Apart from one little posting earli in the first thread I've been keeping out of this, but after Ron and Aine's vitriolic attack on Alice I had to go back and re-read her posts convinced that I must have missed something. But no, she merely reiterates what a lot of sensible and fair-minded people have stated again and again and again in these threads. Ron says Alice, I am equally shocked that you can't separate the two issues. I am the first to admit (and my notes in this posting will back it up) that I too feel that the focus was being shifted from the child to the issue of Traveler discrimination.    I still feel that some people have tried to do that. Ron, the only person doing that is Larry. The only person pre-judging the case is Larry. The only person to get it totally wrong about the eventual placement of the child is Larry. I don't doubt Larry's commitment to the cause -- it's clearly wholehearted and sincere, but it is blinding him to the realities of the case, which SharonA and NicoleC have spelled out simply and eloquently againin the threads above. Aine says that not knowing Larry personally is a handicap, but suffering from that handicap simply means is that our reactions are based on what he says rather than who he is.

BJ