I cringed. As soon as I read it. And now, I've read it again. Twice. On this site. A site devoted to peace, justice and impeachment, and by extension, human rights, rule of law, and all that jazz.

It's the word. No, don't be saying "word" – not yet. I'm talking about the word. You know the one I mean – the "N" word.

For years, we white folks – perhaps I should say we honky folks? Or, should I say we northerners? - avoided using it, in polite company, in academia, in the workplace, among our friends and neighbors. It was offensive because it was historically pejorative and it separated us from "other" folks. At the very, very minimum, it was a sign of disrespect, with a historical origin of the ultimate disrespect: lynching.

Of course, we know the flip side, that it is used by African Americans among African Americans in various contexts – from classicist scorn to hot sweet love – but we northern honkies deem our use of it verboten. And rightly so.

Now, reading it twice there, I'm alarmed. Both usages were completely factual in their reports, but by objectively reporting the egregious slurs by McCain-Palin supporters, are we promoting racism by using the pejorative?

Why aren't we even considering its use as an issue?

When confronted with the pejorative usage, the customary honky format is to go with the "N word" or "n----r" which serves the purpose of both being instantly understood and politely, vaguely, and condemningly explicit.

We're doing away with that now, it seems. We just want to be upfront and all that, I suppose, as we move forward in the election process, toward electing what could be our first, second or sixth black president, depending on how you measure it. If precedence matters.

Just as racist shouts from political rally crowds should not allowed or condoned, so too, neither should racist language in their reporting be tolerated. In our quest to be accurate, are we also being inflammatory? Are we actually buying in to the racist jargon?

Many reasons for lynching violence have been cited: racism as a political tool, a permissive government, a racist environment, and economic factors (lynching rose and fell with cotton prices). Billie Holliday immortalized the lynching of blacks in her 1939 rendition of "Strange Fruit," a mournful ballad by Abel Meeropol, a Jewish schoolteacher and union activist from the Bronx who later set it to music. The lyrics she sang were haunting then, as now:

Strange Fruit: A Poem
Southern trees bear strange fruit,
Blood on the leaves and blood at the root,
Black bodies swinging in the southern breeze,
Strange fruit hanging from the poplar trees.

Pastoral scene of the gallant south,
The bulging eyes and the twisted mouth,
Scent of magnolias, sweet and fresh,
Then the sudden smell of burning flesh.

Here is the fruit for the crows to pluck,
For the rain to gather, for the wind to suck,
For the sun to rot, for the trees to drop,
Here is a strange and bitter crop.

Now, will you say "Word?"