********************************************************
AAM ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING
Saturday, November 14, 6:30 pm
GOODMAN COMMUNITY CENTER
149 Waubesa St. Madison
http://www.africanassociation.org
********************************************************
John, I don't think these people want anything to do with the gov't at
all. They probably don't vote & I would hazard a guess & say that even
extreme right-wingers aren't growing pot & making crystal meth. The
base? Honestly, John. You don't really believe that, do you?
Sent from my iPhone
On Sep 26, 2009, at 10:31 AM, John Stafford Anderson <[log in to unmask]
> wrote:
> ********************************************************
>
> AAM ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING
>
> Saturday, November 14, 6:30 pm
>
> GOODMAN COMMUNITY CENTER
>
> 149 Waubesa St. Madison
>
> http://www.africanassociation.org
>
> ********************************************************
>
> Right? And where is the mention of the calls to violence towards
> the government by certain rightist talking heads? These people
> truly represent "the base:" those who could benefit most from a
> public health care option, but are most vehemently against it.
>
> John
>
>
> On Sep 25, 2009, at 12:49 PM, VERA R CROWELL wrote:
>
>> ********************************************************
>>
>> AAM ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING
>>
>> Saturday, November 14, 6:30 pm
>>
>> GOODMAN COMMUNITY CENTER
>>
>> 149 Waubesa St. Madison
>>
>> http://www.africanassociation.org
>>
>> ********************************************************
>>
>> How exactly can one accidentally put a rope around one's neck and
>> hang oneself from a tree after accidentally writing 'fed' on one's
>> chest? They don't 'know' if it's murder????
>>
>> ******************************
>> "In the days before volcanoes were invented, lava had to be hand
>> carried down from the mountains and poured on the sleeping villagers.
>> This took a great deal of time."
>>
>> ----- Original Message -----
>> From: Aggo Akyea <[log in to unmask]>
>> Date: Friday, September 25, 2009 12:28 pm
>> Subject: Changing World Status Quo & Violence
>> To: [log in to unmask]
>>
>>
>>> ********************************************************
>>>
>>> AAM ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING
>>>
>>> Saturday, November 14, 6:30 pm
>>>
>>> GOODMAN COMMUNITY CENTER
>>>
>>> 149 Waubesa St. Madison
>>>
>>> http://www.africanassociation.org
>>>
>>> ********************************************************
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> Area Where Census Worker Died Has Troubled History
>>>
>>> Associated Press Writers Jeffrey McMurray And Allen G. Breed
>>> http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090924/ap_on_re_us/us_census_worker_hanged
>>>
>>> BIG CREEK, Ky. – A census worker found hanged from a tree with the
>>> word "fed" scrawled on his chest met his end in a corner of
>>> Appalachia
>>> with an abundance of meth labs and marijuana fields — and a repu
>>> tation
>>> for mistrusting government that dates back to the days of
>>> moonshiners
>>> and "revenuers."
>>>
>>> But the investigation has yet to determine whether the death of the
>>> 51-year-old part-time schoolteacher represents real anti-government
>>> sentiment. At this point, police cannot say whether Bill Sparkman's
>>> death was a homicide, an accident or even a suicide.
>>>
>>> "We are not downplaying the significance of his position with the
>>> U.S.
>>> Census bureau," said Capt. Lisa Rudzinski, commander of the Kentucky
>>> State Police post in London . "We can assure the public we are
>>> looking
>>> at every possible aspect of Mr. Sparkman's death."
>>>
>>> But locals are already bracing for suggestions that the killing was
>>> the result of anti-government sentiment in the mountains. It does
>>> not
>>> help that the death occurred in impoverished Clay County , one of
>>> the
>>> poorest in the country with an unemployment rate of 14.5 percent and
>>> an overall poverty rate more than three times the national average.
>>>
>>> Sparkman, a Boy Scout leader and substitute teacher who was
>>> supplementing his income as a part-time census field worker, was
>>> found
>>> Sept. 12 in a remote patch of the Daniel Boone National Forest .
>>>
>>> Police said Thursday that the preliminary cause of death was
>>> asphyxiation. Authorities said Sparkman, who a friend said had been
>>> treated for cancer, was found with a rope around his neck that was
>>> tied to a tree, but that he was "in contact with the ground."
>>>
>>> The word "fed" had been scrawled on his chest, according to a law
>>> enforcement official who spoke on the condition of anonymity because
>>> the official was not authorized to discuss the case.
