Last night, in my decades long desire to avoid TV commercials, I stopped on TCM's broadcast of Gettysburg. As is often the case, my timing has a fortunate occurrence as I tuned in at a crucial moment. Jeff Daniels was giving his speech to Union deserters. It has always been one of my favorite moments in that film.

"You know who we are and what we’re doing here, but if you want to fight along side us, there’s some things I want you to know. This regiment was formed last summer in Maine. There were a thousand of us then. There are less than three hundred of us now. All of us volunteered to fight for the Union, just as you did. Some came mainly because we were bored at home, thought this looked like it might be fun. Some came because we were ashamed not to. Many of us came because it was the right thing to do. All of us have seen men die. This is a different kind of army. If you look back through history, you will see men fighting for pay, for women, for some other kind of loot. They fight for land, power, because a king leads them or, or just because they like killing. But we are here for something new. This has not happened much in the history of the world. We are an army out to set other men free. … America should be free ground – all of it. Not divided by a line between slave state and free, all the way from here to the Pacific Ocean. No man has to bow. No man born to royalty. Here, we judge you by what you do, not by who your father was. Here, you can be something. Here, is the place to build a home. But it’s not the land. There’s always more land. It’s the idea that we all have value – you and me. What we’re fighting for, in the end, we’re fighting for each other. Sorry, I, uh, didn’t mean to preach. You, uh, you go ahead. You talk for awhile. Uh, if you, uh, if you choose to join us, you want your muskets back, you can have ’em. Nothing more will be said by anybody anywhere. If you, uh, choose not to join us, well you can come along under guard, and when this is all over I will do what I can to see you get a fair treatment. But for now, we’re moving out. Gentlemen, I think if we lose this fight, we lose the war. So if you choose to join us, I’ll be personally very grateful."

Probably the most impactful part of this statement, which seems lost on those fighting to regress to a time when segregation was the norm -

No man has to bow. No man born to royalty. Here, we judge you by what you do, not by who your father was. Here, you can be something.

What happened to MLK's I Have A Dream? Were were there in nearly every conceivable way, in which people were judged by the content of their character, not the color of their skin, or even what their political ideals were. Now, those that call themselves 'woke', and odd to describe intentional unconsciousness, or warriors or 'justice' who count their worth by how much injustice they inflict.

There are those that say we got here by accident and I suppose that can count for some of it. Complacency can lead to a false sense that vigilance is no longer required, but much of this movement is intentional. A clear and unmistakable effort to drive wedges between those of us that were content within the melting pot.

America used to be a place where all ideas were tested against the mettle of their merit. Now e have entire generations unable to cope with any criticism of their ideas, no matter how absurd. We may be living in the final generation of intellectual liberty.