"In my lifetime I can say with a great degree of certainty that there has never been a politician cast a vote on any matter with the likes of me or my interests in mind. Nor, for that matter, are they the least bit interested in me or anything I have to say."- Joe Stack
On Thursday, Feb. 18, 2010, 53-year-old, financially strapped software engineer Joseph Stack crashed a small plane into an IRS office building in Austin, Texas. He left behind a wife, a stepdaughter and a suicide note he had posted on his software company's website.
By the following day, the various media pundits on the right and left had already dismissed Stack as a fringe lunatic, and anyone who agreed with Stack's diatribe against an unjust government was labeled a crackpot. However, while you can - and should - disagree with the method of Stack's madness, Americans shouldn't be too quick to discount the source of his frustrations.
Clearly, Stack is neither a hero nor a martyr. Nor is he technically a terrorist. Rather, he is the end product of a system that pays little heed to the disaffected, discontent and voiceless. And while Stack may have been alone in the cockpit of that Piper Cherokee plane, he is not alone in his discontent and frustration.
Stack is representative of a burgeoning class of disaffected Americans who are waking up to the reality that the American governmental system no longer works as it was intended-that is, it no longer works for them. In its place, a government of elites comprised of politicians and unelected bureaucrats has emerged that views the average American as little more than a source of tax funds and labor to keep the massive machinery of government operating. We have shifted from having a government that is "of the people, by the people, for the people" to one that is largely seen as predatory, a "government of wolves."
Unfortunately, most Americans are so caught up in their own hectic day-to-day lives that Joe Stack stands to become just one more passing media sensation without anyone giving any real thought as to why he chose to end his life as he did. Yet if we allow this incident to quickly fade into media oblivion, we will be doing a great disservice to all those like Stack who are suffering under the crushing weight of economic hardship, hopelessness and despair.
So what should we glean from this seeming exercise in futility?
Is it a populist lesson, as Stack states in his suicide note, "that there are two 'interpretations' for every law; one for the very rich, and one for the rest of us"? Is it a reality check that we "live in a country with an ideology that is based on a total and complete lie"? Is it a social commentary on the "incredible stupidity of the American public; that they buy, hook, line, and sinker, the crap about their 'freedom'... and that they continue to do so with eyes closed in the face of overwhelming evidence and all that keeps happening in front of them"?
I would venture to say that it is all of these things and one thing more: an act of abject desperation from a man who had been pushed to the breaking point. "I know I'm hardly the first one to decide I have had all I can stand. It has always been a myth that people have stopped dying for their freedom in this country, and it isn't limited to the blacks, and poor immigrants. I know there have been countless before me and there are sure to be as many after," writes Stack. "But I also know that by not adding my body to the count, I insure nothing will change. I choose to not keep looking over my shoulder at 'big brother' while he strips my carcass, I choose not to ignore what is going on all around me, I choose not to pretend that business as usual won't continue; I have just had enough."
That said, Joe Stack is not "D-FENS," the white-collar worker in the 1993 film Falling Down who goes on a shooting rampage after being pushed to the edge by a myriad of frustrations. This guy didn't work within the system to fight back-he's no Tea Party patriot. Instead, he checked out-and that's an important distinction-and is signaling to others that perhaps they, too, need to follow his lead.
The Joe Stacks of the world should be a wake-up call to Americans that it's time to shake themselves out of their zombie-like stupor and realize that there is a growing segment of our nation that is at the end of their ropes. These are not bad people, nor are they extremists. Rather, they are average Americans who have lost faith in the government's ability to meet their most fundamental needs.
The question is: what are we going to do about these disaffected, disconnected and discontent Americans? How do we reach out to them and persuade them that there is a better solution than the one-way exit proffered by Stack? Note, by "we," I'm not referring to the politicians or law enforcement officials or any other government official who might view this as a problem behavior to identify, stamp out and sweep under the rug.
It comes back to what I've said all along: if there is to be any hope of turning things around, it will have to start with "we the people" first recognizing that there is a problem and then working toward a solution together.
The problems are right in front of you. They're in your local communities, in the neighbor who is out of work or the co-worker who may be in danger of losing her home. It's in the growing number of children who live in poverty and go to bed every night hungry-now estimated at nearly 14 million children in America. It's in the more than 39 million people who are subsisting on food stamps-6 million of whom have no other source of income. That translates to roughly 1 in 4 children in America on food stamps, and 1 in 50 Americans now living in a household with a reported income that consists of nothing but a food stamp card.
These are issues that Stack addressed generally in his suicide note, only to be derided by some commentators for spouting socialist or populist propaganda. But that's the problem with people who can't distinguish between politics and basic human decency. They have lost sight of their humanity. Frankly, there is nothing wrong with suggesting that a nation as affluent as the United States should not abide by this kind of suffering.
It's obvious that our politicians are not about to change. They are going to continue to promise a lot while doing very little, all the while spending our hard-earned tax dollars on lavish, jet-setting lifestyles. The problem with the Joe Stacks of the world is that they keep relying on government to fix the problems, but government officials are not going to fix them because most of them don't really seem to give a damn.
So what's the cure to the disaffected and alienated ones among us? It's you and me. It's our churches and synagogues and private institutions. In fact, if the churches in America would open soup kitchens and open their doors to the homeless, no one would have to go hungry or sleep out in the cold.
