Racists Gather In Jena

While millions of Americans of all races celebrated the birthday of Martin Luther King yesterday, we were reminded that old-fashioned in-your-face racism still exists in this country.

The Mississippi-based racist group, Nationalist Movement, held a demonstration in Jena (La.) yesterday. About 50 supporters of the racist group showed up for the rally. Twice as many counter-demonstrators were there.

Evidently, the group thought they would have some support in Jena (which gained national notoriety because of the racial-insensitivity of their police and District Attorney in the case of the Jena 6). However, to their credit, the people of Jena did not show up to support the racists. In fact, they tried to prevent the rally by charging the group $10,000 (but had to back down when threatened with a lawsuit).

The racists have to be embarrassed at the pathetic turnout they had. The only thing they accomplished was to remind the rest of us that they still exist and must be opposed.

In a country that prides itself on free speech, these jerks have the right to meet and to speak. But the rest of us also have the right to label them as the scumbags that they really are.