Well, our new president elect has a lot of dreams ridng on his shoulders. The Collective American attention span is short, and the collective American memory is even shorter... I say that because the dreams that our Presdient elect carry into the White House were birthed long before Dr. King's "I have a Dream Speech". Those dreams include the dreams of folks like, Fredrick Douglass, freed slave and aboltionist, Harriet Tubman, dubbed the "Moses" of her people because of her daring and succesful trips freeing slaves and guiding them to freedom in Canada!(eh?) These people lived, dreamed and died almost 200 years ago.

One hundred years ago, The Buffalo soldiers roamed the American Southwest, protecting settlers and maintaining the peace.

Sixty six years ago, the Tuskegee Airmen took to the skies, fighting for the freedom of all, Ameican and European alike.

Fifty three years ago, a fourteen year old teen named Emmett Till was lynched for, according to legend, being too friendly toward a white woman in Mississippi. (The offensive act young Mr. Till lost his life for was whistling in admiration at the woman's beauty.)

During that same time period, and up into the mid 1960's brave men and women journeyed into southern states like Alabama, Georgia, Tennessee, facing humililation, beatings, lye enemas(!) to teach their fellow Americans the basics and encoraging them to take advantage of their 13th Amendment right to vote.

Fourty years ago, in 1968 there were riots in the streets after the assasiantion of Dr.King, and more riots took place after the assasination of President Kennedy.

Last year, we had the case of the Jena Six. The tragic and truly dysfunctional story of six youths in Jena, Mississippi that were arrested and charged with battery after defending themselves while trying to desgregate a commom area in their high school known as the "tree". (And it actually was/is a large oak tree that untill 2007 only white teens sat under.... go fig.)

My point is all these folk, including the teens that are in and out of jail in Jena, Miss. dream and dreamed of a world where they could be treated with dignity and have equal access to all of the American Dream, Fair housing, decent schools and education, equal work opportunities, the list goes of dreams and dreamers goes on.

Many congratulate Mr. Obama because he is seen as the embodiment of The Dream of Dr. King and his wife Coretta. I just want to remind everyone, including our president elect, that dream didn't start with Dr..King, and it won't end with Barak Obama being in the White House.

Because, even as Pres. Obama is making plans to occupy the White House, the issues that black people in this country have historically faced, poverty, unemployment, inadequate access to basic services like health care aren't just issues in the black community anymore, they are issues faced by every American.