What is Going On in America?
by jhwygirl
Associated Press is reporting the discovery of a hanged census worker in Kentucky.
Bill Sparkman, 51, was found with the word “fed” written across his chest. Suicide seems unlikely, as Sparkman had beaten non-Hodgkin’s Lymphoma. He was a substitute teacher, an Eagle Scout who had moved to Kentucky to be a local director for the Boy Scouts of America. He did census work part-time to supplement his income.
What is on the minds of many is whether this murder is the materialization of rising anti-government sentiment, championed by the likes of Glenn Beck, Michelle Malkin and Bill O’Reilly. Tea-baggers.
His body was found September 12th – the day of the tea-bagger’s march on Washington.
Ugh.
Committing a crime against a person because the are a federal worker or while they are doing their job is a federal offense. Let’s hope that the FBI is able to find the perpetrator (or perpetrators) and determine whether this is what it looks like.
Flame away – I’m beyond disgust anymore, and no – I won’t shield my thoughts or beliefs on this rising anti-government racist tide of garbage (unlike President Obama).
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Duganz on Rape is not “knucklehead… Duganz on Rape is not “knucklehead… Duganz on Rape is not “knucklehead… coppertop on Rape is not “knucklehead… coppertop on Rape is not “knucklehead… Buzz Feedback on Rape is not “knucklehead… lizard19 on Rape is not “knucklehead…
September 23, 2009 at 9:01 pm
Nothing’s going on that hasn’t been going on a long time..to “revenuers” and other outsiders who tread too closely to stills and pot gardens. You have heard Steve Earle’s song, “Copperhead Road” right? You do understand it’s got a large element of violence against federal agents, right? Maybe he stumbled into Copperhead Road.
Well my name’s John Lee Pettimore
Same as my daddy and his daddy before
You hardly ever saw Grandaddy down here
He only came to town about twice a year
He’d buy a hundred pounds of yeast and some copper line
Everybody knew that he made moonshine
Now the revenue man wanted Grandaddy bad
He headed up the holler with everything he had
It’s before my time but I’ve been told
He never came back from Copperhead Road
I volunteered for the Army on my birthday
They draft the white trash first,’round here anyway
I done two tours of duty in Vietnam
And I came home with a brand new plan
I take the seed from Colombia and Mexico
I plant it up the holler down Copperhead Road
Well the D.E.A.’s got a chopper in the air
I wake up screaming like I’m back over there
I learned a thing or two from ol’ Charlie don’t you know
You better stay away from Copperhead Road
September 23, 2009 at 9:13 pm
j-girl, i think your initial reaction to this grizzly disclosure is playing directly into the media-sculpted radicalization of the same racial tensions that have never really gone away.
i mean, just look at the hauk thread.
but the more these racial fires are stoked, the more emotionally enraged/blinded people will be when it comes to the real threat to the citizens of this country: wall street and the privatized war machine.
sorry, but when expected to assume some racist backwoods appalachian teabagging redneck went out and lynched himself a federal employee, i’ve got to take a step back and wait for some more information.
September 23, 2009 at 9:28 pm
I didn’t imply racism with my Hauck post. Unless you think all gang members are black. And I’m completely unaware of who the players are that were involved in the incident, as I am their race.
This post? Yeah, I have tied teabaggers to racism – as have many in the recent week (including Jimmy Carter.) As I said, I’ll make no apology for that.
It’s your right to reserve judgment, and yep, I sure get that. It is assumptive of me to tie teabaggers and anti-government types to this murder. I agree.
But for me? Tonight? I’m not in the mood to be nice and reasonable and pc.
Maybe when I’m like this, I should walk away from the keyboard.
September 23, 2009 at 9:35 pm
i was talking about some of the comments in the hauk thread, j-girl, not the post itself.
September 23, 2009 at 9:32 pm
sorry if this is off topic, but as both sides of the corporate media fan the race flames, i sure wish they’d focus a little attention on sibel edmonds and what she knows about What Is Going On In America.
September 23, 2009 at 9:42 pm
I was going to ask, but I decided that asking mighta been taken the wrong way – but now, since you offered, I have to say this: I don’t think, Lizard, that talking about the prevailing fanning of racism by (let’s just say) a certain group of people is the same as news media reporting on said fanning of racism by a certain group of people.
You are of a mindset that not talking about it will make it go away? Make it less dangerous?
That didn’t really work in America’s own past history.
Now – I don’t deny there are other issues. There certainly are. But that doesn’t make the issue of open racism here in America less worthy a topic of discussion.
September 23, 2009 at 10:02 pm
no, i’m of a mindset that race is inescapably tied to class, and that all poverty–black, white, brown, yellow–leads to ignorance and prejudice.
for what it’s worth, i ran across this comment at another site about this issue:
September 23, 2009 at 11:12 pm
sorry, i’m being a little over zealous here myself. race and poverty are issues that deserve more than firing off shots in a venue like this.
and they are issues beyond the media’s ability to adequately address.
just look at the national coverage of the aggrieved black professor from cambridge (and the subsequent beer summit with the president) and the black guy shot in the head while face down and handcuffed in oakland.
it’s complicated, and the media plays a defining role in shaping the perimeters of the debate.
