Morganstern has served on council for more than 26 years. She cited as the reason for her resignation her intention to spend more time in Arizona, where she and her husband, Stanley, own a home. Stanley Morganstern resigned from the Orange Board of Education in January, stating his Ohio-based law practice was winding down.

I value and valued Paulette as someone with immense, invaluable institutional knowledge about Pepper Pike.  Her departure will leave a vacuum of practical, direct experience from years with the city government during which no one else left on Council served (Rick Taft being the next most senior council member with about 13-14 years of experience).  I wish her the absolute best of good times ahead wherever her choices take her.

For those residents who are interested, or if you would like to please pass this information along:

Paulette Morganstern’s current term expires at the end of 2013. Council is authorized by the city charter to appoint a replacement within 45 days to complete her term.

Residents who wish to be considered for the position are asked to submit a letter explaining their interest and qualifications by May 10 to Mayor Richard Bain at City Hall, 28000 Shaker Blvd., Pepper Pike, OH 44124.

Thank you again to Paulette for all these years of public service and if you have any questions, comments or concerns, as always, don’t hesitate to be in touch.

So I thought I’d overshare for a bit, given that the sold-out audience was limited to about 700 folks at the Cleveland Museum of Art’s Gartner Auditorium. That leaves thousands of TEDxCLE virgins remaining, all of whom deserve to hear, first-hand, if it was everything I’d hoped for.

Short version: If I hadn’t stopped smoking cigarettes nearly 22 years ago, I would have had one when the event ended.

Long version: There are so many ways to slice and dice this, and I’m an overthinker as it is, so let’s do it like this:

I moved to Cleveland for graduate school – that joint degree in law and social work which I thought would lead me to juvenile court, truly. That’s what I wanted to be – a juvenile court judge. And so when I landed a clerk position in juvenile court after my first year of law school but before my first year of social work school, I felt like the luckiest person.  I was placed in the courtroom of a brand new judge in the late spring of 1989, the courtroom of Peter Sikora.

How many people know or recall that he was in the courtroom in Playhouse Square? Yup. That’s where I went – I took the bus. Every day.

Although the first thing most people may have noticed about Peter was that he was in a wheel chair, I remember what I consider to be an iconic smile. I think of how he used his hands and his chair and seemed about as mobile as an Olympic athlete.  And what seems so ironic about that is that indeed if he hadn’t had the trampoline injury he suffered at age 17, maybe he would have been.

I got to see all kinds of sides of Cleveland because of meeting Peter, who I actually had a really hard time calling anything other than Judge Sikora – because that’s who he was to me.  Dining places, social gathering places, people – all totally utterly emblematic of Cleveland, which he always always loved, just loved – at least that’s the impression I believe he gave nearly everyone.

I met his family members many, many times – his mother may she rest in peace and sibling and nieces and nephews. Then the other people in the courtroom – it was like a family in many ways, the good and the bad.

Two people I remember very well meeting I believe even the first summer I was invited to view July 4th fireworks from near his West side home: Jimmy Dimora and Bill Denihan. And for years after, I would always think when they were in the news, “Yeesh – those guys? They seemed like they’d been around a lot when I met them in 1989!”

I remember his runs for office and the campaigning – the events. I recall very well the ethnic events he organized, at least a couple of times if not more than that held in Playhouse Square venues, full.

Something about him made me be loyal as a friend and we remained in touch for years after I graduated from law and social work school – but not after I spent more time in juvenile court working in the diagnostic clinic and clerking for other attorneys who had cases in juvenile court and when I was at Bellefaire – not a lot of occasions but a few to get there.

Peter never ever wanted or for as long as I knew him engendered pity of any kind – I certainly never felt pity for him in the least. And the reason I believe is because he presented and acted so clearly like a judge, using all his faculties and then some, compensating perhaps – I don’t know. But I never felt he had any deficits when it came to his work. Disagreements – arguments – policy and otherwise? Sure – with people in the court and beyond like the attorneys or family members in his courtroom? I’m sure.

But nothing I ever detected that made me regard him as anything other than a role model for how to make a difference in the life of young people – something I’ve always wanted to do.

