Hanged Census worker had local ties as Boy Scout leader

[The Straight Story]

Hanged Census worker had local ties as Boy Scout leader

TAMPA - Grant Martin says he began to tear up when he read an e-mail Thursday night titled "Hey Scouters!"

A friend had forwarded an old message from fellow Boy Scout leader Bill Sparkman, who was found hanged in rural Kentucky in mid-September, possibly while working for the U.S. Census Bureau. Someone apparently scrawled the word "Fed" on his chest with a felt-tip pen.

Friends who originally received the message sent it to others after word spread of Sparkman's death, adding their own reflections on his life.

Martin got up and hugged his wife after reading it.

"It just hit me," he said today, tearing up again. "It just really hit me."

Sparkman grew up and became an Eagle Scout in Mulberry. Sparkman and Martin, also an Eagle Scout, met while working at Flaming Arrow Scout Reservation in Lake Wales in the early 1980s.

Martin said he was the more athletic of the two, the one who liked to rough it up. Sparkman was artistic, a guy who reveled in performing campfire skits that left people howling.

http://www2.tbo.com/content/2009/sep/25/hanged-census-worker-had-local-ties-boy-scout-lead/news-breaking/

Well, there it is. He was an evil Boy Scout leader. Those on the right railed publicly about how evil govt workers are, and those on the left railed about how evil someone involved in the boy scouts are.

Either way, this guy was surrounded by folks who hated him.

No wonder he wound up dead, he pissed off people not like him.

[MichaelHarris]

1. When I was a scout

leader for a large troop back in Texas my nephew and his friend tried to join. The main scout leader turned them away, my nephew's friend was black. He later called me and said, "your nephew came up and tried to join with one of 'those' people" The next day I called the DC headquarters and they said that any troop using private facilities can discriminate for any reason. To make a long story short, FUCK the Boy Scouts!

[The Straight Story]

2. Well there you go

Just like some on the right say 'fuck the feds' some on the left say 'fuck the boy scouts'.

Hate from either side is wrong.

Who knows, maybe because he was a BS leader someone killed him and tried to blame someone on the right.

Hate seems to be a passion of folks on both sides.

[Winterblues]

3. Having a bad encounter doesn't equal hate.

Hate is a word that is tossed around all too frequently around here, and certainly not to the point of torturing and murdering someone.

[BlooInBloo]

5. Um.... we don't lynch people though. A small difference, sure, but one that some might care about.

[brentspeak]

4. Who hated him because he was involved with the Boy Scouts?

No mention of any Boy Scout hatred in the article you cited.