WRENCH   Michael Donovan

Or, "pass it on", and "stow it", meaning save and remember. These men saw secrecy as counter to the public good. They saw secrecy as sick. When the Constitution was first penned, without the Bill of Rights, this world-wise international group said, "Oh no, not more sovereignty and secrets. We know what that leads to!!" This was a loud collective voice. These were the hands that turned yonder windlass, raised the anchors, and set the sails that moved the cargos upon which the fortunes of our young nation completely depended. And further: many who were first taught "Pass and Stow" as seasick ordinary seamen on first voyages were now Owners and Masters: men of fortune, no small voice. It was this voice in unison that sent the founding fathers back to Philadelphia to do some rewriting. The name of the sadly forgotten corporation in Philadelphia which keeps and preserves the Liberty Bell is "Pass and Stow".

This too-soon forgotten, but ancient marine reason is stopping not on him or her but you. This "Pass and Stow" is a responsibility: for if Liberty is to be tolled for you, it must be told by you.

You are the addressee: not him or her, but you.

This "Pass and Stow" concerns, in some deep measure, the news. But it is not new. It is the same old story, changed only, but with utmost import, but the possibility of being too late; but it is not new:

In some forgotten Byron canto he railed at the "Gazettes". He pointed to them living it up in Falmouth, England then compared them to, and rhymed it with, the regiments they were carelessly replacing. This is the same old story. It is not a new story, but there are higher stakes.

This is a true story. I beg the reader forgive some unavoidable short dullness in one part or another, but I am being exact. It would have been so much easier on me, and you the reader, to have composed this in that genre of truth-hidden-as-fiction. That, however, would soften some much needed sting. For, as this is a careful and truthful account, it is also a deposition: a depository of accusation. I accuse. This is the truth.

It is far from entirely dull. There is the Mafia, there is a Kennedy, there are spies, there are lies. There is high drama and exposé. There is some romance. But, unfortunately, those things are not important here. This is critical information. This is bad news.

To bring you this needed bad news I must not coddle your need for entertainment. You will have to make an effort to learn something new. There are some pearls in front of you, but you must be teachable. To be teachable you must see yourself as ignorant, and this, again unfortunately, is a reluctant vision to just those who have the capacity to learn and to benefit and to benefit others. This is bad. This is critical. I accuse. This is a warning.

This is war.

How teachable are you?

Every day countless commuters from the Hamptons on Long Island and the bedroom communities of Upper Westchester and the Montclairs and other port-over-starboard-home sections of Jersey read the New York Times on their daily rides. These are the bright and the creative and the influential. They read and they think and they are in the know.

NO.

They do not even know what they are reading. Every day for weeks in June of 1993 a full page ad appeared in the Times. Ostensibly it was an ad for Citibank. The headline, in biggest letters that any art direction could compose, stated simply: "CITIBANK INVITES YOU TO A PRIVATE SALE." The small body copy under the headline talked about Citibank's Citicard. Nothing in the body copy related to a private sale. Only by very obscure and convoluted stretches of reasoning could you even begin to connect the body copy to the headline. But it ran, full page, every day in the Times.

But millions of the bright and the influential and those who are in the know and aware saw this every day for weeks, the biggest ad in the paper. Certainly they would notice this.

No, they did not. It is amazing that the "secret" messages are hidden in the open. A reasonable person would question what I just said. "Large secret messages in newspapers, in the biggest ads, where the ads don't even make sense and people don't notice? No raised eyebrows? Not likely!!"