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AAM ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING
Saturday, November 14, 6:30 pm
GOODMAN COMMUNITY CENTER
149 Waubesa St. Madison
http://www.africanassociation.org
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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????
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"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 reputation
> 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 image of
> being wary of and sometimes hostile toward strangers. Incidents such
> as the September 1967 shooting of Canadian filmmaker Hugh O'Connor —
> who was gunned down by an enraged landowner while making a documentary
> on poverty in nearby Letcher County — have done nothing to dispel 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.
>
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