To Our Readers

It is an unfortunate reality of journalism that while others mourn, we work. The reporter on the job takes a kind of refuge in that dutythe horror and suffering that would usually paralyze a bystander become objects of study and inquiry, details and incidents to be recounted so that the reader better comprehends what really happened. The criticism most often hurled at the professionthat it is parasiticis mistaken. The journalist's task is to understand, and sometimes that means getting close enough to see the tears and hear the sobbing. The bombings in Bali were the kind of story we at TIME...