The Justification of Joseph Stack

February 19, 2010 by theo.johnson
Filed under: Blog Entries, My Thoughts, Society & Culture

Source: http://twitpic.com/13yxsb

On my way home from work, I was listening to talk radio and was truly disgusted by the people who called in with the “it may not have been the right thing to do, but I understand” attitude. How can these people attempt to justify Joseph Stack’s actions? Why is it that the democracy we hold so true and dear all of a sudden not good enough? Why are people so upset and moved to react violently because they feel their voice isn’t being heard? When have our voice ever been heard! Joseph Stack plain and simple committed an act of domestic terrorism. I don’t care how upset you are with your current situation or “the system”, there’s no reason to attempt a mass murder of innocent people.

People have been reading a lot into the manifesto he wrote and many are attempting to use a bad situation to prove a point about our political system. Stack is not the first person to have issues with the IRS and he definitely isn’t the only one going through hard times. He’s not the first to work hard to achieve a dream and have it taken away from you. He’s not the first to feel taken advantage of and hopeless. Nothing Stack wrote in his manifesto was new and I’m sure there have been others who’ve felt the same way. But they dealt with it, as most continue to do today.

What he did IS NOT bringing attention to a greater issue that needs to be addressed. The issues he had were far greater than his frustration and mistrust of the government. For those who would like to read the Stack manifesto, is can be found here.