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Posted on 09/23/2004 8:22:38 PM PDT by WKB
JACKSON, Miss. -- The Mississippi State Fair opens in two weeks, but it's already losing money.
A group with ties to the Ku Klux Klan, called the Nationalist Movement, is planning to set up an information booth at the fair -- a plan that's driving away some businesses and customers.
The group's leader, Richard Barrett, calls it a "pro-majority" group. The Anti-Defamation League calls it white supremacist.
Either way, the group's attempts to set up shop aren't sitting well with the fair commission.
"I've been here for three years and gone to the fair every year," said Ramie Mitchell. "This year, I think the tradition will end. I don't think we'll be there this year."
Mitchell said she won't be bringing her two boys to the fair if Barrett's booth is there.
Barrett said he wants to spread his group's message and honor the Rev. Edgar Killen, who was acquitted in the 1964 murders of three civil rights workers in Neshoba County.
Barrett said the booth is an extension of his First Amendment right to free speech.
"You have more freedom today because of what Richard Barrett has won for you in freedom of speech than you had yesterday," Barrett said. "Because of this exhibit and this preacher, you'll have even more freedom tomorrow."
The Mississippi Organ Recovery Agency doesn't want to get caught in the middle. It's pulling its $300 booth from the fair to avoid any association.
"The nature of what's going on over there could upset alot of people," said agency spokeswoman Dani Edmonson. "Aand if we're there, they may not be very happy with us being in the same vicinity of someone like that."
Both the fair commission and Barrett say they've received verbal threats.
"They say, 'I'm gonna find out where you live and stab you and kill you,'" Barret said.
But Barrett said the threats won't dissuade him.
As for Mitchell, she said she won't change her mind about staying away.
"I think it should be an embarrassment to the state," she said. "We ask for outsiders to come here, and it's a slap in the face."
The same right inherent in the phrase "We reserve the right to refuse service to anyone". The purpose of the Mississippi State Fair is to entertain and showcase agriculture in the state, not provide a platform for every wackjob out there with an apple box and a bullhorn.
Suppose someone were trying to set up a Freeper chapter in ole Miss, and the fair board decided this was a right-wing organization and refused to let them set up a booth?
If this hypothetical MS Freeper chapter had nothing to do with agriculture, they probably wouldn't be allowed to set up a booth there either. And I don't have a problem with that and certainly wouldn't expect them to sue everybody in sight to force their way in.
Hey, no matter how bad these guys are, it's still political speech we're talking about.
No, its the right of an entity to set its own rules and decide for itself how best to accomplish its own mission. Hey, if you (and I mean the editorial "you") want to wrap yourself in a bedsheet and hand out hate literature, be my guest. Just don't try to gin up some so-called "right" to do so in every situation and at every venue then expect to be taken seriously.
I thought I hammered the entire racist right pretty hard in my post. My point is, if we allow any one group (be it a political party, a religious organization or whatever) to be deprived of their rights, it's the proverbial camel's nose in the tent. Next thing you know, we have only one legal political party, one one approved religon- "Ein reich, ein volk." (Tr. = "One nation, one people.")
Someone put it very well sixty years ago. Forgive me if I misquote this a bit due to faulty memory:
"They came for the Jews, and I did not speak out, because I was not a Jew. Then they came for the Catholics, and still I did not speak, because I was not a Catholic. Then they came for the communists, the intellectuals, the freethinkers, the libertarians, and still I did not speak, because I was none of these things.
Then they came for me. And there was no one left to speak for me." - Anti-Nazi German citizen, quoted on his release from Hitler's death camps
But I'm still a bit mystified about what "right" you might think this bunch has to set up a booth at the state fair. If they want to set up a booth on a public street, in the park, or even hire a private hall and spew their "message", yeah fine, let 'em. But I'm perfectly willing for the organizers of the fair to make their own decisions about who gets a forum and who doesn't in this case. Its about agriculture, not political polemic.
"Free speech" doesn't mean that you always get to pick and choose the venue, place, and time. If I were to get up on a soapbox during the opening prayer in the Legislature in Mississippi and start spouting crackpot theories at the top of my voice, I'd be dragged off and probably be put in a rubber room, and rightly so. Time and place matter.
ROTFLMAO...dry wit is always the best...bedtime for me....grinning.
Go to the fair and laugh at these assholes.
I was going by my own experiences. At county fairs in upstate NY and Northern PA, the political parties, candidates and interest groups all set up informational booths alongisde vendors, travel agents, equipment dealers, etc in the exhibit halls. No, no one has a "right" to be there- but if the fair board bans one political group, it better ban 'em all, or there will be hell to pay (and rightly so.)
AND, A STANDING 'O' FOR THAT POST!
To borrow from TerazaHeinzKerry, "shove it."
MS does not need the racial unrest from the KKK
nor from the likes of the democrat radical racist
groups. Let's have the booth in YOUR state,
wherever that might be.
Pay NO atttention to takenoprisoner,
who is SERIAL POSTING about the two
latest beheadings on nearly every thread!
KKK and Black Muslims...cripes, they deservre each other.
Exactly.
Hand and glove.
You obviously haven't been reading FR very well the past few days if you think there isn't outrage at the monsters beheading people.
Most, if not all of us, are outraged at this.
If you want on (or off) of my black conservative ping list, please let me know via FREEPmail. (And no, you don't have to be black to be on the list!)
Extra warning: this is a high-volume ping list.
If this is an entirely private event, on private land, and receiving no state funds or subsidies, then you are correct
If they are sponsored by the state, or receive state subsidies, then its a different story, and they can no more refuse the Klan than they could refuse to admit blacks
What does outrage accomplish when you cannot do anything about the beheadings?
What is done is done and my heart goes out to the families of the victims.
What do you suppose "we" do? We can not predict the future, we can only respond to assumed movements.
If you cannot do anything about a situation, it's best to just learn from the experience that compassion and diversity are not the answer. Political Correctness has ruined the US and it is going to be the downfall of this country.
Don't get mad, get even!
Preach it, brother. And f*** 'em if they can't take a joke.
Maybe Robert Byrd will show up.
Time to recycle your Dirty Bryd in his royal KKK Robes.
A BIG OLE ^ 5 !!!
AND, A STANDING 'O' FOR THAT POST!
Thank ya
Thankyaverymuch
I would much rather have the KKK and their idiocy out in the open for all the world to see than to have it driven under ground where nobody can keep an eye on it.
People need to grow up and learn to just ignore what they don't like.
Our country is too full of "offended pansies"
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