Forty-five years ago Martin Luther King delivered his famous “I Have A Dream” speech at the March on Washington.

In it, King wasn’t talking about a “post-racial” society, but a society in which color would be recognized as an asset and not a burden. King’s thinking, according to Peniel Joseph, a professor of history and African American studies at Brandeis University, was that racial equality and democracy were intertwined.

In other words, you can not have one without the other.

With Sen. Barack Obama’s run for the presidency, the possibilities of every child born and yet to be born, has been raised. The possibility of being whatever one wants, for many, is made more real.

Mirroring his campaign in recent months, little has been said about the historic nature of Obama’s campaign as it relates to race during this week’s Democratic National Convention in Colorado.

Unfortunately we have yet to reach the point where Sen. Obama can discuss race and racial issues without risk.

But the intent of tonight’s speech, I hope, will give honor to that history. For King’s vision was an original blueprint for what we’re now witnessing.

When I was younger, my father would gather me and my sisters around the record player (no cracks about my age) and we would listen to King’s “I Have A Dream Speech.” My Dad even made us write down the words.

King’s dream was my Dad’s dream for his daughters, and it became my dream. Now it is my dream for my three-year-old nephew.

Happy 45th Anniversary to each and every one of you, be you white, Hispanic, black, brown or other. Be you a woman, child or man. Be you American, Iraqi, European, African or other.

My gift to you is below. All I ask in return is that you listen and dare to have a dream of your own.