Yet many vaguely concerned Harvard students are still frustrated by what appears to be mindless squabbling between different student groups unable to get along or are tempted to throw their up hands in despair and incomprehension at the violence.

Skepticism is sometimes a substitute for apathy and vagueness a cover for ignorance. When lives are being taken, it is not enough to simply hide behind the banner of neutrality or seek the warmth of a group hug for world peace. When one side is more powerful than the other, neutrality means complicity with the strong.

Does this mean that compromise is impossible, that everyone must take sides and never climb down? Of course not. If the line between opinion and dogma disappears, then there is no hope. And without hope, there is no point in having opinions.

But we still can and still must take moral positions, nuanced yet clear, open-minded yet firm. Walking away, whether in confusion or disgust, has its own moral price, and that price is too high. One cannot take a position on the fence when it is made of razor wire.

Darryl Li '01 is a social studies concentrator in Quincy House and assisted in the organization of the Society of Arab Students vigils.