Great credit is due to John Waters for his appearance on "Questions and Answers" on Monday night following his article in The Irish Times of the same day. Despite their claims to independence and incisive reporting, few mainstream journalists have even considered doing what John Waters did the other night, namely, broadening the debate and trying to put it into context. Many of us have been thinking about his point that the current debate, which concerns events of 60 and 70 years ago, is taking place in the context of the times in which we live. This does not make sense. For example, on the issue of deprivation, given that most of us suffered an element of deprivation during the period in question, there is no point suggesting we had three meals a day, three pairs of shoes or that we were relatively well off 40 or 50 years ago. We must not allow that issue to be mixed up with the basic issue of sexual abuse. To do so and then to throw them both at the church, the religious orders or even the State creates confusion.