On February 18, 2010, A. Joseph Stack III, 53, a mild-mannered, software designer living in Austin, wrote an online suicide manifesto, torched his family home, and then flew his fixed-wing single-engine Piper PA-28-236 Dakota into a seven-story building leased by the IRS. Stack killed himself and Vernon Hunter, a 67-year-old Revenue Office Manager for the IRS; and injured 13 others in the explosion and fire.
By all accounts, Stack was the quintessential regular Joe who, having reached his limit, blew his stack, and literally flew into a murderous, self-immolating rage. Joe’s friends were shocked and mystified. “I never saw Joe angry about anything. He was just a middle-of-the-road kind of dude,” said Billy Eli, head of the band in which Joe had played for three years.[1] “He was the most sort of even-keeled and sane person I ever played with. I know everybody says that, but it’s true. He was just a normal-seeming guy. I never heard him raise his voice.” [2]
“My impression of Joe was a kind, quiet, not at all brooding or taciturn person,” said Michael Cerza, another bandmate. “I didn’t sense anything boiling under the surface. He was very pleased to get married again; I know that. There was no indication in his actions or his words that he would harm anyone. And then he crashes into a building full of strangers, innocent people. I can’t make those ends meet in my mind. The madness of the times, maybe.” [3]
A third bandmate, Ric Furley, said, “He was very laid-back, affable, friendly, warm guy….This is completely unexpected. I never saw anything negative about his personality.” [4]
Stack, who didn’t smoke or drink, lived with his second wife and her daughter; and he visited his daughter and grandchildren in Norway every year. [5] In 2006, Stack was the keyboardist and a vocalist in the band, Last Straw, a name that he suggested. He also did the layout and artwork for the debut album cover, also ironically titled, “Over the Edge.” [6] The first four songs in the album are: “Burning Inside,” “I’ll Find a Way,” “Gringo Going Down,” and “On the Run.” [7]
Almost everyday, we hear about angry people who kill others and then sacrifice themselves for a cause that is intertwined with their personal reasons. Often their motivations are based on irrational, dogmatic political and/or religious notions that are easy to dismiss, and their concerns are usually far from ours. It is therefore useful to understand how a thoroughly integrated American citizen might be willing to throw his life away in a suicidal terrorist attack.
In Stack’s case, an ongoing dispute he had with the IRS was the fuse, but he had a number of other reasonable complaints to add to the powder. The diatribe he left behind, touched on widespread anger that we hear or read nearly every day in conversation, chat rooms, and blogs. As of this writing, Facebook had taken down from at least four Facebook pages supporting Stack’s words, if not his actions. One member at “Philosophy of Joe Stack,” wrote that the United States needs a revolution and “voting for a Democrat or a Republican is not revolutionary, it is big business as usual.” [8]
Here are three examples of comments from the Austin American-Statesman site where Stack’s message was posted: [9]
The man is right on. We no longer have ‘public servants,’ we have politicians. The object is to make as much money as possible. There is not a politician out there from school board to White House who does not have a big ‘For sale to highest bidder’ sign on his/her back. (Posted by “Badx”)
Joe Stack will be called insane, etc. His explanation of his experience–not a “nutcase” or “a rambling”– can be counted in the hundreds of thousands-millions-with variations, but the same effect. We are truly in the throes of self-created chaos, due to our willingness to accept hierarchical control, including a brainwashing system of sustenance that is, simply, the modern form of age-old top-down control, i.e. slavery. (Posted by “Oya”)
I’m surprised this is on-line. Heard the FBI took it down. What this guy says makes a lot of sense. He didn’t just fly into IRS because he had tax problems. There are a lot of pissed off people out here. Be prepared for more stuff like this to happen. (Posted by “facts of life”)
There was also a comment from someone stating that Stack’s screed should not have been published. If it had not, this would have fit the more typical Big Media agenda, which is “if it bleeds it leads and if it thinks it stinks.”
