Bill Sparkman: Good Man, Government Man

The body of Census worker Bill Sparkman was found on September 12th in Clay County Kentucky. He was hanging from a tree with the word "Fed" scrawled on his chest in an as of yet unreleased method. He had been going door to door as part of his job to collect information.

The story garnered little more than a short blurb on the local news at first but last night, the story was broken to the rest of the nation.

Naturally, speculation abounds, but the facts are apparent. Bill Sparkman was the victim of a homicide, first and foremost, and the inclusion of the word "Fed" on his chest seems to indicate that the crime was perpetrated by someone with very strong anti-government feelings.

So what does this mean beyond a very unfortunate set of events for one man and his family? Well, it means quite a lot, in fact. Just last week, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi called for a cessation of violent rhetoric in the ongoing debates, and that only further increased the furor of the anti-government, anti-Obama crowds. With protesters bringing loaded assault weapons to Town Hall meetings, and even Presidential addresses, carrying signs railing against President Obama, calling for the "blood of tyrants" to water the tree of liberty and freedom, one can only guess what sort of sentiment drove the killing of Mr. Sparkman.

Since I heard the story last night, I've been encouraging others to read up on the subject as well. This is the first unfortunate example of a politicized murder in this recent debate, and hopefully (though not likely) the last.

Plain and simple, these people are out of control. Pundits like Glenn Beck and Bill O'Reilly have poured so much gasoline over the burning coals of these dissenters that the wildfire they've started won't likely be stopped. And from the looks of things, its going to spread and burn down all of the intelligent, moderate trees in the Republican party.

Gone are the days of healthy debate, and they have been replaced with bitter partisanship and staunch opposition to any and all Democratic proposals from all members of the party, regardless of any personal opinion.

Having only been alive and politically conscious during bitter political battles between Neo-conservatives and democrats, I can't say if this is different from old politics, but it appears to me that the Republican party has no standards of their own, with the exception of being Against whatever the Democrats are For, but for me, this is just politics as usual.

I am currently taking a class in American Literature, and so far have read somewhat on the subjects which drove the American Revolution, and then several writings made after the conclusion of the war, during the reconstruction period in which our Founding Fathers were attempting to create their government. Thomas Jefferson, whom the Tea Bagging protesters have taken their "blood of tyrants" and "tree of liberty" phrases from, was an anti-federalist, but was wise enough to see that the country needed a strong central government in order to maintain control over the states, which if they had their way, would probably be individual countries today.

The American system of government is far from perfect. It is easily impacted by special interests and marred by intense bureaucracy. The legislation created by the Congress is impossible to read without a PhD in Political Law, and therefore there is a clear and deliberate separation of people and their representatives, which members of the House and Senate use to their political advantage to dupe their constituents into supporting them regardless of actual policy decisions. They throw around buzzwords and do little more than play popularity games with "he said, she said" rules.

There is no doubt about why anti-government sentiments exist, that is certain. However, distrust of the half of the government that is actually attempting to make life better for the people is just ignorant.

There was logical reason to oppose the Bush government, or any Republican government for that matter. The Republicans seem to stand for few things, but what they do stand for, they enforce swiftly and effectively whenever they achieve office. Deregulation of industries, which effectively makes their particular special interests an incredible amount of money, even if it ruins the market for the consumer, is a prime example.

Until the Telecommunications Act of 1996 (enacted by a Republican-controlled congress), it was illegal for large media companies to own too many different media outlets, which therefore provided a wider range of competition in the market for Cable outlets, Internet service providers, Television networks and radio broadcasters. AFTER, the Act was passed, the already giant conglomorate companies such as AOL (now AOL/Time Warner) and Newscorp (You may know them better as FOX) began to further expand their holdings, and today as little as 3 or 4 companies dominate all media industries.

In short, deregulation is bad. It is only through regulation of industries that the individual consumer gets the best deal for his or her dollar, or is provided the best chance at living a relatively easy life.

Naturally, you can't over-regulate industries or you end up with a "1984" scenario, but Republicans are so staunchly anti-regulation that they won't even allow simple, basic, and entirely necessary regulation of certain industries which DESPERATELY need it, such as the healthcare and pharmaceutical industries.

Up to the publishing of the environmentalist book "Silent Spring" by Rachel Carson, VERY little was done in the way of protecting the environment. Republicans will often point the the republican president Teddy Roosevelt as their shining example. And while I will agree, both Roosevelt's were two of the finest Presidents of the last century, if Teddy were active in politics today, I believe he would be emphatically behind the Democratic party. His progressive policies are what initially disenfranchised him from the Republican party to start with, and they were what dominated the latter part of his life, notably his love for the wilderness and the desire to see it preserved.

Reading back a bit, I see that I've come off on a vast tangent, so I'll end this here. I leave you with a comment which I've pulled from the webpage of the story I began this note speaking of. It was left amidst a tidal wave of anti-Obama hate speech and claims that Democrats probably killed Bill Sparkman themselves... It was the one shining light I saw in my hopes for humanity amongst the seething hatred pronounced for essentially everything I believe...

"The right wing gets up in the morning and makes their coffee with safe drinking water because of government requirements, has a breakfast made with safe foods because of the FDA, breathes cleaner air as he walks to his safer car to drive on his federal highway to his government subsidized airport to fly on his safe plane controlled by government controllers until he lands in Washington DC where he takes public transportation to a federal mall where the government police protect his constitutional right to stand there and criticize the government. Someone should ask him if he wants to give up his social security and his Medicare, his VA benefits and his unemployment protection. Yes, we're all against the government, until we stop and think what would happen with out them. There is nothing wrong with having them, it takes putting together a plan and finances that big to make those things work. For god's sake people, stop and think."

I could scarcely have said it better myself...