My kids are watching "Les Miserables" tonight and I can't help but think there are a lot of people who love this story and would absolutely hate everything about it if it were set in modern day.

A convict imprisoned for minor theft highlights the plight of the poor and the inequities of the justice system. A single-minded police officer whose insistence on the letter of the law creates injustice.

An impoverished woman whose #metoo moment ends with her disbelieved, cast away from society, further impoverished and forced into prostitution, where she is taken advantage of and ultimately wrung out until dead by upper class johns and the justice system.

An ultimately failed riot by young people because of these injustices, that is nevertheless held up as an exemplar of the Kingdom of God that is coming.

Even the minor villains are small business owners who are working hard to achieve riches at the expense of the people around them.

And in all of this, the heroes, the only people who provide any help to one another:

* An ex-convict on the run from the law
* a lying churchman who extends grace
* a young rioter
* a prostitute and her child
* a homeless child (also murdered by state violence)