In your moment of greatest peril, we were eons away from that shining vision of unity
You’re in a better place now. As Hersh’s mother Rachel Goldberg-Polin put it, “Finally, finally, finally, finally you are free” — free of the crushing darkness, the never-enough air, the constant hunger and fear. From your elevated place on High where there are no questions, you have finally found an end to those months of terror, loneliness, and suffering.
And you might be wondering: Those of us on the other side, the safer side — what did we do all these months as you waited in the darkness?
Your captors told you that we didn’t care. They taunted you and said we had moved on, we weren’t interested in your return. You know now — you probably knew even then — that it wasn’t true. For close to 11 months, we searched for the keys to release you. We expended so much effort and emotion looking for that magical talisman that would spirit away your captors, force open your prison cell, and lead you back to the waiting arms of your families.
The thing is, we couldn’t agree on what that key looked like. So we searched in different places, envisioning different solutions. And I’m sorry to say that those conflicting visions seeded our search with anger, accusations, and ugliness.
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