I had thought about using this space to take a rip at the Women's City Club, that worthwhile civic group that seemed willing to accept a lie rather than risk offending the knee-jerk reaction of its guest speaker.

But the club changed its mind, said good-bye to the offended speaker, and taught me not to be so quick with a knee-jerk condemnation.

Last week the club announced it would move its annual fund-raiser, scheduled for March 18, out of downtown because the event had been threatened by some of those who have been staging an economic boycott of the city for more than a year and a half. Thursday, the club's officers stood on the steps of their West End office and announced they would stage its event at the Plum Street Temple as originally planned.

Ruth Cronenberg, president of the group, said Thursday that the program will be altered to include a panel discussion of the issues that have prompted the boycott and what the city is doing to address them. "This is an opportunity to provide knowledge," she said. "We were given lemons. We are making lemonade. We want to let people know that we are in this together."

So I have swallowed my snide cynicism about lemonade ladies who really didn't understand the issues, and instead will tell you that these women seem to have gotten it right. We have some problems in this town. Poverty, police relations, poor schools, economic and legal injustice - the list goes on. We're dealing with them - not fast enough for some people - but a lot faster and more openly than we had in the past. The Women's City Club is right to say that we have to keep talking if we want to keep chipping away at them.

The way not to deal with these problems is to run away - which is what the club would have been doing had it taken its event out of downtown.

Barbara Ehrenreich, the nationally known author who had been billed as the featured speaker, told the club she would not participate in an event being picketed by boycotters. She writes on poverty, and was scheduled to speak on economic injustice and the struggles of poor women. Unfortunately, she has a policy of unquestioning obeisance to anyone with a picket sign. "If some people of conscience take it seriously, so do I," she said about the boycott. "When we ignore a picket line or boycott, we not only slight the cause it represents, we also make it just a little bit harder for any group of ordinary people to advance their cause."

As one who has a great deal of respect for picket signs, it's hard for me to say that someone so righteous is so wrong - but she is. The would-be pickets Ehrenreich chose to stand with are not "any group of ordinary people" seeking to advance a just cause. They are not the Black United Front or others who legitimately feel they can improve conditions in the city with their protests. They are a yowling, lunatic sub-sect of hate-mongers, euphemistically calling themselves Coalition for a Just Cincinnati. They don't want to improve anything, and certainly don't believe in mutual respect for the diverse elements of the community. One of their leaders, Amanda Mayes, carried a sign with anti-Semitic slurs around on Fountain Square last December. Mayes is one of the would-be pickets Ehrenreich worried about offending.

The event these people tried to shut down was not some celebrity's concert. It wasn't a convention of out-of-towners planning on spending money in downtown's bars and restaurants. It is was a group of Cincinnatians trying to raise money for programs that enhance social justice, affordable housing, the environment and effective government.

Cronenberg said the original plan included having representatives from the Black United Front participate in the event and help introduce the speaker. She hopes BUF leaders, who have been in the forefront of the ongoing boycott, will still participate. The club also hopes to bring city and business leaders into the discussion.

If this works, the only thing the pickets will be boycotting is success.

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Contact David Wells at 768-8310; fax: 768-8610; e-mail: dwells@enquirer.com. Cincinnati.Com keyword: Wells.