Thursday, September 24, 2009

And So It Begins...

      While scanning the news headlines this morning I happened upon a disturbing article: A U.S. Census worker was found dead, having been hung from a tree in Kentucky. If that wasn't enough to kick the worrying into high gear, he also had a the words "FED" scrawled across his body. While the police and Federal authorities are still investigating the motivations for the killing, they have ruled that it was an apparent homicide. I hate to assume the worst, but it's almost too obvious in this situation: this appears to be a politically motivated killing as a probable reaction to the growing paranoia surrounding the upcoming U.S. Census. 
       Associated Press reporter Devlin Barret was a guest on the Rachel Maddow show last night to talk about the implications of the crime, aside from its' already brutal circumstances. 


   As Barrett mentioned in the video, it seems unlikely that the Federal authorities would remain involved in the investigation of a homicide for this long after the fact (a week and a half) was there not a political element.
   One can't help but connect the dots between the absurd rhetoric regarding the Census coming from the far, far Right, and this most recent occurrence of political violence. Hopefully the authorities will get to the bottom of this immediately so Justice can be served and order be restored,