Kraft said. "Teaching is a relational job. It is about knowing your students, knowing their individual strengths and areas for improvement, knowing what motivates them, connecting with themthat is so hard to do in a remote context."
To help tackle that problem, some schools are hosting socially distanced meet-and-greets, where teachers can meet their students in person from a safe distance. For example, elementary students at Copeland Manor School in Libertyville, Ill., got to meet their teacher for 30 minutes on the school's front lawn before classes started.Andincoming kindergartners at Popp's Ferry Elementary School in Biloxi, Miss., waved to their new teachers from their cars in a drive-through line.
School leaders will also have to help meet teachers' needs as professionals and help create conditions that will allow them to be successful, Kraft said.
"It takes dedicated school leadership, clear communication, [and] coherent school practices that allows teachers to focus on their core jobs," he said. "This is challenging for everyone, but the stakes couldn't be higher."
Image: Lily Hart, a foreign language teacher at Bellows Falls Union High School, works with her students online from her Keene, N.H., home on March 31. Kristopher Radder/The Brattleboro Reformer via AP
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Teachers Felt Less Successful During the Spring School Closures, Survey Finds - Education Week
The Democratic convention went off without hitches. But was it a success? – The Guardian
Posted: at 3:52 am
Trump will caricature the Democrats moderate convention as a wild, far-left celebration of
This past week, the former vice-president laid out a forceful case for the importance of empathy and character in high office, his ability to reverse the manifold failures of Donald Trumps regime, and the threat that a second Trump term would pose to American democracy. Did he and his fellow Democrats at the convention who echoed his points do so successfully? In todays tribal and polarized America, theres no easy way to answer that question.
Both Bidens speech and the convention as a whole clearly were pitched toward moderate Democrats and even some Republicans, particularly in swing states. From the perspective of those viewers, Biden and his party performed brilliantly.
Compared to past conventions, Bidens address accepting the presidential nomination was comparatively short, at around 25 minutes. The absence of cheering crowds, on account of the pandemic, meant that some of his best lines didnt have quite the emotional resonance they otherwise would have. But Bidens delivery was fluid and heartfelt. His speech occasionally soared, particularly with its evocation of his personal tragedies and invocation of poet Seamus Heaneys call to make hope and history rhyme.
The rest of the convention went off without hitches or glitches. Other leading Democrats also spoke effectively, with the addresses of both Obamas seemingly destined to enter the annals of great rhetoric. Overall, the convention broadcast a strong message that Democrats are firmly grounded in American traditions and values yet also prepared to responsibly undertake ambitious change. They can be trusted to end the coronaviruss ongoing scourge, revive prosperity and distribute its benefits more widely, repair the frayed social welfare safety net, bring about both greater racial justice and greater social unity, and restore Americas respected place in the world.
If Trump wins, the 2020 Democratic convention may eventually be seen as the last gasp of a politics rooted in this countrys founding beliefs in rationality, persuasion, and democratic norms
The Biden endorsements that came from left-leaning figures like Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren were strong and unambiguous. Warren implored Democrats to end this dark chapter in our nations history and Sanders urged his supporters to elect Biden for the sake of democracy, the economy and the planet. The urgency of defeating Trump has united the Democrats, both in the upper reaches of the party as well at the grassroots, more than anything else in decades.
But what difference will this convention really make? It may give Biden a temporary bump in the polls, but viewership for Bidens speech at the virtual convention was down 21% from Hillary Clintons in 2016, so the bump presumably will be correspondingly modest. And few Democrats, after the 2016 debacle, take comfort in polls that show Biden with a substantial but not insurmountable lead.
Orienting the convention toward moderation was a huge gamble, the success of which cant be assessed until we know the elections outcome.
If Biden loses, expect brutal hindsight recriminations from progressives. They will argue that the convention should have gone low, not high. Theyll say the Democrats should have waged culture- and class-warfare against Trump, just as Trump surely will be unrestrained in stoking rage and hatred against Democrats at the upcoming Republican national convention. Theyre complaining that progressive young firebrand Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, often hailed as the future of the party, got only 60 seconds of speaking time at the convention far less than the time allotted to old white men (and sometime Republicans) like Michael Bloomberg and John Kasich. Theres no way to know how many progressive bitter-enders wont vote for Biden, but some of them clearly may use the convention as their excuse.