Interestingly, the comments were scored. The comment that it should not have been published got the lowest score (-5) and the highest scores went to the emails I posted above, and to this +5 post from “Tis”:
People that blame [the Austin American-Statesman] for publishing this are ignorant. Educated people can decide for themselves what is relevant and what is not. I for one do not need someone else deciding what I should be reading or not reading. Keep up the good work by reporting the facts! [10]
We need more controversial ideas and public discussion of them, not less. We need more transparency, not less. Even though we should deplore violence, we should still look carefully at why someone would do such a thing. Stack is a canary in the mine measuring public resentment. He failed to work a system increasingly geared toward the rich and special interests; he failed to channel his anger into constructive action. His warning songs went unheard; his attempts at political change were ignored. He could not get the justice or the representation he needed; he could not accept the disparity between the propaganda about America and the reality he experienced. Finally he snapped. We have seen over and over how injustice often results in violent, immoral, attention-getting acts. Keep in mind that he felt so strongly about getting people to think that he was willing to give the media what it craves by burning down his house and flying an airplane in a building. Here are the highlights:
If you’re reading this, you’re no doubt asking yourself, ‘Why did this have to happen?’…. The writing process, started many months ago, was intended to be therapy in the face of the looming realization that there isn’t enough therapy in the world that can fix what is really broken. I find the process of writing it frustrating, tedious, and probably pointless….especially given my gross inability to gracefully articulate my thoughts in light of the storm raging in my head….
We in this country have been brainwashed to believe that, in return for our dedication and service, our government stands for justice for all. We are further brainwashed to believe that there is freedom in this place, and that we should be ready to lay our lives down for the noble principals represented by its founding fathers.
Remember? One of these was ‘no taxation without representation.’…These days anyone who stands up for that principal is promptly labeled a ‘crackpot,’ traitor and worse….
Why is it that a handful of thugs and plunderers can commit unthinkable atrocities (and in the case of the GM executives, for scores of years) and when it’s time for their gravy train to crash under the weight of their gluttony and overwhelming stupidity, the force of the full federal government has no difficulty coming to their aid within days if not hours?
Yet at the same time, the joke we call the American medical system, including the drug and insurance companies, are murdering tens of thousands of people a year and stealing from the corpses and victims they cripple, and its country’s leaders don’t see this as important as bailing out a few of their vile, rich cronies. Yet, the political ‘representative’ (thieves, liars and self-serving scumbags is far more accurate) have endless time to sit around for year after year and debate the state of the ‘terrible health care problem.’ It’s clear they see no crisis as long as the dead people don’t get in the way of their corporate profits rolling in.
And justice, you’ve got to be kidding!
How can any rational individual explain that white elephant conundrum in the middle of our tax system and, indeed, our entire legal system? Here we have a system that is, by far, too complicated for the brightest of the master scholars to understand. Yet, it mercilessly ‘holds accountable’ its victims they’re responsible for fully complying with laws not even the experts understand….
My introduction to the real American nightmare starts back in the early ‘80s. Unfortunately after more than 16 years of school, somewhere along the line I picked up the absurd, pompous notion that I could read and understand plain English. Some friends introduced me to a group of people who were having ‘tax code’ readings and discussions. In particular, [we] zeroed in on a section relating to the wonderful “exemptions” that make institutions like the vulgar, corrupt Catholic Church so incredibly wealthy. We carefully studied the law (with the help of some of the “best”, high-paid, experienced tax lawyers in the business), and then began to do exactly what the “big boys” were doing (except that we weren’t stealing from our congregation or lying to the government about our massive profits in the name of God). We took a great deal of care to make it all visible, following all of the rules, exactly the way the law said it was to be done.
The intent of this exercise and our efforts was to bring about a much-needed re-evaluation of the laws that allow the monsters of organized religion to make such a mockery of people who earn an honest living. However, this is where I learned that there are two “interpretations” for every law; one for the very rich, and one for the rest of us… Oh, and the monsters are the very ones making and enforcing the laws; the inquisition is still alive and well today in this country.
That little lesson in patriotism cost me $40,000+, 10 years of my life, and set my retirement plans back to 0. It made me realize for the first time that I live in a country with an ideology that is based on a total and complete lie. It also made me realize, not only how naive I had been, but also 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….
Return to the early ‘80s, and here I was off to a terrifying start as a ‘wet-behind-the-ears’ contract software engineer… and two years later, thanks to the fine backroom, midnight effort by the sleazy executives of Arthur Andersen (the very same folks who later brought us Enron and other such calamities) and an equally sleazy New York Senator (Patrick Moynihan), we saw the passage of 1986 tax reform act with its section 1706….
Admittedly, you need to read the treatment to understand what it is saying but it’s not very complicated. The bottom line is that they may as well have put my name right in the text of section (d). Moreover, they could only have been more blunt if they would have came out and directly declared me a criminal and non-citizen slave. Twenty years later, I still can’t believe my eyes….
During 1987, I spent close to $5000 of my ‘pocket change’, and at least 1000 hours of my time writing, printing, and mailing to any senator, congressman, governor, or slug that might listen; none did, and they universally treated me as if I was wasting their time. I spent countless hours on the L.A. freeways driving to meetings and any and all of the disorganized professional groups who were attempting to mount a campaign against this atrocity. This, only to discover that our efforts were being easily derailed by a few moles from the brokers who were just beginning to enjoy the windfall from the new declaration of their “freedom”. Oh, and don’t forget, for all of the time I was spending on this, I was losing income that I couldn’t bill clients.
