Do you hear the people cry?

My wife and I shed tears of genuine sadness and deep anguish the first time we saw "Les Miserables' on Broadway" in the Imperial Theatre, New York sometime in the eighties.

- Atty. Josephus B. Jimenez

Then we saw it once more in the Sondheim Theatre in London a decade later, and cried profusely again. But today, in the midst of too much abuse against the people, I see no tears. The whole nation does not seem to hear the people cry.

The song, "Do you hear the people sing?" has a unique way of conscientizing even the most impervious soul. It goes this way: "Do you hear the people sing, singing the song of angry men? It is the music of a people who will not be slaves again. When the beating of your heart echoes the beating of the drums, there is a life about to start when tomorrow comes. Will you join in our crusade, who will be strong and stand with me? Beyond the barricade, is there a world you long to see?" Then repeat the lines again.

The story of Jean Valjean who was imprisoned for 19 years for stealing a loaf of bread reflects the struggles of an oppressed people under the domination of the strong and the powerful. Valjean's long and painful fight against social and political injustice reflected the poor French peoples' own struggles in the French Revolution under the dictatorial regime of a repressive autocrat. That song "Do you Hear The People Sing" was the politically awakened peoples’ mantra for liberation and freedom.