Dear Kid,

Did you know that Cincinnati is second in the nation in childhood poverty? And that two out of every three kids in poverty in Greater Cincinnati live in single female headed households?

These are just some of the facts I learned Tuesday night from Cincinnati Women’s Fund. (Feel free to check out all the amazingly good work they’re doing.)

I also learned about the Cliff Effect. (Short version: Woman being offered a raise which she can’t accept because it will put her over the threshold for nutrition and childcare assistance. In effect, a raise of say $2,000 a year could cost her $14,000 in assistance. So she can’t accept the raise, which means she won’t be prepared for the next advancement. Rinse and repeat.)

Seven hundred of my best friends and I were at the Women’s Fund annual event “A Conversation with…” and this year’s keynote was Cokie Roberts.

Cokie Roberts (Ms. Roberts to you) is a well-known political commentator for ABC News and NPR. She told great stories about women who made a huge difference in our country and who’ve been more or less ignored by (male) historians. She also talked about some of her political coverage (like the time there was an election for Pope and the journalists had to figure out how to fill air time even though they really knew nothing).

Cokie (still Ms. Roberts to you) is smart, funny, and gracious. And spunky. I want to invite her out for a cup of coffee and listen to her stories for hours.

No, I don’t want to invite everyone out for a cup of coffee. Most of the time I prefer to take the coffee and leave the people out.

It was a great event. The Women’s Fund (as always) did an outstanding job just as they do outstanding work every day.

Love, Mom

Dear Kid,

Last week I had the great pleasure of attending A Conversation with Lisa Ling (she’s the one who’s not Lucy Liu). I didn’t tell you about it then because that was during the Days of Technical Difficulty (thank you for your patience during that time).

Last Wednesday, The Women’s Fund of the Greater Cincinnati Foundation sponsored Lisa Ling as a speaker.

The event was at Memorial Hall, so I put on my big girl pants and drove downtown.

Memorial Hall is gorgeous. Badly in need of significant renovation which it is getting this summer, but absolutely gorgeous.

The arch over the stage has words inscribed on it. The words are the Nine Virtues important to how we conduct our lives. They are Unity, wisdom, patriotism, equity, will, integrity, manliness, martyrdom, philanthropy. Wait, What? Manliness??

Well, er, yes. Back then women had to make important decisions in private and men had to be studly. I have no idea what the plans are for the manliness virtue during the renovation. I have my own ideas, but no one has asked me.

Lisa Ling #AmazeLing was fantastic. She talked about sex trafficking in the US (more commonly called prostitution), she told stories about being in Iran as a correspondent for Channel One and how women were treated there (by men and by other women), she talked about her sister being kidnapped from China by the North Koreans and Lisa’s fight to get her sister back. She made us think about the world and our place in it.

She also talked a bit about the upcoming season of This is Life (the show she produces and hosts on CNN). It will be interesting as all get out.

Great event, great evening. Kudos, cheers, and a thousand thanks to Vanessa Freytag (Exec Director of The Women’s Fund and all around extraordinary person) and everyone who worked with her.

Love, Mom