Samantha Bell, Joe Stack’s daughter in Norway, made a comment to Good Morning America stating that she considered her dad a hero because he acted out in a way to make others stand and take notice of a problem with our government that causes a state of exasperation to so many. She also sent out her condolences to the family of the one death victim and the others injured, stating that she didn’t condone her dad’s method. Sources:Huffington Post and abcnews.com

I wonder how we would treat George Washington, Patrick Henry, Paul Revere, Samuel Adams and other founding figures under the same situation. After all, they promoted the same types of attack at the Boston Tea Party – and afterwords, the British exercised a stronger government against the colonies. Those directly involved with these violent acts of insurrection were called cowards, traitors, rebels, among other choice words of their time.

You can read the cliff-notes version at the Boston Tea Party Timeline website but long story short, these people who fought and won the liberties and freedoms we enjoy today were nothing short of terrorists and wing-nuts by today’s definition. Most of their battle was through talks and negotiations, but when it came down to a government that didn’t care to listen to the people it was supposed to be protecting, revolutionary war became the final answer.

The main difference between then and now is that the Government in dispute is local where we can walk into a congressman’s office and have some hope of representation. Where I think most grievance lies is in the non-representation that the generations before us allowed. The six pages that made up the Constitution – the framework of our nation – has been usurped by thousands of pages of trite dog-eared laws that benefit certain individuals over the general citizens. There is also a great unrest and clash between cultures within the borders where liberal vs. conservative morals are the issues at heart rather than expansive vs. localized political powers. These differences make it difficult to both justify and to condemn the nature of injustice in the actions of Joe and the government he was at odds with.

Most people who defend Joe explain that Joe Stack isn’t any different from a Colonist in the 18th century who, enraged at the taxation, coercive acts and unjust courts decided that rather than subject himself to another year of anguish would take his meager unsubstantial life and make a smoke signal to others with it.

Most people who condemn Joe have the same western mentality that anyone who deliberately crashes a plane into a building is a nut-case and a coward. I guess they haven’t studied Eastern culture – particularly of Samurais – nor of the mentality of kamikaze pilots in WWII. Maybe they slept through the lecture on Pearl Harbor – who knows. But a single drastic event makes a louder statement, and a spokesman, no matter how depraved before, becomes instantly recognized.

I’m getting very tired of hearing people call him a coward merely on the basis that he committed suicide or that he incidentally killed someone else in the process. His final act of unrest had a motive beyond escapism which leads me to believe he died for something he believed in. It doesn’t matter what your faith is, if you die for something you believe, even if it’s the wrong thing to believe in, it isn’t mere cowardice – it’s something else. Nobody seems to call the nearly 1000 “kool-aid” suicides under the watch of Rev. James Warren Jones acts of cowardice. Of course, that doesn’t make any of it right.

I’ll add, however, that as affective the immediate results were, Joe’s airplane crash into the IRS was neither creative nor productive and his message has gotten lost amongst the thousands of retweets that dismiss his motives entirely (as a coward). He would have served America much better in prison next to Irwin Schiff, in a twist of irony that would have him living off of the same tax dollars he so despised paying.

For what it’s worth, Irwin Schiff is in prison for denying Uncle Sam the satisfaction of taxing him. He’s sentenced to 12.5 years for this federal crime while the average sentence for a repeat child rapist is only 7. This is the type of injustice that drove Joe Stack crazy.

I find it ironic that citizens who reside in the most liberal city of Texas, which recently incurred a kamikaze incident, would label suicide as an act of cowardice. It’s the same strong liberalism of these same citizens and their “ideals” that promote millions of abortions each year.

Here’s a quote from Wikipedia:

“Liberalism asserts that a person’s life belongs only to them, and no other person has the right to force their own ideals that life must be lived. Rather, only the individual involved can make such decision, and whatever decision they make should be respected.”

