Secrecy

Fewer and fewer among us remember World War II personally, which is why it's important to commemorate its milestones - like D-Day - while they're still part of our collective experience. Individual memories aren't foolproof, of course, but they're probably more reliable than future historical research. Not only was World War II the most widespread human endeavor of all time, it was a defining moment in our national experience. It represented a time of unity unlike any before or after, and we met the challenge with unparalleled, total faith in our leaders - and in ourselves.

LAST WEEK'S shake-up at DHS is good news, for many reasons. Mayor Street acted swiftly: less than a week after the Inquirer reported that 20 children had died in a two-year period after DHS had interacted with their families, the director and her deputy were gone. Recently, places like New York and New Jersey have uncovered similar system crises that have been mitigated by elected officials' quick responses. Friday's shake-up is encouraging because it also suggests there is a way to do this right.

As a veteran of Operation Desert Storm, I would urge that Iraq's "acceptance" of the latest U.N. mandate be taken with a grain of salt. The honest truth is that Baghdad has a long-established (11 years) pattern of political maneuvering and deception. Do we honestly believe the inspectors will find anything Saddam Hussein does not wish them to find? I am sure Baghdad has its squeaky-clean image all properly stage-managed for the world's cameras by now. I would expect Scott Ritter and other experts to be of a similar opinion on the futility of such inspections.

In at least one area of political life, the spirit of bipartisanship is strong, and the Obama administration has picked up pretty much where the Bush team left off. That's the realm of information control: treating the news media as a pestilence, using secrecy rules to stem inconvenient disclosures, ducking informed scrutiny in favor of staged encounters, punishing unauthorized leaks vigorously, and generally regarding publicly significant information...

The Force will be with you always. And as usual, you can't see it. That's the word fans and stores alike are getting as they await the onslaught of merchandise tied into the upcoming "Star Wars" film, "Episode One: The Phantom Menace. " Books and bookmarks, magazines and CDs, clothing and stickers and action figures and electronic greeting cards. . .just about every consumer form the movie could take will be on sale next Monday. (Not even coffee is safe, with Borders offering "Jedi Java" at its cafe.

THIS SMELLS Prepare to be gassed. With Christmas just three months away, the $4 billion fragrance industry is embarking on its most intense marketing frenzy ever. To launch this year's hottest scents - Calvin Klein's Escape, Estee Lauder's Spellbound, Elizabeth Taylor's White Diamonds and Lancome's Tresor - marketers are distributing a record 90 million fragrance strips in magazines, catalogues and billing inserts. Which is bad news for people with extreme sensitivity to such scents.

Host Iraqi children Back in the 1970s, a program was put into place for both Protestant and Catholic children from Ireland to come to America during the summer months and live with host families in the hope of learning to accept each other's differences. Although Ireland still has some religious tolerance issues today, abductions, shootings, car bombs and other such outright displays of hatred have disappeared. Wouldn't it be wonderful if we could offer the same type of program for both Sunni and Shiite Iraqi children to come here in an effort for them to live peaceably one day in Iraq?

When the 11 members of the Haverford Authority sit down to decide how they believe the Haverford State Hospital site should be developed, they will do it behind closed doors, under strict rules of secrecy. In the face of a hostile audience wanting it to release summaries of 16 development proposals, the authority voted unanimously Tuesday night to impose a confidentiality agreement on members of the board and its professional consultants. The move, which Authority Chairman Fred Moran told the audience was requested by officials in the state Department of General Services, effectively ended what had been until now an unusually public discussion of development priorities on the last large piece of open space in the township.