The primary task facing our nation in the century ahead is to transform America's "have-nots" into "haves." To close what I call the nation’s "opportunity gap," the disparity between these "haves" and "have nots," along economic, academic and racial lines. The National Urban League has a plan political leaders must enact called "The Ten Opportunity Commandments for the 21^st Century."

To make our nation work, the most diverse and interdependent country in the history of humankind, America must lower the gangplank and help everyone on board. The most dangerous thing we can do is to hoist the gangplank of opportunity and try sailing off into the 21^st century without all hands on deck. The National Urban League's agenda lays the groundwork for putting equality into practice and the guidelines are listed as follows:

1. Offer quality pre-school education to every child whose parents cannot afford it.

2. Provide affordable health care for the 41 million Americans who are uninsured.

3. Ensure that every public school serving poor children equips them for self-reliance and citizenship. And augment formal education by greatly expanding after-school and summer programs that promote achievement, polish youngsters' social skills and keep them out of trouble.

4. Vastly increase support for proven programs, like the Portland (Oregon) Urban League Street Academy, National Guard Youth Challenge Corps, and faith-based programs, that get those 14 million school dropouts back on track.

5. Guarantee universal access to affordable higher education by reversing the alarming disinvestment in public colleges and universities and slashing tuition for needy students.

6. Maintain national economic policies that promote high employment, rising income and economic growth in urban and rural communities that have missed out on the good times.

7. Eliminate the digital divide by utilizing tax credits for families or tax write-offs for corporations to make the acquisition of computers and use of the Internet affordable for every American family.

8. Assure full participation of minorities in higher education, employment and contracting. There must be no retreat to tokenism.

9. Eradicate the homeownership gap along ethnic lines by providing 100 percent mortgage guarantees for credit-worthy, working class minority families.

10. Equalize access to capital by totally eliminating discriminatory business loan practices, so that minority entrepreneurs can join the chorus in proclaiming that the business of America is business.