After months of struggling it had clearly gotten to be a futile exercise. The best we could get for all of our trouble is a pronouncement from an IRS mouthpiece that they weren’t going to enforce that provision (read harass engineers and scientists). This immediately proved to be a lie, and the mere existence of the regulation began to have its impact on my bottom line; this, of course, was the intended effect….
I remember reading about the stock market crash before the ‘great’ depression and how there were wealthy bankers and businessmen jumping out of windows when they realized they screwed up and lost everything. Isn’t it ironic how far we’ve come in 60 years in this country that they now know how to fix that little economic problem; they just steal from the middle class (who doesn’t have any say in it, elections are a joke) to cover their asses and it’s ‘business-as-usual.’ Now when the wealthy fuck up, the poor get to die for the mistakes… Isn’t that a clever, tidy solution?
As government agencies go, the FAA is often justifiably referred to as a tombstone agency, though they are hardly alone. The recent presidential puppet GW Bush and his cronies in their eight years certainly reformed for all of us that this criticism rings equally true for all of the government. Nothing changes unless there is a body count (unless it is the interest of the wealthy sows at the government troughs). In a government full of hypocrites from top to bottom, life is as cheap as their lies and self-serving laws.
It has always been a myth that people have stopped dying for their freedom in this country and it isn’t limited to the black, and poor immigrants. I know there have been countless before me and there are sure to be as many after. 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, I choose not to pretend that business as usual won’t continue; 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; it will take nothing less. I would only hope that by striking a nerve that stimulates the inevitable double standard, knee-jerk government reaction that results in more stupid draconian restrictions people wake up and begin to see the pompous political thugs and their mindless minions for what they are. Sadly, though I spent my entire life trying to believe it wasn’t so, but violence not only is the answer, it is the only answer. I saw it written once that the definition of insanity is repeating the same thing over and over and expecting the outcome to suddenly be different. I am finally ready to stop this insanity….
The communist creed: From each according to his ability, to each according to his need.
The capitalist creed: From each according to his gullibility, to each according to his greed.
Joe Stack (1956-2010) 2/18/2010
Even though Stack was not a tea partier (being more aware of the real issues than most) his message taps into the anger that more and more Americans are feeling. Stack’s website, with his suicide manifesto, got 20 million hits before it was taken down through an FBI request, and probably many tens of million of people sought it out other sites that copied it. The president of the original site reportedly got 3,000 emails from people demanding that it be put back up. [11] While Stack was justified and largely correct in the things he said about the corporatist, right-wing agenda, he was certainly not the hero some have suggested he is. What he did was very wrong. Nevertheless, let’s be clear: If the tea party organizers had their way, or even if we allow the status quo to continue, the results would be millions of times more harmful than what Stack did.
Stack was apparently for economic reform, more transparency, judicial reform, universal health care, tax reform, representative democracy, and electoral reform. If we had all these things, it is a sure bet that Stack would not have done what he did. Instead he would be contributing to society by working for himself; he would still be making music; and many millions of others would not be seething in law-abiding frustration.
As it turns out, Stack’s central complaint that the IRS tax code unfairly targeted information technology professionals and prevented them from working as independent contractors was true. Even Senator Daniel Moynihan (D-NY), who sponsored the 1986 amendment, admitted as much. [12]
Moynihan had sponsored Section 1706 in deference to lobbyists seeking a $60 million tax break for IBM on its overseas business. A year later, after Moynihan saw that it was wrong (or perhaps suffered a guilty conscience) he tried unsuccessfully to reverse it. [13]
The ostensible reason for having the law was to prevent tax evasion, but the government’s own 1988 study of the tax law showed that it probably would not generate extra tax revenue and might actually generate revenue losses. Six hearings, and eight years later, yet another study still showed repealing the law would not cause significant revenue loss. The reform bill was again submitted and this time it had 70 signers. In 1998, Senator William V. Roth Jr. (R-Delaware), Chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, had sent a letter in 1994 to Moynihan urging repeal of the law. Roth inexplicably reversed his earlier opinion and dismissed this renewed majority effort with the comment that it would “open a Pandora’s Box of other independent contractor issues.”
