"Charging for the lice and extra for the mice!"
This year's Guilford parade theme is Broadway musicals.
In the musical Les Miserables, the crooked innkeeper charges his customers even for the lice and mice they find in their rooms. Decades after the Revolution, his country is still a feudal aristocracy, run for the benefit of the wealthy few at the top. He adapts by squeezing others as weak as himself.
Equality and fraternity disappear, to give a few people the liberty to do what they want to everyone else.
Does this describe our country today?
How do we get to a society with real equality and fraternity? By a fair taxation system that funds the common good and helps close the widening gap between rich and poor? By a publicly-funded, scaled-down electoral system instead of a privately-funded one where elected officials represent the interests of large donors? By a more modest lifestyle, more in tune with how most people in the world live and more respectful of our natural environment? By reducing the investment in military solutions?
"Have you asked yourselves what's the price you might pay?" asks the revolutionary Enjoiras in Les Miserables. He gives his life to make things better.
We don't know all the answers, but if you want to help ask the questions,come and talk with us at our vigil on the Guilford Green every Saturday between 11 am and noon.
