[id: quote from Peter Jackson’s version of Tolkien’s “Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring” overlaid over images of 2020:

“I wish the Ring had never come to me” over three figures in white sanitary scrubs wheel a supine figure on a gurney that is sealed closed like a transparent tube down a stone-paved street.

“I wish none of this had happened.” overlays a firefighter suited up, with a helmet and paper mask, walking amid a burning forest, the air an orange haze hanging thick.

“So do I.” A helicopter floats in the rosy sky over the ruins of Beirut, half the picture just rubble, beyond which more city is visible across the river, the other half burnt but still standing.

“And so do all who live to see such times,” is overlaid on a band of police in riot gear filling the air with pepper spray, and a young black man in a black cloth face mask turning his face away and futilly lifting his hands to shield himself as another protestor reaches out to help drag him away.

“But that is not for them to decide.” A picture of the White House at night, dark except for indirect light. The flag stays limp and almost invisible on the flagpole above it.

“All we have to decide” over an aerial view of a sea of closely pressed protestors, the first few rows of which are armed with umbrellas squared up in a street a few meters across from lines of dark and camo uniforms. Other figures in dark uniforms are posted on a nearby roof and appear to be aiming at the crowd.

“Is what to do” over a much closer confrontation between a multiracial crowd holding signs, cell phones, raised fists, and a graduation cap before a line of white officers in khaki before stone steps. Everyone appears to have masks, and the officers also have eye shields.

“With the time that is given to us.” The final background is someone voting in what appears to be a school, their face shielded from view by the privacy screen emblazoned with an American flag and the word “VOTE”.]/end id.