For 23 years, this man was a juvenile court judge.  I imagine there are many people who cannot imagine what that must be like.  But thank God there are good, smart, caring people willing to not just imagine but be that, through thick and thin, for so long, even with higher aspirations because why not.

As we say in Judaism, may he be of blessed memory. I called my parents who met him several times over the years and would often ask about whether they might get to see him when they came to town and I said to my mother, I think I just can’t believe he is gone.  I think I’m going to feel that way for a long time.

Did you know that working moms who don’t watch Fox are socialists? Neither did I.

But then I asked some folks on Twitter, who were beating up on a friend of mine who is a left of center lady, not unlike myself, and was on Fox this morning (the national cable version, not the local), if they could link to the clip about which they were razzing my friend, since, being a working parent, I don’t watch the morning news shows because, well, I’m working – and parenting. (I know – many of us have the television or radio on in the background while parenting and working but that is not the norm in my home at all – way too distracting; I can parent & work at the same time, but add cable morning news shows to the task list and I’m on overload.)

And their response to my simple and, if I might say so myself, civil request (intended to allow me to make an actual judgement on the razzing they were giving my friend which included them saying that the way she said the word “privilege” regarding Ann Romney was in a perjorative way) was to tell me that, for saying I was working, parenting and not watching Fox, I spoke like a “true Socialist.” Later tweets included mentions of their belief that I envy male anatomy and some other things that have nothing to do with anything, except to demonstrate perfectly how the motherlode of all linkbait is the often-called always-maligned Mommy Wars.

If ever there was a subject in need of being limited to civil discourse-only, this has got to be it.

Read the rest at the Civic Commons (where this working mom works, from home and from wherever civic engagement takes me).

The gap exists because of reality: when women look around and on an every day occasion, see and experience where we aren’t included or even thought about, or, when we are included or thought about, how we’re treated – whether in real life (Ginni Rometty) or fake life (anything on Mad Men) – we don’t like it.  And we see the statements and policies of conservatives as, in general (yes, there are exceptions), upholding, supporting and keeping in stasis what we don’t like, while we see the statements and policies of moderates and liberals as, in general, seeking to change, alter, take down and improve that which we don’t like (though of course there are plenty of exceptions there too – start with any sex scandal).

And, as if to underscore how clueless the men are, US Senator Mitch McConnell claimed that his female colleagues certainly would support him in calling out the “war on women” as being manufactured. Thanks, Mitch, for demonstrating how completely you haven’t heard a word your female colleagues have said and how thoroughly you expect them to follow you in lockstep, to wit, from that link:

“Talk about a manufactured issue. There is no issue,” McConnell said. “Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison (from Texas) and Kelly Ayotte from New Hampshire and Susan Collins and Olympia Snowe from Maine I think would be the first to say—and Lisa Murkowski from Alaska—’we don’t see any evidence of this.’”

However, three of those female GOP lawmakers whom McConnell cited— Snowe, Hutchison and Murkowski—have specifically spoken out against Republican measures they believe are aimed at women.

Then, there’s the whole gaslighting aspect to what McConnell and others like Republican National Committee Chair, Reince Priebus, are saying – Preibus analogizing his belief that the notion of there being a war on women is as far-fetched as suggesting there’s a war on caterpillars.

We’re not being gaslighted – reality bites. And no amount of optics of Republican female spokespeople on the trail or a strong spouse, daughter-in-law or mother will begin to cut into the reality.

Even his three wins last night, in Wisconsin, Maryland, and the District of Columbia, have failed to seal the deal for the delegate leader, former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney. For more background on last night’s elections, check out the exit polls and see how moderate the voters were in those three states, especially in comparison to several already-counted primary or caucus states; watch Romney’s victory speech given in Wisconsin, and see Santorum’s “we’re still going for it speech” from Pennsylvania.

Why is this fight not over?

Read the answer at the full post here.

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Read more here.

But wait! There’s more. Read it at my Civic Commons blog post.

And don’t forget locally – tons of judicial races and our County Prosecutor.

Here’s the Cuyahoga County Board of Elections website where you can see a ballot before you go so you don’t choke up.

NOW GO VOTE!