On the O’Reilly Factor last week, host Bill O’Reilly ran a segment on former North Carolina University professor Kamau Kambon.

Kambon gave a controversial speech at Howard University Law School Oct. 14. However, Fox News was the only major media outlet that carried the story extensively. It has barely been reported beyond the world of Internet blogs.

According to Kambon, the best way to solve problems facing blacks is to “exterminate white people off the face of the planet.” A full account of all Kambon’s comments can be found at http://www.michellemalkin.com/archives/003754.htm.

The mainstream media and top civil rights activists have yet to condemn this man for this and other remarks he made in the speech.

When former Education Secretary William Bennett said crime rates would drop if black babies were aborted, a statement he called “impossible, ridiculous and morally reprehensible” in the same breath, the mainstream media and top civil rights activists pounced on him, fangs dripping wet and mouths foaming. He was branded an evil racist, but when Kambon suggests mass murder of the white race, only silence came from the media and the Rev. Jesse Jackson.

The hypocrisy is pathetic, but this isn’t the point.

How is it hate still holds the whole human race captive – even in the 21st century?

There is still hope, though. We just need to stop listening to the Kambons and stop following the Jesse Jacksons of the world and start looking to people like Joel Osteen.

Osteen is a pastor at Lakewood Church in Houston, which is the biggest church in the country.

He must be doing something right because his congregation consists of young, old, black, white, Latino, Asian, rich and not so rich members. This group of very diverse people works because of Osteen’s message.

His main profession is about change inside a person so one can do better on the outside. According to his bestselling book “Your Best Life Now,” people will develop love and respect for one another if they learn, among other ways, to let go of the past, live to give and choose to be happy.

Some may not agree with this, but I am sure willing to try it over Kambon’s ideas of racial exterminations.

Letting go of the past is a good start. Many blacks are still angry over past wrongs done to their ancestors and past generations by whites. the only way to possibly make things better would be to let go. Not one white American today has ever owned a black slave. Whites have made mistakes, but whites have also tried correcting them.

Living to give is a lesson for all people. Another way of looking at this is working together. We all have to come to the table together as equals to fix society’s problems.

Choosing to be happy is very important. We have to learn to love and be happy with our neighbors, otherwise nothing will ever get accomplished.

I know race relations is a touchy subject few are willing to tackle. I know I will have touched a few nerves, but I hope to make the reader think.

I believe we have to approach the problem differently because the old ways obviously have not worked.

One of my heroes is Martin Luther King, Jr. As one of America’s truly great men, his words are often quoted, but rarely followed.

Like him, I challenge all Americans to “not judge a man by the color of [his] skin, but by the content of [his] character,” and to think about his saying: “Hatred paralyses life; love releases it. Hatred confuses life; love harmonizes it. Hatred darkens life; love illuminates it.”

Columns reflect the opinion of the author and not necessarily that of the Northern Star staff.