The Wisdom of “Les Miserables”

I am always looking for signs of wisdom in our cockeyed world. Flip the coin and I’m also alert to wisdom gaps around me. On July 4th (232nd birthday of our beloved country), I turned the TV on to watch my Oakland Athletics play the Chicago White Sox. Nothing more American than baseball and barbecue on this holiday. The Sox were outfitted in desert camouflage jerseys! Did they think they were playing on a sandlot in Baghdad? If they wanted to hide in a ballpark, they should have worn grass-green tops with red Coke(R) cans sewn on them. That struck me as a desecration of the game and the sport. How far must we go to show support for our troops? Next year will the umpires come out armed with plastic M16s. Fortunately, hiding inside their camouflage jerseys did not help the Sox, who got shelled with 7 runs and 17 hits by the insurgent A’s.  

When my literary hero, Jean Valjean, had the opportunity to kill his nemesis, Inspector Javert, he chose nonviolence and released him. Would one more death have saved the people of France from oppression? That question challenges me. But I must answer, “No.”

So, why must we associate this holiday entirely with honoring the military? Our thinking in America today is this: if we can only kill enough of the people who hate us in the Middle East and wherever they are in the world, we’ll run out of the need to kill and finally arrive at . . . peace. Wisdom or folly? 

On this 4th of July weekend, let’s honor freedom-loving, peace-loving Americans of all ages, races, creeds and walks of life, including our brothers and sisters in military service. Each of us plays a key role in keeping America safe and free.