The question for Californians in 2010 and going forward is: it is already too late, as it was for the
Light Brigade as well as Pickett and other commanders at Gettysburg, or will one last desperate
effort like at the Australian charge at Beersheba or the Heavy Brigade at Balaklava or 20th Maine's
counterattack at Little Round Top turn the tide. We already know, one way or the other, it has now
come down to, as Kipling put it, a "thin red line of 'eroes". And the drums have begun to roll.