Harvey J. Shulman, a Washington lawyer who represented companies that supported the desires of software engineers to be independent contractors, estimated that the law currently affects at least 100,000 such people. “This law has ruined many people’s lives, hurt the technology industry, and discouraged the creation of small, independent businesses critical to a thriving domestic economy,” said Mr. Shulman. “That the law still exists—even after its original sponsors called for its repeal and unbiased studies proved it unfairly targeted a tax-compliant industry—shows just how dysfunctional and unresponsive Democratic and Republican Congresses and our political system have been, even on relatively simple issues.” [14]
Ironically, the day before Stack’s suicide terror mission, the Obama administration proposed a crackdown on misclassified, independent contractors, ostensibly to collect more from tax cheats.[15] This time, it appears the administration was listening to union lobbyists who want corporations to hire more union employees with the benefits that come with regular employment. Benefits like health care and retirement plans.
No matter what the policy, there are winners and losers, and the losers will be unhappy. A certain percentage will be angry enough to do something, but there will never be enough law enforcement, Homeland Security, or military defense to ever anticipate and prevent widely dispersed individuals acting on their own against society. The best defense against terrorism is to increase the winners in society, and to make sure their winning also helps society as a whole. We need to have more justice, more responsiveness, and more openness, instead of more force.
Some government officials have been reluctant to call what Stack did “terrorism,” perhaps because they prefer their terrorists to be Muslims in strategically situated foreign countries, even though what he did clearly meets the definition. Stack flew an airplane into a federal building to kill federal employees; it was a violent act against government that involved civilians; it both terrorized and inspired people; and it enabled one man rattle the fortress walls of the power elite. Conducting a “War on Terror” is much more difficult when terrorists are home grown, and when terrorism is revealed to be a tactic, but not the collective action of army or a country that can be isolated and attacked. When terrorism is practiced abroad by our own security or military forces, what is terrorism to others is labeled as “brave,” “patriotic,” and “liberating.” When innocents are involved, it is called “collateral damage” or something that should be expected in the course of pursuing our national interests.
There is a much greater danger from within our own government, and from within our ignorant citizenry, than from abroad. Some people at the tea parties, for example, have taken to carrying their guns to rallies with its implied threat of violence and anarchy. Republican Minnesota Governor Tim Pawlenty said, in a metaphor that evoked both Tiger Woods’ wife and Stack’s attack on the glass-fronted building, “She said, ‘I’ve had enough.’ We should take a page out of her playbook and take a 9-iron and smash the window out of big government.” [16]
I’ve also had enough, and I agree that government stinks. However, it does not stink because it is too big. It stinks because it’s rotten, and we need to cut out the bad parts and rebuild the rest. Stack’s act of smashing some of the windows of big government should be a warning to those in power to accept democratic and constructive reforms gracefully. They should do this because progressive reform is practical and moral. Being good for goodness sake should suffice, but if not, there is one more argument that applies in this case: Government acceptance of internal reform will also help steer other regular Joes away from concluding that violence is the only answer.
[1] Brick, Michael, “For Texas pilot, rage simmered with few hints,” New York Times, 1-19-10.
[2] Kreytak, Steven, “Anger wasn’t obvious to friends, they say,” Austin American-Statesman. 2-19-2010.
[3] Beach, Patrick, “Shock as friends and I realize we knew suspect.” Austin American-Statesman, 2-19-10.
[4] CNN, Anderson Cooper 360 degrees, transcript, aired 2-18-10
[5] Wallace, Randy, “Expert dissects crash pilot’s manifesto.” My FOX Houston. 2-18-10
[6] According to Rob Cooley, former drummer of Last Straw, in a blog on Newsvine titled “Joseph Stack: A Profile”
[7] http://www.myspace.com/laststrawmusic
[8] Wikinews, “Facebook takes down groups supporting Austin crash pilot.” 2-19-2010.
[9] “Text of Joe Stack’s Web post” Austin American Statesman, accessed 2-20-10. http://www.statesman.com/news/local/text-of-joe-stack-s-web-post-251640.html.
[10] Ibid.
[11] Ferran, Lee, “Joe Stack Hailed as hero in American ‘Patriot’ Resurgence:Expert: Online cheers for Joe Stack reflect growing anti-government movement.” ABC News. 2-19-10.
[12] Johnson, David Cay, “How a tax law helps insure a scarcity of programmers,” New York Times, 4-27-53.
[13] Leonard, Andrew, “Joe Stack wasn’t wrong about the tax code.” Salon.com, 2-19-10.
[14] Johnson, David Cay “Tax law was cited in software engineer’s suicide note.” New York Times, 2-18, 2010
[15] Greenhouse, Steven, “U.S. cracks down on ‘contractors’ as a tax dodge.” New York Times, 2-17-10.
[16] Whittaker, Richard, “The ‘T’ Word,” Austin Chronicle, Chronoblog, 2-19-10.