I had a fellow student at Media Village tell me today about an event that happened during criminology class he took. As the students were focused on the teacher working at the board, a man came in from the hall and snatched her computer bag and ran away. Some of the guys got up to chase him and the teacher stopped them, “You are all eyewitnesses. Write down exactly what you saw.” Some had the man black, others white. He was somewhere between five and six feet tall. Some said he took the purse. The point was that human perception is always affected by emotion and is unreliable as a source of “truth.” I notice that I trust the factual nature of my memories less, especially when I revisit my journal entries, made just after the events, and find that the details are often vastly different from my memory. As Dr. Phil puts it, “Perception is reality.” I think that’s why we need to give each other extra grace, especially in times of stress and conflict when we are all certain that we are right. this is true, as individuals and as nations.