The implicit theory that there are Trump-leaning voters in the swing states whose minds can be changed by a moderate-friendly Democratic convention may also be faulty. Political scientists, always striving to have their discipline displace economics as the truly dismal science, have concluded that our voting behaviors increasingly have become determined by our affinities and preferences. A persons race, religion, gender, neighborhood, and even choice of grocery store and entertainment all of these multiple identities now reinforce a persons partisan identity. And when we are in the grip of our political identities, we discount factual evidence contradicting our beliefs. Learning more about our political opponents doesnt make us more sympathetic toward them; instead we dislike them with even greater intensity.
It might appear that Bidens cogent convention speech laid waste to the Republican claim, on which they have invested millions of dollars in campaign advertising, that hes a dotard in the final stages of senility. But Republican partisans will go on believing that about him despite any evidence to the contrary. Trump will caricature the Democrats moderate convention as a wild, far-left celebration of Antifa, the Green New Deal, and urban rioting and his followers will believe that too.
If Trump wins, the 2020 Democratic convention may eventually be seen as the last gasp of a politics rooted in this countrys founding beliefs in rationality, persuasion, and democratic norms. But the successor of this politics may be taking shape in the form of the QAnon movement.
The convoluted and quasi-religious QAnon conspiracy theory, for which no evidence has been shown to exist, claims that President Trump is fighting to save the world from control by an elite Democratic cabal of Satanic, cannibalistic pedophiles. Two years ago, this movement was found mainly in the darker reaches of the internet. Now the Texas Republican party has adopted the motto We Are the Storm, apparently referring to the QAnon belief that Trump will soon stage a military countercoup against the deep state that will lead to the arrest and execution of his political opponents. Trump has recently embraced the QAnon movement, and it is supported at least in part by more than 70 Republicans running for Congress this year.
American democracy has had a good run. Many of its best qualities were on display at the recent Democratic convention and in Joe Bidens speech. Heres hoping well have more conventions like that in the future.
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The Democratic convention went off without hitches. But was it a success? - The Guardian
PM Modis success owes to his striking a chord with people, not because there isnt anyone to challenge him – The Indian Express
Posted: at 3:52 am
Written by Anupam Kher | Updated: August 26, 2020 8:57:48 am Unfortunately, the more Narendra Modi grows, the more delusional his critics become.
I have been in India for the past five months, writing extensively a book on COVID is on the way working on interesting film projects, spending quality time with myself and sometimes with my mother (Kirronji being in Chandigarh). I have also been reflecting on various subjects. That I am passionate and outspoken about matters pertaining to my country is well-known. Among the many topics, the one that has caught my eye is the repeated political success of Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
Is it destiny? Or hard work? Is it about facing an easy opposition? My thoughts and research took me to the different arguments, which I will touch upon before sharing my views.
PM Modis critics they like to call themselves Modi haters as well have been consistent on one thing. They have spun tales about him, used all sorts of adjectives to describe him.
On October 7, 2001, when Modi first took over as Gujarat CM, the dominant view was: One year and he will be history. That was soon proved wrong. Through his tenure as CM, Modi was portrayed as a regional leader satrap at best who had no takers outside his home state. In the winter of 2013 and spring of 2014, the project Modi is unelectable reached its climax. The subsequent summer obviously proved them horribly wrong. The years after 2014 were spent convincing themselves and each other that Modi is a one-term phenomenon. Had any government voted to office with such a large mandate returned again, they asked.
Opinion | PB Mehta writes: The greatest allure of vishwas is that you maintain it by simply believing
On May 23, 2018, an oath-taking ceremony in Bengaluru became the cynosure of many eyes. Standing on one platform were the all ends of Indias political spectrum, hand in hand, together in letter and spirit. This grand alliance would ensure the end of Modi, they avowed. Exactly a year later, on May 23, 2019, Narendra Modi returned to office with even more seats. (On a side note, the government in Karnataka did not last long, tumbling due to the weight of its contradictions a few months later.)
Since May 2019, the naysayers, cynics and so-called Modi haters have taken to another delusionary tablet the TINA medicine. Modi wins because there is no alternative, Modis best friends are the Opposition today, Only Modi can bring Modi down, they now argue.
