Verity, Thank you for your information and for doing whatever you are doing to move this forward. Clearly, it has been a heavy time and the stormclouds of hope and fear filling the silence need to be unlleashed.
It is sad that it has had to come to this. Maybe we have all stories of what happens when a person with all the power and glory outstays their effectiveness and has to be almost physically pried out of their chair. Whether it's a world leader or the president of the local tenants association, it is never really pleasant. Sometimes even the best attempts to oust a malignant leader fail- look at Iran and Akmedjinebad (or whatever his name is). Usually we see the stubborn but vain attempts to hold on and it brings out the pathetic and worst sides of such people, and they become very irrational. A wounded ego can turn as vicious as a wounded bear.
I have never met Dean personally, but the videos and calls and emails and PR's paint the picture of a proud but easily triggered gent with a slightly grandiose vision that has been stymied by reality. Obviously his dream was not so grandiose that I didn't invest in it (although sometimes I curse the day), and hopefully a fresh set of eyes and skills can turn it around and set it back on a good course.
It is not a happy thing to witness a man falling from grace at the end of an otherwise proud career. So pardon me if I do not rejoice at this turn of events. However, I will add my voice of support, since this is beyond sentimentality. The time for pacifying, gathering support for this or that faction and poloticking to look brilliant is over. When it is time to cut, the cut has to be clean and precise. Go for it and good luck to us all.
All IMHO of course.
