As If There Were Closure 

I see the evil.

I deeply resent needing to live with it, and cannot fathom the lives of those who live with it far more — infinitely more — than I do.

The black masks. They say it all. The Hamas criminals who delivered the innocent Israeli and Thai hostages wore black masks.

Cowards. Conscienceless. But far more — infinitely more — is the signal that these black masks send. The signal: It is these monsters with whom these hostages had to live, and the rest of the hostages still have to live. Not for the few moments I saw them on the screen, but full time, each day, for hundreds of days. I see the evil. The hostages were absorbed by it. It is beyond my ken.

I deeply resent needing to live with this evil — to live knowing that it’s out there. Knowing that its intent on murder is unbridled. “Knowing?” Not really, not intimately. Not knowing in the sense that these released hostages knew — and that all of the remaining hostages still know.