As of today, April 11 '07, it's been a week since Don Imus abused the women of Rutgers basketball and his position on the US national airwaves with his repugnant remarks. There are calls for him to be fired and it is quite easy to understand where those are coming from. There is no excuse for what he said and for what that did to those young women and to the rest of us.

I can't say what is an appropriate response from all of us to Mr. Imus but it must be something and something very significant -- that's for sure. A two-week hiatus is not enough. That is tepid symbolism at best -- just a vacation at worst.

On the other hand; to completely shut down the Imus program would be a huge loss for most Americans -- whether they know it or not -- and for him it would just mean retiring five or ten years early.

To shut down his program and take him off the air would loose an opportunity for him and for all of us to learn from this disgusting and hurtful national racist event. If we make it go away in a flash of firing then we'll stop talking about it and, make no mistake, we will stop learning from it almost as quickly as Imus disappears.

We could, though, keep him on the air and keep him -- and us -- contrite and aware and talking about it. Don't let him or us forget that what he said was dirty and ugly and that it makes him dirty and ugly forever.

Bigger for the rest of us; firing Imus would also loose us a very important political and social forum; perhaps the only truly "open" political forum in America. Jeff Greenberg called the Imus show "a salon" and that's correct. The "Daily Show" gets close in it's last 15 minutes 4 days a week but only close. Bill Mahr likes to think that he has a salon but it is too full of Bill and Bill's bull to be called an "open forum" the way that Imus's show is 3 hours a day, 5 days a week. (The first seasons of "Politically Incorrect" where great, but then Bill found, well, "Bill".)

So how can we do what's right about Imus' awful words last week but without destroying all the good that Imus has done and can continue to do if we let him?

I think that Imus should move to New Orleans. He should move his entire show to New Orleans and keep it there until that city's hurricane-related damage is completely cured.

He and his family should move to a house that is in the shadow of the levees to make sure that there is constant national awareness of the condition of the walls that do or do not protect the city.

Every day have the mayor of New Orleans on to discuss whatever the Mayor wants to discuss. Make McGurk be quiet. Turn off his microphone. Everyday have other members of the New Orleans and Mississippi communities on to talk about what is or isn't happening to cure their Katrina ills.

Every day keep the focus on the Katrina damage that America has not stepped up to fix -- and after a year and a half is starting to forget. What happens to New Orleans and that area could happen to any of us. The federal government -- who is us: by us and for us -- should have fixed this situation long ago. Now let us send the soul damaged Imus down to New Orleans to help cure that American city and to find the healing for his own moral self.