Friday, November 11

"Red... the blood of angry men..."

I've only been keeping up with the rioting in France on a kind of skimming the story-type basis. Someone was quoted as saying, "A little revolution, every now and then, is a good thing." This revolution, from what I can gather, is borne out of the impoverished neighborhoods and the peoples' frustration with discrimination and unemployment. Rioting began when two teens were chased into a power substation by the police, and they were subsequently electrocuted. Arson and clashes between the populace and the police have occurred nightly since then. This violence, according to the AP, is the worst since the student-worker uprising in 1968.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20051111/ap_on_re_eu/france_rioting_fr1
Anyway, so what's with that? I can tell I've seen too much musical theater when I hear about a riot in France, and the first thing I think of is, was Marius there? What about Eponine, Jean Veljean and Javert? "Empty chairs and empty tables." And the ultimate (which tends to get all stuck in Mom's head and drive her crazy), "Red, the blood of angry men. Black, the dark of ages past. Red, the world about to dawn. Black, the night that ends at last!"

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