Unfortunately, the more Narendra Modi grows, the more delusional his critics become. Democracy can never have one pole. There will always be two or more poles, however minuscule the non-dominant one may be. The fact that the voting machine has a list of multiple candidates, represented by multiple symbols, shows that democracy is never short of alternatives.
Modi bashers have toyed with dozens of alternatives. Everyone has been kosher including extreme leftists, jihadists, failed dynasts, anarchists, separatists, even those who had earlier worked with Modi in the RSS and BJP. In 2013 and 2018, alternatives were seen even in Modis own party. Therefore, if any Modi basher is telling you, Modi succeeds because there is no alternative to Modi, they are obviously lying and being delusional.
Opinion | India needs a political leader not a messiah or a maharishi
The truth is, all alternatives were tried, propped up and supported but none cut ice with the voters. They have time and again reposed faith in Modi, who they see as a decisive, relatable and dedicated leader. Every alternative to Modi has failed because none of them can serve like him. In the last six years, he has delivered on the largest poverty alleviation drive seen in the history of India. The Jan Dhan Yojana got 40 crore citizens not only bank accounts but also a leak-proof way of getting due assistance from the state. Ayushman Bharat, PM-KISAN, Atal Pension Yojana, PM Fasal Bima Yojana and many more such social security schemes gave a safety net for the poorest of Indians to fall back on and prevented them from sliding into poverty. Ten crore toilets were built under the Swachh Bharat Yojana and eight-crore households were made smoke-free by way of the Ujjwala Yojana. In the last year alone, two crore households have been given piped drinking water connections every household in India is to be given the same by 2024.
Under Modi, the corridors of power no longer reek of the stench of big-ticket corruption. Defence deals no longer feed the monetary hunger of a select few dynasties. Instead, they strengthen the nations armed forces.
The same Modi who was once seen as a mere CM and thus being unable to conduct foreign policy has demonstrated what an India First foreign policy looks like.
Which of the so-called alternatives to Modi offer such vast amounts of deliverables? From seeing him celebrate Diwali with flood victims in Kashmir, or with troops on the border to seeing him touch the feet of an elderly tribal woman or a safai karamchari; from seeing him wield the broom to hearing him talk about menstrual hygiene from the Red Fort, India relates with Modi. He appreciates the inherent strengths of the 130-crore Indians. Which other leader thought of writing touching letters or emotional tweets to sportspersons, artists, cultural icons and youngsters? He has made a place in lakhs of households as just another family member, with the people in good and bad times.
Is there any alternative to such leadership? I would love to know.
My father often taught me: If you are speaking the truth, you do not have to remember it. Today, Narendra Modi is the longest serving administrative head compared to all previous prime ministers. He has held the office of CM and PM for a combined total of almost 19 years. No previous PM has held both positions cumulatively that long. Such political success and affection have not come his way because there were no alternatives to him. It has come because Modi has immersed himself in his work. Political landmines and personal slander have been answered by more development. No wonder, while Modi is implementing his vision for a New India, his haters are stuck where they were two decades ago confused about alternatives to him.
This article first appeared in the print edition on August 26, 2020 under the title The TINA delusion. The writer is an actor and former chairperson, Film and Television Institute of India
Opinion | If Congress doesnt listen, nation will not get strong opposition party it deserves
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PM Modis success owes to his striking a chord with people, not because there isnt anyone to challenge him - The Indian Express
Four Takeaways From The Masters Fitness Collective Championships – Morning Chalk Up
Posted: at 3:52 am
The Masters Fitness Collective Championship represented one of the first major live CrossFit competitions to occur in over 160 days due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The Morning Chalk Ups own Tommy Marquez and Patrick Clark were there providing coverage of the masters-only event that featured more than 90 athletes competing across 14 divisions. They provide their top takeaways from this past weekends action in Fort Wayne, IN.
Patricks Points
An exercise in futility:C.J. Martin is notorious for programming some of the hardest workouts for the athletes in the Invictus stable. The athletes who stick with it and survive are often rewarded with great success in the sport. Hes one of the best when it comes to providing the tests necessary to find the best athletes. So when he was tapped to come up with the events for the MFCC, competing athletes knew they would be challenged and whoever finished atop the leaderboard after four days deserved to be crowned champion. Martin programmed ten events that hit each fitness module and domain.
