Creed

MEMBERS PAST AND PRESENT celebrated the 25th anniversary of the Optimist Club of Severna Park and its civic contributions Friday night with a party at Club Meade. "I joined Optimists for purely selfish reasons," said Brad Everest of San Antonio, a charter member who traveled from his home in Texas to attend the affair. It was item No. 7 of the 10-part Optimist Creed that persuaded Everest to join an organization that, along with many worthwhile goals, encourages members "to forget the mistakes of the past and press on to the greater achievements of the future."

The American health care system can be as incomprehensible and as frustrating as the mysteries of mortality itself."The Doctor," the movie starring William Hurt, is based on the real-life experiences of Dr. Edward E. Rosenbaum, a Portland, Ore., physician whose bout with throat cancer showed him what it was like to be on the receiving end of the doctor-patient relationship.Like many movies, this one takes liberties with the real-life story. William Hurt's character, Dr. Jack McKee, is a young surgeon, not a 70-year-old rheumatologist.

The adjective "hot" can't even begin to describe the season the McDonogh girls basketball team is having. The No. 17 Eagles, fresh off Monday's stunning upset of top-ranked St. Frances, won their ninth straight game yesterday by edging No. 8 St. Mary's, 42-40, in Annapolis. McDonogh (10-2 overall, 7-1 in the Interscholastic Athletic Association of Maryland's A Conference) hasn't lost since Dec. 7. "I think coming into the season, we were underrated," said forward Camrell Gholston (seven points, eight rebounds)

WASHINGTON -- Al Gore numbers the automobile among mankind's afflictions -- he said so in his 1992 book, which he says still convinces him. Now he is afflicted by Ralph Nader, whose ascent to his iconic status as conscience of the consumer culture -- Cotton Mather comes to the supermarket -- began when, in 1959, his essay for The Nation magazine launched him as scourge of the automobile industry's indifference to safety. Mr. Nader regards Mr. Gore as unsafe for the liberal creed -- as embodiment of the Democratic Party's moral bankruptcy.

WASHINGTON -- As the Lewinsky parenthesis in America's political conversation comes to a close, consider two changes it has accelerated. One is a revision of the job description of president. The other is the conservatives' collapse of confidence.The first is partly the result of a conservative impulse, and partly a product of conservatives' excesses. The second requires conservatives to practice the cardinal virtue of their creed -- prudence, which involves facing facts and distinguishing between those that can be changed and those that must be accommodated.

When a New York book agent approached Monique Greenwood about updating Helen Gurley Brown's 1980s manifesto about "having it all," the then editor-in-chief of Essence magazine thought it over. And she decided that women today wanted more than what the Cosmopolitan editor's straight-talking guide to love, success, sex and money had to offer. Brown's best-seller suggested, among other things, that, "she who has the most toys wins" - an idea Greenwood felt did not suit today's woman. So she found another publisher and crafted her own take on Brown's 1980s creed - "She who has the most joy wins."

WASHINGTON -- Even to a White House toughened by shocks -- a presidential friend's suicide, another sent to prison, gunshots against the mansion walls -- the death of Ron Brown was numbing.No one expects a zestful, complicated life to be snuffed out.Of the people around Bill Clinton, Mr. Brown had the most style. He was best-dressed man in any room, oozing self-confidence, wit and elegance -- too smooth for critics' tastes. He took a dead-end job as commerce secretary and ran hard with it.He was also the most complex.

If St. Mary's girls basketball coach Harry Dobson isn't familiar with McDonogh's roster, Eagles coach Jon Washington has plenty of notes on Dobson's lineup. Washington, whose No. 17 McDonogh team will challenge the eighth-ranked Saints in an Interscholastic Athletic Association of Maryland A Conference contest tomorrow in Annapolis at 4 p.m., is well aware that the Eagles must contain St. Mary's freshmen guard tandem of Bridget Noon and Bri Gauthier. "We can't let them get hot and get open looks at the basket," Washington said of Noon and Gauthier.

On October 13, 2009, Josephine Catherine Creed Funeral from the Gregory J. Gonce Funeral Home, P.A., 169 Riviera Drive, Pasadena on Friday at 8:00 P.M. Interment Private. Family requests friends visit on Friday from 2 to 5 and 7 to 8 P.M.

Despite the claims of terrorist organizations, Israel's current two-front war is not just about land. After all, Hezbollah and Hamas fired rockets from Lebanon and Gaza well after Israel had withdrawn from both places. Indeed, if sacred Arab ground were the driving force of the Middle East crisis, then surely Syria itself would now be willing to risk a shooting war over the all-important, Israeli-occupied Golan Heights. Meanwhile, Cairo is still perhaps the nexus of virulent Arab anti-Semitism, even though Israel finished handing over Sinai to Egypt in 1982.