I had dinner last week with a woman who shoots large game with AR-15 rifles. Given our letter last week about leaning into difficult conversations with people whose opinions may differ from ours, the Fates seemed to be having a little fun with me. So there I sat across the table — for reasons too complicated to explain here and in my own dining room, by the way — from a 50-something resident of Alaska who lives with her engineer husband in Anchorage, where she raised her four sons. All six of them hunt bear and deer and other wildlife, all of which they eat.

We have good news and bad news.

Bad news first.

Everyone has an opinion about statistics. There are those who stake their lives on them and those who ignore them summarily. Mark Twain is famous for reputedly saying, “There are three kinds of lies: lies, damned lies and statistics,” though he attributed the words to British Premier Minister Benjamin Disraeli.

Many of us are watching our children and grandchildren head off to school this week, some for the first time. Those of us in the Northeast can be pretty sure (and yes, we've know about the problem in Ludlow, MA, but it's an outlier) that the shelves in school libraries will not be emptied of books that depict characters with two mothers or fathers, or boys or girls questioning their sexual…

As I was sitting in my doctor’s office at Lahey in Danvers two days ago, finishing up a discussion about the state of my thyroid gland, she and I paused to listen to an announcement on the PA system. “There is an external situation. Everyone is advised to shelter in place. No one should leave the building until clearance is given.”

When our kids were in grade school, some of their schoolmates wrote to a crayon manufacturer to protest the name of their “Flesh” crayon. They insisted it surely wasn’t the color of the skin of the Black children in their classroom, nor of any but the blondest and fairest of them all. The company responded and changed the name. Truth be told, the children’s letters were probably joined by hundreds, if not thousands, of others from around the country.

The working definition of “literacy” is the ability to read and write. We decided to do a short experiment. Just for an hour or two, we imagined that we couldn’t read. Initially, we were not prepared for how reading is a part of almost every minute of our lives. What would be the big deal, we thought, to not read for a couple of hours?

Who can forget the popular advertising slogan, “You’ve come a long way, baby?” The phrase was the 1968 genius creation of a man, advertising whiz Pat Martin, who was tasked with marketing the first cigarette developed exclusively for women. The ads featured tall models in pants suits seemingly emboldened by the new Virginia Slims…

As we ring in the new year and make resolutions, we suggest that we should make more, rather than fewer, judgments. Yes, you read that right. We think that being judgmental, or “judgy,” which connotes unfair and excessive criticism, has given constructive and valuable judgment-making a bad rap.

Once again, our eyes are glued to the tv and newspapers, as we absorb the details of yet another tragic killing in a school. And, once again, we shake our heads, convinced, perhaps this time more than ever, that the deaths could have been prevented.

Election Day is next week, Tuesday, November 2, to be exact. We know it isn’t a presidential election year and only two gubernatorial positions will be decided (in New Jersey and Virginia), just two US House of Representatives seats will be determined in special elections (for vacancies in Ohio), and no US Senate races are on deck. Here in Massachusetts, there are only three ballot questions, all in Boston. So, unless we live in any of these places, why should we vote?

Access to quality education remains one of the primary concerns of Leading Ladies. Until all children in this country go to schools with equal resources, optimum class sizes, up-to-date books and technology, support services, trained teachers, and nutrition supplements and health care as needed, children in underrepresented communities and BIPOC populations will continue to fall behind and be unable to catch up in school and in life.

We decided to change it up this week. Instead of presenting an in-depth look at one issue, we are offering some staggering statistics and devastating details about a variety of social justice issues of concern to us. We hope you will find them as compelling as we do — and as clarion calls to action for all of us.

There’s a lot in the news right now about critical race theory (CRT). What is it and what is it not? And should it be taught in our schools?

As with many matters in our current media world, misinformation about CRT abounds on numerous platforms. In addition, organizations have sprouted up around the country…

When President Biden delivered his first address to a joint session of Congress last Wednesday night, he talked passionately about the importance of expanding educational opportunity by providing free preschool and postsecondary schooling. He pointed to research showing that two years of preschool and post-high school training expands a child’s lifelong learning and earning achievements…

The several positive comments we received about last week’s letter motivated us to explore the topic of educational inequity, and particularly, the concept of education debt. Underserved schools need more than equal funding to make up for centuries of substandard education and opportunities…

While we are optimistic that a new Secretary of Education under President-Elect Joe Biden’s administration will understand more profoundly and care more deeply about the needs of children in this country, we understand that the dispersal of funds and resources for schools is primarily decided at the local and state level. That means that whether one town or city receives more than another per child will not be legislated…