We have made some progress since the ugly incidents in Jena, La. But we still have a long way to go to make the noose a thing of the past....on Feb. 19, 2008, Fox News host Bill O'Reilly said on his radio program: "I don't want to go on a lynching party against Michelle Obama unless there's evidence, hard facts, that say this is how the woman really feels. If that's how she really feels — that America is a bad country or a flawed nation, whatever — then that's legit. We'll track it down." We should have zero tolerance for nooses in America. And lynching is not a metaphor to be thrown around lightly. Some 3,500 blacks were lynched in this country between 1882 and 1968. This should not be the stuff of pranks or cranks.

RELATED: 21 year-old Baron Pikes, cousin of Jena 6 defendant Mychal Bell, tasered to death while handcuffed, Democracy Now! II The embedded video is the trailer for the 2007 film The Jena 6, by Big Noise Films.