Ah, how well the ancients knew that life is fleeting; that, indeed, all is vanity.  Not that I’m saying they were right in every respect: I’m just saying what they felt, more or less.  It must have been bracing to see a young friend’s body carried off in a cart, dead as a kabob, the victim of a disease rumored to have killed two thirds of the neighboring villages’ living things (plants included.)  Personally, I can sympathize with the fellow who, upon seeing the aforementioned, ran forthwith into a House of Worship, there to atone for his own sins and for the sins of the many, if he had any sense.

Which brings us to the present day.  Life certainly is fleeting to anyone who’s not glued to a classroom chair.  And all is vanity: i.e., everything we do is a futile attempt to change what is written on our foreheads (as the Arabs so poetically put it.)  Change we need is more than a slogan: it is the unending cry of humanity, carrying outward in attenuating waves until finally dying in the coldest parts of our Solar System.

But the Army will continue to do what it wants, regardless of who is President.  Israel will continue to bulldoze homes in the occupied territories, regardless of who is President.  And regardless of who is President, humanity will continue pursuing its appointment with catastrophe, personal and collective.