Joe Stack (1956-2010)

On February 18, 2010, Andrew Joseph "Joe" Stack III flew his single engine aircraft into the The four-story Echelon I building off of US 183 near Loop 1 in Austin Texas. The building housed the offices of the IRS with approximately 190 employees. Stack's Daughter, Samantha Bell, said her dad was a hero in an interview on "Good Morning America" on February 22, 2010. Austin Police Chief Art Acevedo called him a coward. Many others have made comments that Stack was a "loser" a "failure" or "insane."

There are two things I see in the media coverage and the comments. One, the drive to demonize the man, rather than understand what happened. Two, the childish response to resort to name calling when there is no other recourse (not to sound high and mighty here, I have done some name calling too).

Like it or not, Joe Stack is dead. His essence is back in the protective sum of the universal life force. There is nothing you, or I, can do to him. Unless he is the next John Brown of a new civil uprising he will be all but forgotten in 40 years. In 100 years his act will be a minor citation on the documentation of the era.

As to the charge of being a failure are concerned, the are dubious at best. One source cited the appraised value of Stack's Austin home was in the $230,000.00 range. He also owned the aircraft which was rammed into the IRS offices. Even in the economy the Piper Cherokee list in a range from $22,000.00 to $35,000.00. That is not quite the hovel or beater, bondo-mobile of a "failed loser."

No, something else happened in Austin on the morning of February 18, 2010. From all the venom and rhetoric heaped on the, still undiscovered, corps of Joe Stack, it is something which institutional officialdom, and the thoughtless cronies who bark at their command, would rather not address; there is a failure in the system.

Joe Stack is no hero. He is no demon. He is a predicted product of an predatory competitive system where winning is everything. We have over 100 years of sold, reviewed science which prove Stack's response was predictable. That science is ignored. Maybe it is past time we stopped ignoring what we do know all to well.