You’re having lunch with three people you respect and admire. They all start criticizing a close friend of yours, not knowing she is your friend. The criticism is distasteful and unjustified. What do you do?

Be silent about it. If they ask me to comment, I continue to stay silent. And I am polite about it, and smile and nod to whatever they say. But inside I’m really angry, and I won’t respect and admire these three people as much anymore. But I guess I won’t have the courage to really stand up to them. Sigh.