As a government statistician, this one's hitting close to home. The demographic information the government puts out - labor force data, health surveys, housing surveys, crime victimization surveys, and so forth - mostly depend, in the end, on Census field workers such as Bill Sparkman, knocking on doors in all corners of the country. They do this for decent money, maybe $12-14 per hour, I'm guessing from dim recollections - certainly not enough to be heroes, or to risk being victims of hate crimes.
We don't know who killed Mr. Sparkman, nor do we know for sure why. But the damage has already been done: the fact is that the obvious explanation, given the 'fed' written on his body, is plausible. And that's going to have the Census' staff of field workers wondering today whether the job is worth that sort of risk.
My heart goes out to Sparkman's family at this time. But to those who stir up hate and fear for political ends, or to maximize their ratings, I say: you have only my loathing. The sooner you and your kind are relegated to the back streets of our national discourse, where nobody finds you who isn't looking for you, the better.
And to those in the mainstream media (I'm looking at you, TIME magazine) who would paint fearmongers and hatemongers as legitimate participants in our national discourse, I look forward to the day when your jobs evaporate as your industry declines. We'll do just fine without you.
