Vernon Hunter -- murdered in Joe Stack's suicide attack in Austin. Tex., last week -- was a real American hero:
In the hours that followed, Ken said he heard lots of talk about the pilot's motivations and felt compelled to speak out on his father's behalf."There was just too much going on about what the guy did and what he believed in, and enough's enough," he said. "They don't need to talk about him. Talk about my dad. You know, some people are trying to make this guy out to be a hero, a patriot. My dad served two terms in Vietnam. This guy never served at all. My dad wasn't responsible for his tax problems."
The Hunter family identified Vernon Hunter's body Saturday. That same day, as Ken drove to his father's home, he saw firsthand the destruction the small plane caused.
"We turned the radio down, almost off, and we just looked. No one said anything and we just kept coming in. My wife almost broke down, so it was tough," he said.
Hunter was a guy who fought for his country in Vietnam and went to work for it when he came home; he had a loving family who cared about him very much. And then he went to work one morning and he was murdered in cold blood by a narcissistic loser named Joe Stack. And yet some of our nation's so-called political leaders are refusing to criticize Stack, the murderer of Vernon Hunter.
The latest is a U.S. congressman, Steve King of Iowa. Here's what he said:
I don't know if his grievances were legitimate, I've read part of the material. I can tell you I've been audited by the IRS and I've had the sense of 'why is the IRS in my kitchen.' Why do they have their thumb in the middle of my back. ... It is intrusive and we can do a better job without them entirely.
It seems so outrageous, and yet King is hardly alone. Two of the most egregious example include whacked-our far-right Texas gubernatorial candidate Debra Medina, who said this weekend that Hunter's killer reflects "the hopelessness many in our society feel," and of course Massachusetts pin-up guy Scott Brown, who said that Stack's suicide attack is a sign that voters "want transparency" in government.
First of all, what the (expletive deleted)?
Second of all, aren't these the same people who jump all over anybody who calls an al-Qaeda or Taliban thug a "murderer" instead of a "terrorist," even though at the end of the day that's what even the people who bombed the World Trade Center were -- low-life, no-good killers, a notion that even Republicans understood back in Reagan's day? But now these same people refuse to condemn Joe Stack, let alone call him what he really was: A cheap, heartless murderer.
The one thing that's clear from Stack's vain and nonsensical "manifesto" is that the man was not insane, just an egomaniac who gave no thought to the innocent person he was about to kill, to that man's family or even his own family that he left behind to deal with the mess...after he burned them out of their home. The only insane people here are the ones who call Joe Stack a hero. He wasn't a hero. He was a coward. To see Joe Stack as something more than a two-bit killer is the greatest case of adding insult to injury that I have ever seen.
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Personally, I feel that if a certain "real patriots, that have stood side by side with "minorities" on the battle field and "put a halt to this stupid, embarrassing, behavior. If he would have claimed "hardship" on his taxes, they wouldn't have been so hard. But NO, he votes for these crooks, probably twice and wants to blame the offices where the Bush flunkies are still in charge and have NO mercy for hardship. The reason for those delays in the President's appointments, is they are the connection to the people, and the rethugs want corporate status quo to continue.
How else do you get those campaign donations, when the American voter is wide awake.
You can't get re-elected for doin absolutely nothing but "sulking" since the election.
No effort whatsoever to earn their paychecks during a recession.
Bunning running around talking about "adding to the deficit" while the unemployed workers and tax payers, are told "tough sh8"
All I can say is "WOW !
They must think "ALL" of WE the People, just fell off a turnip truck.
Their very salaries are " adding to the deficit" and they are embezzling public funds by working for the Corporations in the PEOPLE'S HOUSES.
The real issue here is how different events are spun to support or vilify a given platform. If the conservatives are downplaying Stack's act, then of course the liberals have to condemn him. It suggests that people don't really think for themselves. What's required here - and in the case of ANY act of "terrorism" - the underlying causes need to be investigated towards prevention of a future instance. But I suppose that requires too much rigor. It's much easier to point the finger and say terrorist - towards whoever happens to be on - or supported by - the opposing platform.
