mgunn i share your frustration but at the same time i'm aware that this isn't an academic exercise knowledge doesn't exist in isolation from the real world we're not engaged in describing a herbarium specimen we're dealing with an event that has destroyed and continues to destroy people's lives we need to distinguish between attempts to promote a biased account of history and the irruption of understandable and proper anger when experience is being traduced we're in the immensely privileged position of being able to take a relatively detached position we should be careful how we judge the actions of others