Joe Stack (1956-2010)

Remember Joe Stack? He's the guy who after twenty years of Kafka-esque frustration with the federal government crashed his small plane into the IRS office in Austin, Texas. It was a year ago today. Joe's particular beef regarded a provision in the 1986 tax reform act that negatively impacted his ability to operate his business and earn a livelihood. Along with others like him, he spent considerable time and money trying to get relief from what he felt was unfair treatment. To no avail.

The utter futility he felt was aggravated by the corporate bail-outs in 2008 which marked the beginning of our current "Great Recession." He wrote in his online suicide note:

     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?

Joe concluded his online manifesto, "I have just had enough."

Joe has been characterized as a crackpot and the incident described as "domestic terrorism." Others, including me, think of Joe as a hero who had the courage to put his life on the line to call attention to the fact that the U.S. government is broken. We no longer have a democracy, we have a "corpocracy." Our representatives do not represent the people, they represent the corporations that buy them their seats in the Congress.

Remember Joe Stack! He deserves our admiration and respect. And maybe someday, when more of us have "had enough," his death will be avenged by a return to government by and for the people.

How to begin? Campaign Finance Reform!

~ ~ ~