By the time All My Children ends its network television run on Sept. 23, there will be more not-quite-dead people and/or ghosts roaming around than on Vampire Diaries, True Blood and Torchwood: Miracle Day combined. The latest former Pine Valley denizen to make noise about wanting to come back is Army Wives' Kim Delaney, whose beloved heroine Jenny Gardner Nelson blew up on a jet ski over two and a half decades ago.

Delaney told ABC Soaps In Depth she'd love to reprise the role, that is if Lifetime—which Delaney says prevented her from attending the recent Daytime Emmys—would let her!

 "I'm going to work on it," she insists. "It's a good idea. And there's still time. I should call [AMC creator] Agnes Nixon."

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Every soap opera has one element in common: conflict.

Conflict, internal or external, is the engine that drives all great dramas, all great rivalries, all great love stories, indeed all great passions from affairs of the heart to affairs of state. The great dramatic conflict that has threaded the entire fabric of the history of the United States has been the relationship between this great country and it's citizens of African descent.

This is not to belittle the struggles and triumphs of any other groups who have felt the sting of discrimination or oppression throughout the course of American history. Obviously, people of various ethnic and religious backgrounds have their own tales to tell. Women have unique testimonies to share. Japanese Americans were unfairly and unjustly treated by the American government during World War II, having since been granted reparations. No one can dispute with any shred of credibility the shameful horrors visited upon Native Americans, casino revenues notwithstanding.

If you think this is the part where I go into a lengthy explanation of how and why African Americans are unique as an aggrieved class, think again. Intellects far superior to mine and history itself makes a far more compelling argument than I can. Besides, Daytime Confidential is not the appropriate forum for such a discussion to take place either. As an African American man on the cusp of middle age who has loved soaps for the bulk of my life however, I feel there are a few salient considerations to be made of the importance between soaps and the inauguration of the first African American president in this nation's history. In order to look forward, I must first look back. READ MORE

AMC's new head scribe Charles Pratt Jr. informed TV Guide's Michael Logan that the planned romance between Paull Goldin's Dr. Jake Martin and Ehler's- Lt. Taylor McBride-which he says will be "born of conflict"-was inspired in part by the Kim Delaney hit.

Left-leaning Jake, who was in Iraq with Doctors Without Borders, will clash with conservative GI Jane-Taylor over political views regarding the War in Iraq. This could prove very interesting and topical for AMC,  a soap that cut it's teeth by doing controversial, political storylines. Jake's own mother Ruth famously protested the Vietnam War back in the 70's. Kudos to AMC for embarking on a storyline that is so timely and relevant.