In my favorite musical, Les Miserables, the main character, Jean Valjean, leaves prison after 19 years.  Cold, hungry and miserable, he comes upon the house of a bishop and is invited in.  He's fed, clothed, and bedded down for the night.

Rather than being grateful, he steals the bishop's silver and slips out a window and over a garden fence during the night.  The authorities discover him and drag him back to the bishop for confirmation of his crime.  Instead, the bishop says that he gave Valjean the silver and tells the thief that he forgot the two silver candlesticks and hands those to him also.

Then he looks at a shocked Jean Valjean and says, "Never forget that you have promised me to use this silver to become an honest man."  Valjean had never given that promise, but with those words the authorities melt away. 

Valjean goes on to build a successful and legitimate business, becomes mayor of the town and gives protection for life to an orphan girl. 

He did not waste his second chance.  Fast forward two hundred years...

Dennis Ferguson is 72 years old, retired and lives in South Carolina.  Recently he wrote a check to the state of California for $10,000.  It was a thank you gift...

You see, in 1964, when Ferguson was 26 years old, he was laid off from his job at Douglas Aircraft in California.  For four months he collected jobless benefits. 

As Steve Gorman reported for Reuters, Ferguson told the state in a note accompanying the check that he wanted to show his gratitude for the benefits by adding "interest" to his repayment, deciding that $10,000 was a "nice round figure," the treasurer's office said.

Ferguson said the assistance California gave him helped him go back to school, where he earned a certificate in computer programming that helped him start a career and get back on his feet. 

"Anyone who is helped out when they are down ought to give something back," Gorman quotes Ferguson, "especially now that California has budget problems."

In reality, the check will do little monetary good in California's budget crisis.  Ten thousand dollars is a drop in the ocean.  But his example is an incalculable contribution to this nation's moral fiber. 

Congress just recently extended jobless benefits for millions who have been without work for as much as two years.  I get torn with these issues.  You don't want people to starve, but you don't want them to become soft and over-reliant on the public dole either...it's bad for them and us.

My dad sent me this quote the other day from Cicero in 55 BC:  "The budget should be balanced, the treasury should be refilled, public debt should be reduced, the arrogance of officialdom should be tempered and controlled, and the assistance to foreign lands should be curtailed lest Rome become bankrupt.  People must again learn to work, instead of living on public assistance."   

My dad's point was, of course, that it seems little has changed in 2065 years.  I'm a big fan of Cicero's and have been for a long time.  And his economics are sensible. 

So to those on public assistance I hope you use it responsibly and implore you to do so; get a job at your earliest possible chance (don't be picky) and become a contributor again...for all of our sakes.

On the other hand, though I've never been on the public dole, I've needed second chances in my life.  And if this great land of second chances produces some Jean Valjeans and Dennis Fergusons then...well...we'll have to live with some misuse of it.

Happy holidays, everyone.