It was right down the street from my home. An unhinged man in a single-engine airplane crashed into an Austin office building. The Internal Revenue Service had offices in that building. I was in those offices not long ago for a compliance check on a non-profit I run. I got passing grades, by the way.
I have just returned from driving through the area. I stopped at the local bookstore and grocery store on the way home. Workers there said they didn’t even know it happened until some customers told them and they saw crowds gathering outside. Smoke still hangs in the air. There’s a chemical smell to it.
I’d watched news coverage of the tragedy earlier in the day. It’s a strange sensation. Full of the virtual reality of television coverage one minute. Present at the real-world scene the next minute. Most people are going about their business. Buying books. Buying groceries. Going home from work.
Americans are discussing whether the attack by Andrew Joseph Stack and his airplane is an instance of domestic terrorism. He was angry, angry at all kinds of people, angry at the government, especially at the IRS. This we know from the note he left behind. Does it matter whether we call the attack a crime or an act of terror?
Historians have made much of the terrible fact that the 20th century brought with it much greater acceptance of civilian targets in war. It’s not that civilians hadn’t perished before. Certainly Native Americans learned that bloody truth. But there was a difference in scale in the 20th century as the fields of techno-war bloomed with terrible new weapons. Think Dresden. Or Hiroshima.
All terrorism is aimed at unsettling people, whether it is undertaken by political zealots or a tormented psyche or both.
My question is this: Did the civilian blood of the 20th century helped lead to this era of terrorism, of crimes against innocents by individuals? Are individuals, twisted as they might be, led to do what nation-states did before them? Did Nagasaki give Timothy McVeigh and Joe Stack permission? The sentence looks preposterous. But is it? If it’s not, what is to be done?
I had all these thoughts while driving by the rubble of Stack’s attack on an Austin building near my home. School buses full of children were headed home from school. The UPS man waved as he passed me like he always does.
There are many in the world who have dealt with such attacks close to home. In the aftermath, the quick return to normalcy is, in some ways, healthy. But in other ways it is damned eerie. And it’s the normalcy of these events that worries me as I stop to let the older man and his Cocker Spaniel cross the street.
Related Articles:
About Glenn W. Smith
Glenn W. Smith has spent the past 30 years in journalism and politics, where he’s made a name for himself as a writer, campaign manager, activist, think tank analyst and, as Daily Kos founder Markos Moulitsas says, a “legendary political consultant and all-around good guy.” “There’s no one like him,” says author George Lakoff. CNN commentator Paul Begala says, “He has unmatched experience, a graceful pen (or pixel nowadays) and deep insight into the best and worst of us.” Novelist Sarah Bird speaks of his “lucid and lyrical” prose. And, she says, he’s fun. Huffington Post founder Arianna Huffington says Glenn writes with “grace and abundant humor” and “uses his colorful experiences in Texas to enlighten us all.”
Smith led Ann Richards’ successful 1990 campaign for Governor of Texas. He worked for former Texas Lt. Gov. Bill Hobby and U.S. Senator Lloyd Bentsen. Earlier, Smith was a political reporter for the Houston Chronicle and the Houston Post. He’s coordinated national campaigns for groups such as MoveOn.org. In 2004, he authored the highly acclaimed book, The Politics of Deceit: Saving Freedom and Democracy from Extinction. He also wrote Unfit Commander, a book that detailed George W. Bush’s mysterious disappearance from military service.
In 2004, Smith was featured in the film, Bush’s Brain, a documentary about Karl Rove. Smith provided commentary on Rove’s role as then-President Bush’s senior advisor. He has made numerous media appearances with Chris Mathews on Hardball, Joe Scarborough, Brit Hume, and many others. He writes a regularly for top national web sites, including FireDogLake and Huffington Post.
As a senior fellow at George Lakoff’s prestigious Rockridge Institute in Berkeley he studied, wrote and taught on the power of metaphor and narrative in political communications. He also lectured on religion and politics at the Starr King School for Ministry in Berkeley. As a sponsor and organizer, he has pulled together numerous national events with progressive religious leaders. He also organized a celebration of Dr. Martin Luther King at Riverside Church in New York City as well as “Freedom and Faith” bus tours, which was a nationwide campaign for social justice and progressive values.
