Last week in Austin, an untreated mentally ill man with serious federal tax problems flew his plane into an IRS building. The suicide bomber, Joe Stack was a software engineer who owned a home and a pricey private plane. Instead of making reasonable efforts to work with the IRS to pay his tax burden, Mr. Stack chose the irrational and pathological path to violence. He killed a federal employee, Mr. Vernon Hunter and himself. Thirteen other federal employees were injured.
The long, rambling rant posted on a website eerily reflected the angry populist sentiments that have swept the country in the past year. In it, a Joe Stack inveighed against intrusive Big Brother government, corrupt corporate giants, irrational taxes, as well as the "puppet" George Bush. "I choose not to pretend that business as usual won't continue," he wrote. "I have just had enough. I can only hope that the numbers quickly get too big to be white washed and ignored that the American zombies wake up and revolt." And then Stack apparently got in a Piper Cherokee PA-28 at about 9:40 a.m. at an airport in suburban Austin, Texas, and flew the plane into a commercial building housing an IRS office, killing himself, seriously injuring two people on the ground and starting a conflagration that lasted several hours.
Republicans justify Stack's domestic terrorist act. Some go as far as calling it heroism.
At the recent CPAC meeting, Ron Brown, the newly elected Senator from Mass. said he understood the suicide bomber's frustration.
"It didn't help the damage control when conservative pin-up Scott Brown said of the attack, just hours after it happened, "I don't know if it's related, but I can just sense not only in my election, but since being here in Washington, people are frustrated." Which is scary close to saying Stack's terrorist act came from the same set of emotions and attitudes that put Brown in office (talk about saying "No"!)."
Wait a minute. The right has been near hysterical over the U.S. trial of a Nigerian underpants bomber who neither killed or injured anyone but himself. An angry, highly disturbed American white guy can kill an innocent victim and injure 13 others, but hey, it is AOK with Republicans b/c the suicide/murderer had issues with paying taxes?
It seems to me that the Austin suicide bomber is not the only one who is mentally deranged.
Stack had set his house on fire before flying his suicide mission. His wife and daughter had fled from their home prior to the fire.
Stack, an obviously deranged man who hated paying taxes more than anything else killed a real hero, Mr. Hunter, who had the courage to serve two tours of duty during the Vietnam War.
In their sick and twisted world of hate and racism, Republicans have now portrayed Joe Stack, a domestic terrorist, as a hero.
There is no point in ascribing shame to a group of people who are incapable of understanding the concept of shame.
Just when we think Republican racists have gone beyond the pale of anything human and decent, they will go one step further toward the hell of hate that enslaves them.
