Recent conversations with friends have made it clear that many of us don’t fully understand the difference between Plan B and Plan C in pregnancy management. With the overturning of Roe v Wade and the more recent ban on medication abortion pills…

Recently, we’ve been grappling with some of the finer points of being an ally to the marginalized among us. The new book, “Say the Right Thing,” by Kenzie Yoshino and David Glasgow, NYU law professors and founders of the Meltzer Center for Diversity, Inclusion and Belonging, offers us reminders about the importance of standing up when we hear and see things; of what not to say because it may sound hollow, patronizing, or have the exact opposite of the intended effect; how to engage in respectful disagreement; and more.

We’ve talked a lot about the need for systemic, macro solutions to the problem of poverty in our country and the homelessness, food insecurity, education and health inequities that come with it. Until the causes are dealt with, the problems will continue.

“It seems preposterous that we would omit, as players, those who have the most energy, the most long-term interests, and potentially the best ideas, to change what is happening in the world, and the people within,” said Dr. Andre Morgan, Director of Opportunity, Access and Equity for Beverly Public Schools at our Students as Changemakers event last week at The Cabot. “In a time when students are seeking careers with impact, and employers are seeking graduates with core skills of problem-solving, critical thinking, creativity, and teamwork, it is important to consider how schools and communities, can equip every student with the changemaking skills, to tackle complex social issues, and future challenges that are not yet imagined,” he emphasized.

Since the inception of Leading Ladies, humane immigration policies have been among our priorities. Because of a zero tolerance policy during the last presidential administration, thousands of children were separated from their parents at our southern border. Hundreds have since been reunited, but far from all.

Dr. Jeffrey Lieberman was suspended two weeks ago as chair of the department of psychiatry at Columbia University, asked to resign as the executive director of the New York State Psychiatric Institute, and fired as psychiatrist-in-chief at Columbia University Irving Medical Center/NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital.

A recent trip to Berlin included a historical tour of the city. Since Germany has an impressive and extensive record of reckoning with its past, the tour not surprisingly covered the underground memorial to the 1933 book burning in Bebelplatz, a beautiful and notable center of cultural activity. On May 10, 1933, members of the Nazi German Student Union organized burnings throughout the country of important works of world literature they deemed dangerous. Works by Thomas Mann, Erich Kästner, Stefan Zweig, Heinrich Heine, Karl Marx, Albert Einstein, and Kurt Tucholsky were among those destroyed in Berlin. Many of the authors were Jewish, and for that reason alone, their books were considered unworthy. In fact, Minister of Public Enlightenment and Propaganda Joseph Goebbels pronounced that day in Bebelplatz that “the era of extreme Jewish intellectualism is now at an end.”

February is Black History Month. Its roots are in Negro History Week, first sponsored in 1926 by the Association for the Study of Negro Life and History (ASNLH), an organization founded by Harvard-trained historian Carter G. Woodson and the prominent minister Jesse E. Moorland to research and promote achievements by Black Americans and other people of African descent.

The aisles in the supermarkets and CVS are full of seemingly endless brands of tampons and sanitary napkins. Our televisions blare ads with “tests” comparing the absorbency of the different products. For most of us, the biggest challenge has always been deciding which menstrual product to choose.

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.

The opioid epidemic in our country, and around the globe, continues. Despite recognition of the addictive properties of Oxycontin; despite the lawsuits against its manufacturer, Purdue Pharma; despite the uncovering of the unscrupulous and dishonest methods employed by sales reps to encourage doctors to write unnecessary prescriptions; despite the closing of endless “pill mills” operated by shady doctors; the epidemic rages on.

We are excited to announce our first annual Leading Ladies Art as Activism Film Contest and Screening, an opportunity for creative high school students to express their views about important social justice issues. The top ten submissions will be screened at The Cabot in downtown Beverly in early 2022.

At the risk of being redundant, this week we are revisiting the subject of food insecurity on college campuses. As you know, we co-hosted a screening of the documentary, “Hungry to Learn,” at The Cabot in Beverly last Wednesday, followed by a discussion with Ann Ciaraldi, associate dean of student affairs at UMass Lowell, and Kathleen O’Neill, director of Single Stop at Bunker Hill Community College. Both women provide support at their colleges for students confronting food insecurity. The conversation expanded our knowledge and understanding of the problem and how we might take action to solve it.

The term “climate change” sounds more benign than the truths held within it. In fact, the climate change we are experiencing — and will experience in the coming years — is an existential threat we can no longer ignore. And, since we are most attentive to what affects us most closely, we decided to take a look at the specific risks to the northeastern United States.

The IRS began sending monthly checks to families with children in the US on July 15 — the official launch of President Biden’s American Rescue antipoverty program. The plan promises to halve child poverty, but only if the money actually reaches everyone eligible.

“Mass shootings are now so frequent that it is hard to remember them all,” commentator Scott Pelley said on CBS’s “60 Minutes” earlier this month. Many of us can recall a time when we had never heard of a mass shooting, let alone a rash of them targeting people of all faiths and colors. Yet, here we are, facing a summer that many fear will bring a spike in senseless killings.

If passed, the For the People Act and the John Lewis Voting Rights Act, now before Congress, will combat the insidious voter suppression laws that are surging in many states and districts in our country, preventing citizens, particularly those of color and living in neighborhoods of poverty, from participating in the electoral process guaranteed by the US Constitution.

In more refreshing news from Washington, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) unveiled a revamped website on Climate Change Indicators last Wednesday, calling it a “comprehensive resource.” The Associated Press heralded the update, saying the site now “presents clear and compelling evidence of changes to the climate.” As we all recall, no new information was allowed to be posted on the site during the former administration, and the effects of climate change were regularly disputed and downplayed.

Nearly a third of all food produced in the United States is wasted. While this number is startling, in light of the fact that one in six children goes to bed hungry, it is also significant because of the effect that food waste has on climate change. When zero waste is achieved, and no food is sent to landfills, methane emissions and our carbon footprint are significantly reduced.

Though the solutions to climate change require major disruptions in the current operations of large industry, our individual actions can still have positive effects on our personal and shared quality of life.