What I saw was a lot of athletes who were time-capped including the final event of the competition, Feeling Legless. Only 32 total athletes finished that workout (not including Tommy Marquez who jumped in and competed with the 50-54 mens division, winning the heat over CrossFit legend Ron Ortiz). Three divisions didnt have a single finisher. Is this a testament of masters athletes being worn down by the final event or the programming? I received mixed answers, but from the athlete perspective they were overall happy with the events. They felt that the tests were very difficult and they all welcomed that challenge.
So despite multiple events without finishers and countless athletes not being able to complete the workout at the end of the day the athletes who stood on the podium on Sunday were the right ones and were rewarded as so.
Masters of the Universe:Ive seen my fair share of masters athletes competing. I judged this division for the last three years at the Games. Every time I came away in awe of what they could do. People my own age and even those the age of my parents all out-performing anything that I am capable of doing on my best days. Seeing 60-year old Patricia Claro doing handstand walks (by the way check out her story and journey to the competition) or 65-year old George Koch stringing bar muscle-ups together was inspiring.
This collection of former Games athletes and hopefuls put on a display in Fort Wayne. Watching them compete was an honor and for the organizers of the MFCC to put this competition on for them was also impressive. They gave these amazing athletes the end of the season that they deserved. Some of these athletes had their first opportunity to compete at the Games taken away from them due to the pandemic, others like Claro were competing in their first-ever competition. They may not get the attention or fanfare of the elite Games athletes but they certainly deserve it.
Tommys Takes
Live CrossFit Competition Is Possible (And Safe!):This weekend was a prime example of how a CrossFit competition can be run in a manner that is both effective and safe for all the athletes and people involved in putting it together. This doesnt mean we can just open the flood gates of competition to get everything back to normal, but using the right precautions and protocols, events can mitigate risk and get people back on the competition floor.
Everyone was tested prior to competition with blood based tests that took exactly ten minutes to get results that included a readout of whether or not a person has developed the anti-bodies within a six week period. Tests were made readily available onsite for everyone throughout the weekend as well. Strict cleaning protocols using electrolyzed water an EPA approved disinfectant for COVID-19 thats safe even for use on human wounds were in place to clean after every heat. Any competition will still require a level of trust and an understanding of the role of personal responsibility in participating, but even with a demographic of masters athletes a competition spanning four days with multiple divisions isnt out of the question.
The Community is a Tremendous Resource:When the CrossFit Games team punted on holding competitions for the Age Group divisions, they put all hope of having some sort of definitive conclusion to the Age Group season in the hands of the community. What they got was three separate groups stepping up to the plate to fill the void in unique and promising ways.
Take this past weekend for example, the competition was the first ever event put on by the Masters Fitness Collective, and not only did they pull off a great competition, they managed to do so before CrossFit could put on the Games. Event director Bobby Petras connections via his day job where he owns and operates more than two dozen assisted living facilities gave him unprecedented access to testing and personal protective equipment, as well as insight into cleaning and safety protocols that made the event possible.
This is a prime example of how leaning on the community and the wide swath of people within it can yield tremendous results. CrossFit HQ has largely kept a firm grip on the operations and dealings involved with the Games, but the success of the past weekend warrants at least tossing lines out on a regular basis to seek new resources and information that can benefit the sport as a whole.
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Four Takeaways From The Masters Fitness Collective Championships - Morning Chalk Up
Here are the highlights from Night 3 of the Republican National Convention – CNBC
Posted: at 3:52 am
WASHINGTON The third night of the Republican National Convention featured a keynote address by Vice President Mike Pence that highlighted the Trump administration's successes and attacked Democratic nominee Joe Biden.
Pence's wife, Karen, also spoke, as did senior White Houseadvisor Kellyanne Conway, who said earlier in the week that she would leave that role at the end of the month.
Trump's convention speech is scheduled for Thursday night, when he will formally accept the Republican nomination. The president has already spoken and appeared on numerous occasions throughout the convention.
Here are the top moments from Wednesday night:
Vice President Mike Pence addressed the Republican National Convention from the historic site of Fort McHenry in Baltimore. Pence's keynote speech contrasted theTrump administration's record with what he said America would look like under a Biden administration.
"President Trump set our nation on a path to freedom and opportunity from the very first day of this administration. But Joe Biden would set America on a path of socialism and decline," Pence said.