Thus, it's each and every one of us-young and old, single and married, white collar and blue collar, liberal and conservative, religious believer and atheist alike-reaching out and chipping in and working in our communities to fix these problems from the ground up.
That's the wake-up call, America. Is anyone listening?
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Constitutional attorney and author John W. Whitehead is founder and president of The Rutherford Institute. His new book The Change Manifesto (Sourcebooks) is now available in bookstores and online. He can be contacted at johnw@rutherford.org. Information about The Rutherford Institute is available at www.rutherford.org
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written by Doug, February 22, 2010
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written by George, February 23, 2010
The site stated that my comment en toto is too long, if the moderators are willing, I hope to tell you of my thoughts.
(See next post)
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written by George, February 23, 2010
That said, I am labeled a paleo-conservative these days; I make Rush Limbaugh and Mark Levin look like Stalinist communists by comparison. I used to be a “patriot”; as a younger man, I was a registered Republican; I campaigned for and voted for Ronald Reagan twice. He was a good man; I even shook his hand.
I cannot speak for you, but I can no longer defend the indefensible, this nation is rotten to the core and makes me sick to my stomach; it is a bastion of blatant hypocrisy, wanton avarice, and utter deceit. Morality, decency and responsibility are viewed as vice, whereas libertine, indulgent decadence is viewed with approval.
Verily I say; I have principles that I will not violate, as I have a conscience and must live with it. Therefore, I cannot defend and WILL NEVER DEFEND:
1) A nation that has slaughtered over 50 million unborn children.
2) A nation that will not defend itself from interloping, criminal illegal aliens, and illiterate flotsam from across the globe.
3) A nation that slaughters its own citizens, using the police as jackbooted thugs; e.g., Randy Weaver’s wife Vicki and his son Samuel, along with the men, women and children who were senselessly slaughtered at Waco; the thugs at that location using TANKS to destroy and then set fire to the building – a church, mind you.
Incredible. So much for uh, “freedom of religion”, I guess.
4) A nation that swindles and rescinds promised “guaranteed” benefits to its WWII, Korean, Vietnam, and Gulf War 1&2 veterans. Hell, you should see what Herbert Hoover did to the veterans of WWI, so such actions directed against later veterans, who SERVED THEIR COUNTRY WITH HONOR is hardly surprising.
5) A nation that taxes its citizens to death, in every fashion that they can, and then squanders the proceeds on ridiculous “foreign aid”, used as tribute to buy off enemies, or wasted as welfare for people who refuse to work, along with providing ILLEGAL ALIENS with Social Security benefits. That only names a few of the interloping PARASITES feeding on our tax dollars.
6) A nation that is hell-bent on destroying the First Amendment, via “hate laws”, promulgated by literal traitors, along with “political correctness”. Not to mention the a*sault on the Second Amendment, together with the Fourth, Fifth, Ninth, Tenth, Thirteenth, and Fourteenth Amendments. All the others are targeted too, but the preceding are the main Amendments slated for destruction.
7) A nation that pa*ses draconian laws to police its own citizens, i.e., the “Patriot Act”, while absolutely REFUSING TO POLICE OUR BORDERS, LIMIT IMMIGRATION and ARREST, THROW OUT or even KILL ENEMY ALIENS, e.g., Muslims and their ilk.
You see, friend, we wouldn’t NEED the “Patriot Act” if we didn’t allow our ENEMIES to live among us, in our midst; wringing our hands like effeminate COWARDS over such obtuse trivialities like “discrimination”.
A nation that is embracing everything immoral, nay, AMORAL, e.g., promoting the obtuse idea of “marriage” among homosexuals. What’s next, marrying people to corpses? Dogs? Cats? Horses? Perhaps even motorcycles, or flat-screen TVs? Tell me, where will it end? Why then are they so down on the Mormons of Utah, who only desire a multiplicity of wives? What is the difference? Further, this nation now goes out of its way to brainwash our children, actively promoting homosexuality as a normative, along with other perversions like “multiculturalism” and the like, all in the name of “tolerance”.
If you are an intelligent man of moral upbringing you will understand my meaning, traitors to the Constitution now govern this nation, from top to bottom, and it CANNOT BE SAVED. Accept that. America is a decadent, bankrupt entity, and it must die; Ceterum censeo, Amerigo delenda est! Sad, but the truth; we had a chance with Barry Goldwater, or perhaps even Ron Paul. Alas, the American populace was TOO d**n STUPID to elect a true American patriot, and they will reap the whirlwind as a consequence for listening to decades of empty, amoral, Goebbelsian rhetoric.
H.L. Mencken one said that one day Americans would elect a President they DESERVED, and I submit they finally have. Therefore, I will not lift one finger, for as long as I live, to defend this decadent, totalitarian, disgusting socialist mess from any of her enemies. This nation has signed its own death warrant.
So tell me friend – is the above what YOU actually WANT to defend?
If so, I pity you, just count me out, and let me die in my hovel as a happy man.
I wish a good day to you.
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As for myself, I have grown to hate everything this place stands for, and prefer to see it destroyed; if America was attacked, I would do absolutely NOTHING to defend her.