Anyone who promotes pro-choice for abortion, but doesn’t promote pro-choice for suicide is the worst kind of hypocrite since they assert having the judgmental right reserved for God. Really – what’s the difference? In both cases a person is making a choice that will affect the rest of the world based off of what they view is best in a highly emotional situation.

*The Flippant Sarcastic Conclusion*
Liberal citizens of Austin should stop complaining and conservative citizens should find another place to live if that liberal lifestyle and mindset bothers them so much.

*The More Reasonable Conclusion*
Be one sided and not two-faced. If suicide doesn’t make sense, how can abortions? They’re both 99.9% of the time done in acts of anguish, fear of the unknown future that lies ahead, and desire to forgo the responsibility of life that comes packaged with the joy of living it.

It’s interesting how many strong views are exposed in the wake of anarchy. Joe Stack was a self-admitted victim of the IRS and the tax laws they enforce through intimidating behavior.

“Most men lead lives of quiet desperation and go to the grave with the song still in them.” – Thoreau

The issue had gone beyond just money and had become spiritual to him. I don’t mean spiritual in a religious sense, but that his experience with the government had systematically torn his soul.

“Lack of money is the root of all evil.” – George Bernard Shaw

Some people are saying he should have sold his airplane and house to pay off the IRS. But they seem to miss a few facts in Joe’s story. His continual encounters with the IRS and with bad accountants were life-sapping. Those who call him a hero are likely the same ones who have had bad encounters with the IRS. Those who call him insane are likely people who are filled with anger for other political or social reasons. Most of America, as I see in the posts from various sources, are merely sympathetic. They are sad that this happened, but also disappointed at the situation that drove him to this point.

Those I know, myself included, have no problems with giving money to the government when the money is accounted for and well spent. As my local city council discovered, however, is that when the money isn’t budged and there’s no accountability then people refuse to write a blank check to the same government. I’ve voted for taxes and voted against them. I’m not bipartisan, I’m nonpartisan. And in that mindset, I agree with Joe that it doesn’t matter if you’re Democrat or Republican, the tax code should be simplified and parts of the law, such as those harming small business owners as he mentioned in section “D”, should be tossed out.

In a simpler tax system more money will be passing hands and each time it does so is another opportunity for the government to make money. In other words, I think the government would make more money by simplifying the tax laws and the tax laws would, therefore, also be more fair to all citizens rich and poor alike. However, as the saying goes:

“A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush.” – Miguel de Cervantes

Which means that if the government can consolidate all money to a few key businesses then they have a better way to ensure it gets its taxes. But the risk of that, as we’re starting to see, is that the government starts working for the businesses rather than the people.

Protecting big businesses will protect the government’s income, which is likely the root cause of the trillions of dollars of debt we recently accrued. And that leads us back to Joe Stack. He knew what he wanted to do, but the government kept holding him back. He noticed that the government didn’t treat everyone equally and that through the facade there really is a caste system in place. Instead of the government making an example out of him, he apparently turned it around to make an example out of himself and the government.

He didn’t catch his house on fire with his family inside as some people are saying. His wife and daughter drove up to the house after it had already gone up in flames.

Even his attack at the IRS building didn’t appear to be an attempt to take anyone’s life but his own. He didn’t talk about killing anyone in his manifesto. Nor did he talk about bringing anyone down with him as Eric Harris did in the Columbine massacre.

It appears that Joe had felt berated and violated by the government and wanted to make others understand the damage that can happen when a government stops protecting the people it was built to serve. Joe’s letter mixes anger with a type of martyrdom; he would have compared himself to Dr. Alfred Lanning in the movie iRobot where he felt he had to die in a high-profile accident to make the nation wake up in time for the imminent tragedy. He apparently felt there was no other way.

“If one truly has lost hope, one would not be on hand to say so.” – Eric Bentley

In closing, my heart goes out to those injured and even to Joe’s family. There’s more to life than money, but the government has forgotten that money is a spiritual influence. Someone traded his time – his life – to earn that money. He felt his liberties and life were stripped from him and that no one would listen to him anymore. I think that’s the message Joe intended to spread.