Because one guy shouting "nigger" (OK, and worse things) is still the best race-relations story getting major play right now, let us note that Michael Richards has apologized again, saying on Jesse Jackson's radio show that he's tried "to get some healing." He's not alone, and he couldn't have picked a fuzzier, more sentimental season to act out his little drama, which, according to his publicist, "Opened a terrible racial wound in our nation."
Yoko Ono purchased an ad in Sunday's New York Times as a goodwill gesture to the assorted suffering people in the world, asking them all to "forgive":
She also stated that she didn't know if she could yet forgive Lennon's killer, but added "healing is what is urgently needed now in the world. Let's heal the wounds together."
But can they forgive her for waste and pompousness? Let's play a game: Someone get the Times' rate sheet and figure out how much food, medical supplies, or other helpful things Ono could have bought with those ad dollars.
This week of healing should come to a strong and variety-conscious finish Thursday with the introduction of a transgendered character to All My Children—a move that has the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation's tentative blessing.