>>>
>>> Dee Davis, president of the Center for Rural Strategies in nearby
>>> Whitesburg, said the federal government has done "precious little"
>>> in
>>> Clay County other than building a federal prison in Manchester in
>>> the
>>> 1990s. But he is not aware of any deep-seated hatred of the
>>> government.
>>>
>>> "Government is not seen as the enemy, except for people who might
>>> fear
>>> getting caught for what they're doing," he said.
>>>
>>> Army retiree George Robinson did door-to-door census work in Clay
>>> County in 2000. No one ever threatened him, but some people
>>> questioned
>>> why the government needed to know some of the information,
>>> especially
>>> income, requested on the census form.
>>>
>>> "You meet some strange people," he said. "Nothing is a surprise in
>>> Clay County ."
>>>
>>> Appalachia — particularly eastern Kentucky — has long had an ima
>>> ge of
>>> being wary of and sometimes hostile toward strangers. Incidents such
>>> as the September 1967 shooting of Canadian filmmaker Hugh O'Conn
>>> or —
>>> who was gunned down by an enraged landowner while making a
>>> documentary
>>> on poverty in nearby Letcher County — have done nothing to dispe
>>> l such
>>> notions.
>>>
>>> O'Connor was killed as President Lyndon Johnson's War on Poverty
>>> highlighted the region's destitution. Many locals, such as confessed
>>> shooter Hobart Ison, had long since grown tired of outsiders
>>> exploiting the region's natural resources.
>>>
>>> University of Pittsburgh sociologist Kathleen Blee, co-author of a
>>> book about Clay County , says that when she heard of Sparkman's
>>> death,
>>> she initially wondered whether he had stumbled across a marijuana
>>> plot.
>>>
>>> Pot growers seeking to avoid federal forfeiture statutes often plant
>>> their crops on national forest land and have even been known to
>>> booby-trap plots with explosives and rattlesnakes.
>>>
>>> "Like any poor county, people are engaged in a variety of revenue
>>> sources," she said. "Not all of them legal."
>>>
>>> Davis acknowledged Clay's "pretty wild history of a black market
>>> economy, a drug economy." He noted that Sparkman's death occurred
>>> at a
>>> time when marijuana producers are typically harvesting their crop.
>>>
>>> "And so you have to be careful when you send some unsuspecting guy
>>> who's just trying to earn a buck to feed his family," he said.
>>> "Things
>>> can go bad really quickly."
>>>
>>> Although the Census Bureau could not immediately offer statistics on
>>> violence against its workers, such incidents are not unheard of.
>>>
>>> In 2000, a Milwaukee-area man was charged with battery for allegedly
>>> trying to shove a 74-year-old census worker down a flight of stairs.
>>> And in 2002, a Sacramento businessman was sentenced to a year in
>>> prison for violently dragging a 68-year-old widow off his property
>>> as
>>> she tried to explain the count's importance.
>>>
>>> After Sparkman's body was found, the Census Bureau suspended
>>> door-to-door interviews in rural Clay County until the investigation
>>> is complete.
>>>
>>> The bureau has yet to begin canvassing for the 2010 head count, but
>>> thousands of field workers like Sparkman are doing smaller surveys
>>> on
>>> various demographic topics on behalf of federal agencies.
>>>
>>> Mary Hibbard, a teacher at an adult learning center in Manchester ,
>>> said Sparkman visited her house this summer. He asked basic
>>> information, like the size of her house, how many rooms it had and
>>> how
>>> much she paid monthly on her electric bill.
>>>
>>> She seized the opportunity to ask him about his faith.
>>>
>>> "You come to my house, we're going to talk religion," she said.
>>>
>>> Eastern Kentucky is a region of many churches, and Hibbard thinks
>>> most
>>> people in the area would be shocked if it turns out Sparkman was
>>> murdered.
>>>
>>> "I think the negative publicity of it is a stigma on our county,"
>>> she
>>> said. "It makes people think less of us, even though this is an
>>> isolated incident. When it happens here, it seems like it's
>>> emphasized."
>>>
>>> ___
>>>
>>> Breed reported from Raleigh, N.C. Associated Press writers Joe Biesk
>>> in Frankfort , Roger Alford in London , Ky. , and Bruce Schreiner in
>>> Louisville also contributed to this report.
>>>
>>> Copyright © 2009 Yahoo! Inc. All rights reserved.Questions or
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>>>
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>>>
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