September 23, 2009 at 11:37 pm
Lizard – Something I’ve contemplated as of late is the topic of the stuff I write about. I was at an event recently, where one person (whom I respect) said that they were going to start to be more active towards LGBTG issues. Kinda just like “my next cause is LGBTG issues.”
At first, I thought “Really? Is that how it’s done?” but then I realized that yes – it is how it’s done.
Another time I was at a meeting where someone sitting near me made a remark about people who cared about the bison issue in and near Yellowstone – that health care was more important. That kind of stuck me to – in that I wondered to myself whether any one issue was more important to another (and I had to admit that there is certainly validity towards believing that because I do believe that myself). I also found myself pondering what I, personally, could do more to helping the health care issue.
I’ve said it before – it’s a darn good think I’m not a paid (or even unpaid) journalist (not that I believe anyone would hire me.) I have the luxury of writing what I want to write about, when I want to write about it. I don’t know that I could perform being sent out to write about, say, a baseball game. Football, maybe – but it might not be something a sports fan would want to read. Real journalism 24/7/365 is a damned tough job.
You certainly have something within yourself that makes class or wealth or poverty issues near and dear and something you are passionate about. Me not taking that up isn’t me trying to ignore the issue. It’s just that I, for whatever reason, haven’t found the words within myself to write about it in a meaningful way.
September 24, 2009 at 11:28 pm
how do we focus on the issues that matter?
i’ve decided to put more energy into this wonderful place where i live. i’ve decided that–while it’s still important to watch how the underreported protests in the streets of pittsburgh are going–it might be more productive to build a chicken coop.
the 24 hour news cycle is driving me crazy. as of tonight i am making a pledge to myself to read more.
September 23, 2009 at 9:59 pm
There’s a good TV special on the hills and hollers of Kentucky, and the sociology perhaps will remind you of some areas of Montana.
Its not just that there’s a distrust of outsiders, there’s a real social sanction on insiders who move out and adapt to the outside.
You’ve jumped to conclusions about something that happened in an area of the country I doubt you’ve ever visited or know anyone from or anything about.
It’s pure bigotry to make the assumptions you’ve made about the people there, as Lizard’s “over the top” stream of consciousness description illustrates.
September 23, 2009 at 10:12 pm
Goof? I’da made the same assumption regardless of where it occurred. My assumption was based on the context of the current state of our U.S. of A., not – as you assume – because it occurred in Kentucky.
In all honesty? I’ve spent a great deal of time in Appalachia county, so I am actually pretty familiar with it. I’m not talking the front roads, either. In my life, I’ve found grace in rich and poor and blacks and whites. In the ghettos of Chicago (who were awfully kind), the slums of Philadelphia, and the back farms of the Cheat River of West Virginia (which some people might think of as Deliverance country.)
September 24, 2009 at 7:34 am
Gotta go with Lizard this time, jh, sorry. Setting aside my hatred for the phrase “Montucky” as a sneering reference to Kentucky and to the rural areas of Montana, a denigration of both, and my aversion to the “little boy crying wolf” cries of “racism” every time the President is questioned or challenged from the right, and “teabagging” every time the Congress is opposed, it’s a murder of a human being, which is crime enough without the heavy handed politics on top, although as I read through the internet, it’s just the latest thing.
Every bad thing that happens in America isn’t the result of people who dislike the current President, and most who dislike the President, his friends, his wife and his policies don’t do so because of his race. There are plenty of good reasons to do so unrelated to any bigotry, which isn’t the case for those who’ve always sneered at the people of Kentucky.
September 23, 2009 at 11:40 pm
I’ve spent some years in Appalachia, too. Sure, there’s good people who live there — and some great musicians — but there also exists there some of the most vile individuals you never wanted to meet, who think that laws do not apply to them.
This was a lynching.
It wasn’t about the killing of a stranger who happened upon a pot farm or a meth lab or a still. That stranger would have been buried somewhere up the holler, just “disappeared.”
Lynching is all about sending a message. The dead man this time was white man, a good man, from all reports. And he was strung up with a sign.
It’s about intimidation and the threats of violence and secession. It’s about dead cops in Pittsburgh and a dirty bomb maker in Bangor, Maine, and teabaggers showing up with automatics in thigh holsters.
Don’t count on any leaders of what’s left of the real conservative movement to condemn it. They cannot afford to lose their “base.”
September 24, 2009 at 7:15 am
I’m voting for the Copperhead Road therory. Read this, this am.
>>The Louisville, KY sales district was too small to have a training supervisor, so I was dispatched in the early 70′s to train a new guy. The food company I worked for had a strict dress code; business suit, white shirt, wingtips, business haircut and no facial hair. They were obsessive about enforcing it. This day we worked the area around Harlan County, and pulled into a town with an A&P store. My salesman very nervously suggested that we go in sans coat and tie. Nuh-uh, I perfunctorily replied, citing the dress code. But, he explained, with a coat and tie we might be mistaken for Feds. “And …?” says I. “And they shoot feds here.” He seemed very earnest about it, so I agreed and we ditched coats and ties.