Smith’s play, Double Play, which explored American Western myths and legends, was held over to sold-out audiences. He’s even written and performed songs in the Americana tradition, such as his best-known song, “Helping Marty Robbins,” a tribute to his hometown, Houston.
Most recently, Smith is the creator of DogCanyon, a political and cultural web site covering state, national and global issues from a Texas perspective. DogCanyon is an exhilarating and unique site that gets the connections between politics and culture and explores both the personal side of politics and the ups, down, craziness and beauty of “life its ownself,” as humorist Dan Jenkins would say. DogCanyon offers heartfelt personal essays, hard-hitting political analysis, and, most importantly, laughs.
As Paul Begala said, Smith writes in “the finest, firmest, fearless tradition of Texas essayists like Molly Ivins.”
His ‘manifesto’ says this: “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.” That makes it terrorism, sure as the Weather Underground.
But the sense that everything normal should stop because this has happened… The surreality of waving to the UPS man… That’s in your mind. You’re still processing. Do yourself a favor and head to Big Bend. Invite all of Austin to go with you.
Agree with the piece and the comment. This is not about the equity of tax law or lack thereof, or whether or not this is a cruel world.
This fellow suffered from a frustrated sense of entitlement to evade paying taxes, it made trouble for him his entire adult life, and he eventually responded in a uniquely sociopathic way.
He’s gone now, taking suffering bystanders with him. Good bye. What a pity.
I am a pilot. Pilots are a fraternity of self-reliant, life-loving people, and Mr. Stack disgraced us by doing the unthinkable with a perfectly good airplane.
I am also an electric bass player by trade. The widely circulated photo of Mr. Stack playing a Fender bass reflected poorly on the world of bassists as well.
Yeow. This guy blew it. We aren’t all like that, folks. But you know that.
Bassist pilots rule. Stack’s not significant enough to tarnish either pursuit.
Bless you, sir! Sully Sullenberger and Phil Lesh thank you as well.
It was sort of “next door” for us as well, a couple of miles in toward Austin but on my wife’s normal (late) Thursday commute, so that we plotted a different route for her. I don’t know if human perversity has increased in the last century, but the destructive capacity of individuals has certainly gone up exponentially. Stack’s beef certainly seems specific against the “tax people” (though burning down his house to deprive his family of its use indicates a growing generalized insanity), though he tries to tie it to some larger inchoate world theory.
I do know that we will not be finished until the Republican Party and its affiliates have decided how to spin it. Is it another instance of terrorists run amok because of Democratic softness? Or is it a brave American martyr protesting against the tyranny of central government, a Tea Bagger who decided to come “armed this time”? Stay tuned.
Good column, Glenn, and I’m glad you’re okay. This may be first of many of these awful events if the mood in the country doesn’t change. It’s angry out there and I don’t see any changes coming soon. People are not only angry, they are frightened. They are losing jobs, homes, and everything they have worked for. There are more and more guns and apparently the militias are gaining members constantly. Heaven help us all.
I looked to your column to see if anyone really cares that two people died because our government system is so broken – this is the only one that’s even close:
“This may be first of many of these awful events if the mood in the country doesn’t change. It’s angry out there and I don’t see any changes coming soon. People are not only angry, they are frightened. They are losing jobs, homes, and everything they have worked for. There are more and more guns and apparently the militias are gaining members constantly. Heaven help us all.”
I’m praying for reform. I’m hoping many join me so that things change and two people don’t have to die in vain. The tax codes are a mess, health care is still not passed, and we do have taxation without representation. Is anyone out there listening to the gist of what he said in his letter and seeing beyond his obvious anger to realize the truth??? And if anyone has read Rich Dad, Poor Dad, you know that the tax codes are geared to help the rich get richer at the expense of the middle class.