2026 and the French revolution strikes, again

The state of chaos and rioting presently hitting France, defies belief. 

A civilized, elegant country who we all believed would never, in a million years, fall prey to this level of horrid disrespect, upon fellow citizens.  And it is happening not just north of Paris – Seine-Saint Denis area, but it is widespread – in places like Lyon, Marseille, Toulouse. 

We see police having to shut down over 400 schools across France, to protect students not involved in this act of lunacy. But why should it have to come to this?  Why should students be forced to demonstrate in such a violent manner? 

I understand parents – students – teachers are angry over the continual problems of teacher shortages, long hours, dilapidated buildings and never-ending overcrowding of classrooms, but if schools, learning and history has taught us anything – then, we know this is not the way to go about the situation.  Allowing this to happen, just teaches kids that it is okay to disrespect human beings - just to prove one’s point; that it is okay to set people on fire, throw acid on people and all the rest…if someone gets in the way; that it is okay to storm schools and burn down public property.

The state of France is dire, we all know it is.  We see this as onlookers, from millions of miles away.  We see families struggling with the freezing of wages, the price of fuel and goods, which is paralyzing the country – to no end. We see the nightmare budgets in place that allow no room for assistance for the growth of the very heart of the country – it’s schools.
Without schools, teachers and curriculums that address student issues – some of them like this – learning how not to riot and harm others – children will never learn.  They do not learn such empathy from computers.  Gaming teaches hostility and hatred for others.  It shows students – teenagers like this, who are already in a compromised state of family existence, how they think they can take matters into their own hands – in the physical world.  It is like handing a child a gun.  They all learn from this and when times are hard and they see their families struggling to make ends meet, and they cannot learn in institutions without funding – kids rebel.

Then, Government sees the law of cause and effect in action – on the streets of France - on the faces of children and parents – in the very homes of families that hold up the country.  These are the people that pay the price of government sitting on their laurels, not considering what is right for all. 

It is fine for a government to sit in an office of plushness - where your entire lives are safe, without a care in the world, no worrying about how you will survive the week, on a paltry sum of nothing – because you are sheltered from everything.  If you are ill – the best medical care will assist you, you want food – you don’t have to look in your wallet to see if there is enough money.  You do not have to choose between paying a bill and a child’s birthday present, because your lives are always in surplus.

I cannot deny that struggle makes one appreciate all the good things in one’s life.  It humbles you and gives you time to think about what is truly, important. Gratitude sits in your bones, and serves you lessons that allow you to see the bigger picture. But this?  This is not a life - for these people.  It is barely an existence. 

You can’t make great things happen, if you are constantly denied the tools to create wonders – to create individuals, who will one day run the country - France.     

This is not the 1800’s. 

France is a developed country that knows right from wrong; whose people fought for freedoms long ago and won.  There is a great history of brave citizens, pointing out societal imbalance and injustice. Government needs to look to those historical scenes of success - that taught France to accept nothing but the best, for its citizens – for its country. Revolution and rebellion should not have to be revisited to uphold civil liberties and economic freedoms.  Those past altercations are what gave France its wings to fly, in the modern world.

This is what they fought for – what they shed blood for – what they died for. 

Do not let their deaths be in vain.  Surely France has learnt something in all that.

Your people deserve so much more…