Commentary There has always been tension between freedom and equality in the United States. History shows us that the American vision expressed in the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution to protect individual freedom and provide equal opportunity was not realized in the first decade of the Republic. Nor was it fully realized 70 years later when some 620,000 lives—mostly white—were sacrificed in the Civil War to end slavery and preserve the Union. It would take nearly a hundred more years for the civil rights movement, largely led and inspired by Martin Luther King, Jr. to fulfill the vision of the founders and complete the work of Lincoln. Now we find ourselves in the midst of a culture war that divides America and threatens to undo much of the progress that our nation has painfully achieved over more than two centuries. And that’s why citizens and legislators need to understand …