"Every day, president Trump has been fighting to protect the promise of America. Every day our president has been fighting to expand the reach of the American dream. And every day President Donald Trump has been fighting for you. Now it's our turn to fight for him," he added.
Pence,head of the president's coronavirus task force, defended the Trump administration's handling of the pandemic.
"In our first three years, we built the greatest economy in the world. We made America great again. And then the coronavirus struck from China," Pence said. "We built hospitals, we surged military medical personnel and enacted an economic rescue package that saved 50 million American jobs," he said, adding that "no one who required a ventilator was ever denied a ventilator in the United States."
The coronavirus has infected more than 5.8 million people in the U.S. as of Wednesday, more than a quarter of the globe's reported cases, according to Johns Hopkins University data. On Wednesday, the nation's death toll reached above 179,000.
Second lady Karen Pence took the stage at the Republican National Convention to deliver a softer message to voters and address the families of U.S. military service members.
"The Pences are a military family. Our son, Michael, serves in the U.S. Marines, and our son in law, Henry, serves in the U.S. Navy," said Pence. "And one of my key initiatives is to elevate and encourage military spouses. These men and women, like our daughter, Charlotte, and our daughter in law, Sarah, are the home front heroes," she added.
She then shared a handful of stories from military spouses and described their unique hardships.
"Military spouses may experience frequent moves, job changes, periods of being a single parent while their loved one is deployed all while exhibiting pride, strength, and determination and being a part of something bigger than themselves," Pence said, before thanking these families for their service.
Pence also took a moment to thank health care workers, teachers, first responders, mental health providers, law enforcement officers, grocery and delivery workers and farmers.
Conway, who on Sunday said she would leave her White House role at the end of August, gave a speech that focused on how Trump has supported women in leadership roles.
"For decades, he has elevated women to senior positions in business and in government. He confides in and consults us, respects our opinions, and insists that we are on equal footing with the men," she began. "President Trump helped me shatter a barrier in the world of politics by empowering me to manage his campaign to its successful conclusion," she added.
Conway addressed her work on tackling America's drug abuse crisis and the support she received from Trump in those efforts.
"When President Trump asked me to coordinate the White House efforts on combatting the drug crisis, he said, 'This is personal, Kellyanne.' So many lives have been ruined by addiction and we'll never even know it because people are ashamed to reach out for help, or they're not sure who to turn to in their toughest hour," she said.
Iowa Sen. Joni Ernst, who recorded her remarks in a barn, flanked by a bale of hay and a tractor, spoke about Trump's support for farmers and slammed the Democrat's Green New Deal.
"If given power, they would essentially ban animal agriculture and eliminate gas-powered cars. It would destroy the agriculture industry, not just here in Iowa, but throughout the country," Ernst said of Joe Biden and the Green New Deal. Biden hasn't explicitly endorsed the proposal, which has been pushed by the progressive wing of the Democratic Party, but has called it a "crucial framework."
Ernst, the first female combat veteran elected to the Senate,has carved out a role for herself as a vocal advocate for victims of sexual abuse in the military. This year, she faces a close reelection raceagainst Democrat Theresa Greenfield.
Ernst also lauded the success of trade deals brokered by Trump with Japan, as well as Mexico and Canada. She did not, however, mention Trump's phase one trade agreement with China, which he has touted as being a win for American farmers.
Ernst added that during the coronavirus pandemic, Trump again turned to help farmers.
"When the pandemic hit, President Trump heard us in our call for assistance for our farmers. Knowing we have an ally in the White House is important," she said.
U.S. Rep. Dan Crenshaw, who was a U.S. Navy SEAL, discussed his time in the armed services and called America a "country of heroes."
"Our enemies fear us because Americans fight for good, and we know it," Crenshaw said, adding that the Trump administration had defeated the ISIS caliphate and restored America's "might again."
"America's heroism is not relegated to the battlefield. Every single day we see them if you just know where to look," he added.
"It's the nurse who volunteers for back to back shifts caring for Covid patients because she feels that's her duty. It's the parent who will re-learn algebra because there's no way they're letting their kid fall behind while schools are closed," said Crenshaw, of Texas.
His speech did not mention Trump by name, a rarity for the convention thus far.
CNBC's Kevin Breuninger and Christina Wilkie contributed to this report.
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Here are the highlights from Night 3 of the Republican National Convention - CNBC