Michael Richards' verbal assault on a black heckler at a comedy club has been all over the news of late. I don't have to tell you that. But have you actually seen it? The guy forgot what he was saying, let some bias slip out and very quickly lost control of the crowd. One word -- the most offensive word of all, a word that has all by itself replaced Carlin's "Seven Words You Can Never Say on Television" -- was all it took.

Richards has since apologized for the diatribe. He's said that he doesn't consider himself a racist, that he spoke out of anger and humiliation, that he's tried to make amends with the heckler. I'm not saying I disbelieve it, necessarily, but an epithet-fueled tirade like that doesn't come out of the mouth of someone who has no bias.

And then he blamed the modern vernacular for providing the word. And now black leaders are calling for it to be banned.

Yes, the intent is pure. But, ladies and gentlemen, you're forgetting about a little thing I like to call the First Amendment. Taking away our right to say an offensive word is like taking away our right to throw the horns at a rock concert. After all, what if an Italian in the audience saw that and threatened to sue us for calling his wife an adulteress?

The word isn't the problem. The vitriol and bias behind the word is the problem. When a rapper uses it to refer to his friends, the only entity offended is the NAACP. But when a comedian -- wait. Let's be frank. When a white comedian is shouting down a heckler, using references to lynching and Klan rallies, it creates more news stories than a bomb in Bombay. And certainly Richards was capable of doing that without saying the word.

The thing is, you can't police the insides of people's heads. You might be able to stop them from saying offensive words, but you can't stop them from feeling superior to others. The only way to get around that is to create one brain, a hive mind if you will, that thinks your thoughts for you and tells you the thoughts of everybody else. Because, after all, then everyone is on level ground and we'll all be the same.

But who wants that? If everyone thought the same, there'd be no art, no music, no comedians to heckle. Again, I'm preaching to the choir. We've all read 1984, but just because said year has come and gone doesn't make us safe from the events described therein.

You're smart (readership of my blog notwithstanding). I don't have to remind you that people are people, regardless of color, gender, religion, country of origin, sexual orientation, handicap, handedness, shoe size, hair length, or preferred salsa heat level. That's what we need to keep in mind, though, rather than which words we should police.