After we checked stock, rotated cans, etc., we went to the manager’s office to make our pitch for stocking additional product. Working from memory here, the office was in the rear of this small A&P, and the manager was a very convivial sort, wearing a white short sleeve shirt and bow tie. While trainee did his stuff, I perused framed pictures cut from, I think, Life magazine that were hanging on the wall. Depicted: three dead men laying in the street, just outside this very store. The manager, he’d been a stock clerk at the time, explained.
The dead men were feds. Revenuers. Shot dead, and left to percolate in the hot summer sun because the other feds were reluctant for obvious reasons to move them. After dark, a small army of them hauled the bodies away. The A&P manager was pleased as punch to relate this story. I never wore a tie on in Harlan County again.<<
But hey, you guys can always dream.
September 24, 2009 at 7:25 am
Apparently, the far left has declared open season on Kentucky since this happened. Every bigoted statement you can imagine aimed at the people of the state is appearing all over the internet.
I’m still trying to figure out how the murder of a white man in Kentucky is race related, other than it’s a good excuse to slam Kentucky and people who disagree with Obama and the current Congress.
September 24, 2009 at 8:03 am
I got up this morning not in the bad, mad mood I was in last night. Probably tossed and turned a bit on Lizard and goof’s civilized reprimands a bit, too.
I won’t remove the post (what to do, I don’t know), and I should have stayed away from the keyboard for this one.
This comment is my mea culpa.
September 24, 2009 at 5:14 pm
One bad post out of a thousand ain’t bad.
September 24, 2009 at 8:22 am
Setting aside my hatred for the phrase “Montucky” as a sneering reference to Kentucky
I’m with you on this one, Goof. I hate “Montucky.”
Whatever the reason or motivations, this is a horrible crime. One of my favorite writers, Joe Bageant, wrote a book called Deer Hunting with Jesus that describes the people and politics of roughly that area (Virginia). I thought it was a great read.
September 24, 2009 at 2:20 pm
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2009/9/24/785938/-What-Locals-are-saying-about-Bill-Sparkman
Just FYI
September 24, 2009 at 5:24 pm
Good link , Doug. Good reasons to think it might be census related, too.
September 24, 2009 at 9:09 pm
I agree with those who see this as a tragedy.
However, walking around going door to door in rural America is not always a safe endeavor. Add to it the status of being a Feddrull Offishull, and the banjos begin to play.
I learned from the movie Deliverance not to go into rural America while working as a Fed or possessing what members of the indigenous population refer to as “a puuuurty mayouth.”
September 25, 2009 at 10:37 am
As long as the far right keeps spreading conspiracy theories about the census and census workers, RWC whackos are capable of anything.
September 25, 2009 at 11:41 am
One conspiracy deserves others……JC?
September 25, 2009 at 1:27 pm
When I think its just plain awful that Bill O’Reilly and Glen Beck are drinking moonshine in the mountains killing census workers!
September 26, 2009 at 9:31 pm
Wow two errors in one sentence – I deserved that vote.
September 26, 2009 at 7:19 pm
the newest sport of the haters hits the streets of new york….
http://www.blackagendareport.com/?q=content/%E2%80%9Ccoon-huntin%E2%80%99%E2%80%9D-new-york-city
September 26, 2009 at 7:26 pm
and this ………..
http://thepoliticalcarnival.blogspot.com/2009/09/teen-beaten-robbed-victim-of-hate.html
the haters continue hating and the conservative talk shows continue egging them on…
September 26, 2009 at 9:35 pm
Just stumbled across this: http://www.baystatebanner.com/natl18-2009-09-24
Interesting piece (but notice the author’s name – weird)
September 27, 2009 at 7:36 pm
here’s some more right wing online detritus which is NOT OK AT ALL!
http://thepoliticalcarnival.blogspot.com/2009/09/screen-grab-facebook-poll-should-obama.html
November 24, 2009 at 10:26 pm
In an update on earlier comments on this site, it looks like the “Tea Baggers” are innocent in this unfortunate tragedy:
http://www.kentucky.com/latest_news/story/1032979.html
“. . . . UPDATED: Census worker killed himself, officials say
By Bill Estep – bestep@herald-leader.com FRANKFORT — A part-time U.S. Census worker found dead near a secluded Clay County cemetery killed himself but tried to make the death look like a murder, authorities have concluded.
Bill Sparkman, 51, of London, apparently was trying to preserve payments under life insurance policies he had taken out, one as recently as May, which paid benefits if he died as a result of murder or accident, but not suicide or natural causes, police said. . .”
November 25, 2009 at 8:31 am
Looks like klemz had it right all along.
Also, it’s a damn good reason to read something other than “what’s on the minds of people who think exactly as I do”.
Good job by the cops to understand motives and the evidence.
November 25, 2009 at 8:33 am
Lizard’s “step back and wait for more information” was, indeed, the correct reaction, eh?