Real bang-up journalism here. Oh, and mind you, this coming from a guy who is mostly liberal.
You mean like where he rails against organized religion, or the rapacious health insurance industry, or how he ends his screed Thusly"
The Capitalist creed:
"From each according to his gullibility, to each according to his greed"
The guy had no ideology. He was as Will Bunch rightly says, a narcissistic loser, a murderer.
What I got from his "manifesto" is that he was a tax cheat who tried to game the system and blew it. HE was being deceptive and manipulative, or did you not read the parts about his and his wife's undeclared income. So he decided to fly a plane into a building. Just going postal on a bigger scale.
What I've notice though, is this run it like "business as usual" and not towards a more understanding during a recession, goverment. They "definately have" the hardship clause and as long as you claim it, it is looked into and or given a payment plan again. After thirty years of "Tinkle" down economic, and calling it rain, the "corptocracy" and greedy capitalist on WAll St, have cleaned American's clock several times.
NOW is the time to "Nip it" with incisional expertise, to prevent this robbery of future generation's money, after WE the people get the jobs programs and "wonderful manufacturing again" making something, not just being the piggy consumer with mindless materialistic shopaholic tendencies.
For you religious folk: When the world became so incensed with greed, God will make you think of the important survival things, that really count.
His problem was not the IRS. His problem was his boneheaded insistence on defrauding the government. Then when faced with reality, he decided to take the coward's way out and crash his plane into the IRS building and blame them for his own failures.
How does any of that make him a hero?
Don't mistake tax protester scams for legitimate complaints about the IRS. There are more than enough legitimate tax concerns to worry about without trying to glorify imaginary ones.
I was in the waiting room of a Doctor’s office when I first saw CNN broadcasting images of a building in flames in Austin, Texas. My interest turned to dread and horror as other people present responded to my questions about what happened. I knew people who worked in each IRS office in Austin. Eventually, I was to find out it was the Echelon Building.
I poured over news articles and waded through on-line photos. At our home, we solemnly waited to learn who had been killed. When the name was released, we recalled who that person was and what his job title was. We knew him. It mattered to us. We cared that he was dead.
Mr. Stack was obviously not a well person. His own written message detailed a lifetime of activities as a tax protestor who set up many of the problems that came to him. He worked scams to evade paying taxes. In a way, I am sorry for him too. But, he murdered an innocent man and his intent was to kill many others.
I cannot understand how anyone can make light of this situation or make statements that in anyway validate what Mr. Stack did. I am also alarmed and saddened that individuals who hold public office indicate that they understand, if not support, such acts. What a sad state of affairs!
The saddest part of this whole story is that the story of the man, the hero, who gave his life in Joe Stack's murderous act was lost in the shuffle. Every news story I heard revolved around Stack. Thank you, Will, for sharing this story and thank you Vernon Hunter - you gave so much of your life for this country and I'm sorry it ended early thanks to this man. Don't worry Mr. Hunter - I don't think you're going to the same place.
ps-I'm not a teabagger or a troll. Not trying to excuse Stack's actions either, just examining his reasons rationally. The American revolution was started by people very similar to Joe Stack, people fed up with tyranny and taxation without representation
It's really not surprising that someone with mental health issues, a slightly skewed view of current events, and a yearning to be heard saw flying his plane into a building as a means of getting attention ... even creating something of a legacy for himself.
I don't buy that filing and paying taxes and addressing mistakes is enough to push any normal, stable person over the edge. Hey, we engaged a gutter cleaning guy for several years who began to charge an exorbitant amount for his "expertise" and made preemptive threats in case we resisted -- I have no doubt that he was succumbing to some kind of mental illness, and he scared us out of ever having anyone clean our gutters for us again. We worried that he would come back and demand that we permit more of his extortion -- am I to conclude that gutter cleaning drives people crazy? Of course not, but it might have been good if we had had some proven non-threatening words to lead him to get some help.
The most constructive thing that could come out of this would be to teach all of us how to recognize the signs of mental imbalance and some compassionate and genuinely helpful way to deal with it.