Ferris wheel rides, homemade pies, cotton candy, hatred and ignorance. They will all be available at the 2004 Mississippi State Fair, which opens in two weeks. Because the white supremacist Nationalist Movement is setting up a booth at the fair, the event is already losing money.

The people of Mississippi are upset, as well they should be, by this turn of events, and the state fair commission is in a terrible position. If it permits the group to set up the booth, the entire nation will say, "well, that's Mississippi for you." If it denies the group permission to set up the booth, it will be looking at a First Amendment lawsuit, which it will lose because even the Nationalist Movement has a right to express itself.

Unfortunately, there have been threats made against both the group's leader, Richard Barrett, and the state fair commission. Death threats against a white supremacist are no different than death threats against Natalie Mains: As long as they are allowed to go on, they demonstrate that the United States is a violent and lawless nation in which the majority of the moment has a right to intimidate the minority.

One hopes that the people of Mississippi will organize large-scale demonstrations so that the rest of the country can determine where they really stand on this issue.