I think it was NBC News that was using the hashtag #dreamday for the broadcast of the 50th anniversary of the March on Washington. It inspired me to remember the straightforward dreams I had as a kid grappling with why I was hated because my skin was brown.

I want to live in a true multicultural utopia. I love learning about different cultures and religions and I want that for others, too.

I’d like to see America get to the point where we don’t just tolerate difference, we embrace and thrive on it.

There won’t be a need to be “color blind” because color won’t be considered a bad thing or something not to see.

I often think if more people would focus on the things we have in common, yet still take time to learn about and enjoy the few things that are different, we’d be so much better off. I won’t go into my experiences with race growing up in both the North and the South. That’s a post for another day. Suffice it to say, I didn’t have it bad as those who originally marched on Washington, but it sure wasn’t no crystal stair either.

As an adult I have a few more dreams to add to that list. One being instead of just accepting the Christian teaching that “the poor will be with us always,” we figure out a way to do a better job as a society to not put up so many blocks to keep people in poverty. To stop blaming economically disadvantaged people for their circumstances. It’s not because they don’t pray enough or work hard enough. They work just as hard if not harder than most of us precariously sitting on our middle class thrones, one paycheck away from seeing that side of the tracks.

I’m grateful for the work of the civil rights pioneers. And hope all of us of all races, ethnicities, classes and religions stop accusing, stop fighting and start working together to turn this thing around so that we truly are a melting pot instead of a tossed salad.