Exactly 45 years later

August 28, 1963, 344 years after the first ship loaded with slaves landed on our shores. Martin Luther King stands by the Lincoln Memorial. His voice rings out over a multitude of a quarter million people... "I have a dream...."

April 4, 1968. Martin Luther King is assassinated.

August 28, 2008, an African-American stands before 80,000 people in Denver and accepts the nomination to be president of the USA.

What a long, long way we have come. And what a week this has been. Many of my lifetime memories of political conventions can be summed up as boring, boring, boring.

But not this week. It was one excellent speech after another. Thank you, Teddy. Thank you, Michelle. Thank you, Hillary ("No way, no how, no McCain") and Bill. Thank you, John Kerry and John Lewis, Al Gore and Joe Biden.

And tonight most of all, thank you, Barack Obama, for those 42 minutes of firmness and frankness and fire and hope. I do believe you will lead the way out of this pit of hell that George W. Bush and Richard B. Cheney have held us in for the last eight years.

"Yes, we can!" Most assuredly, we can.