This Week's HuffPost Family Dinner Download: WikiLeaks and Sharing Secrets

In her new book, The Family Dinner, Laurie David talks about the importance of families making a ritual of sitting down to dinner together, and how family dinners offer a great opportunity for meaningful discussions about the day's news. "Dinner," she says, "is as much about digestible conversation as it is about delicious food."

We couldn't agree more. So HuffPost has joined with Laurie to launch a new feature we're calling HuffPost Family Dinner Downloads. Every Friday afternoon, just in time for dinner, our editors highlight one of the most compelling news stories of the week -- stories that will spark a lively discussion among the whole family.

The family can gather around the laptop, smartphone, or iPad -- or just print out the post and pass it around the table. Each Dinner Download will end with a question or two that we hope will get everyone thinking and sharing their thoughts, feelings, and opinions.

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This week, a website called WikiLeaks (not connected to Wikipedia) released nearly a quarter-million secret diplomatic cables -- which are basically emails between America's representatives in countries all over the world and the U.S. State Department. Someone in the government who had access to these cables decided to make them public -- even though it meant breaking the law to do it -- and sent them to WikiLeaks, which shared them with the world.

Newspapers have dug into these documents and in the past week we've seen hundreds of news stories revealing the secrets contained in them -- everything from candid and often unkind opinions of world leaders, to confidential assessments of global crises. And there has been a big debate about whether it was right for WikiLeaks to release this kind of secret information, and whether the public's right to know outweighs our government's ability to decide what they get to keep secret.

What do you think -- is honesty always the best policy? Are there certain secrets that are okay to share with others, and other secrets that under no circumstances should be shared? When is it okay to break an agreement to reveal secret information? Are there times when you have not told the whole truth because it would have hurt someone's feelings or broken a promise you had made? How would you feel if someone shared your diaries -- or your emails with your best friend -- with the world?

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To see last week's Family Dinner Download, click here.

Subscribe to receive HuffPost Family Dinner Downloads by email every Friday afternoon.

For more tips and recipes, check out The Family Dinner: Great Ways to Connect with Your Kids, One Meal at a Time by Laurie David and Kirstin Uhrenholdt.

Comments

[Danrtsey]

04:16 AM on 12/13/2010

sorry,this is my frist to come here.I dont know about politics at dinner,so I want to leaning fron yours. thank you.

[Danrtsey]

10:25 PM on 12/03/2010

I didn't know that. It's really weird that they didn't mention this as an
option when I called on the tech support line, don't you think?
http://www.theoddpics.com

[thegirlnextdoor]

10:24 PM on 12/03/2010

We were raised to never discuss politics at dinner. Too upsetting for the digestion.
And what's going on with Julian Assange and the banks and government and some Canadian issuing a fatwa and saying he should be a target for assassination has put me right off my food, thanks.
I'd rather discuss keeping your word and the meaning of intregity in today's world. Has it changed or should it be a constant?

[trying2help]

08:48 PM on 12/03/2010

Operational items- that reveal names, identities of soldiers and/or ops plans have to be secret and revealing such is either treason ( if US citizen) or spying ( if not).
Anything less places the lives of soldiers and operatives who have sworn to give their lives for our country at risk.
Anything that truly jeopardizes national security is as above.
Now- what do we do about the rest?
Diplomats USor Russian or Canadian or Tunisian- diplomats are not supposed to spy. Ever. It ruins all that is good about the diplomatic core. Or course they have from all countries but:: bad form esp to get caught.
Did the US order diplomats to the UN to spy etc?? Apparently. Of course the US has their knickers in a knot with this revelation but-but- should not have done it. Their bad.
Where are the lines or right and wrong? Few ideas given- rest- enjoy your dinners!

[Danrtsey]

10:27 PM on 12/03/2010

oh.you can take here:http://www.jessebandersen.com/

[pallmallguy]

10:34 PM on 12/03/2010

if assange goes down you can bet that informant names and spy names will be revealed in the insurance files

[persimmon8]

07:04 PM on 12/03/2010

A little truthiness...

"Lies, distrust, and subterfuge have been the order of the day for governments for a very long time. Governments tell themselves and their people that they must be able to carry out these clandestine policies for their own security. However this is the old model of distrust that is now going away. In actuality there are no secrets and most people know that classified material is just a cover for inappropriate and harmful activity that governments would rather not have the public know. Those who are awake however know it anyway. So if it is not Wikileaks there will be others who continue to reveal the dark underbelly of business as usual until governments realize that the best way to handle things is not to do what has to be kept secret."

[Sock De Jour]

02:40 PM on 12/03/2010

When it comes to government, honesty is the ONLY policy. The moment you have secrecy, you have an opportunity for corruption and misdoings.

People seem to forget that government officials, the president, and everyone who works in or for government, is OUR employee.

We employ them. Their decisions, or indecision affect our lives, directly and indirectly. They are accountable to all of us, and the fact that they think they aren't, is what's wrong with government.

Government works for the largest corporations. It's not working for us, yet we're employing them. This has to change. Representative government doesn't work, because "We the people" aren't being represented.

[mcdaidusa]

04:46 PM on 12/03/2010

Absolutely correct. And now the government wants to shut down the cables and make it illegal to post them and read them. Unbelievable.