No Taxation Without Representation Indeed

If you talk to anyone under the age of 50, they will likely tell you that voting doesn’t matter, or that their vote doesn’t (or wouldn’t) count for anything. Some of them think that the polls are rigged. Others think the ballots are just flat-out ignored. And most people think that the government isn’t run by the representatives we elect anyway. Instead, most people seem to believe that corporations and special interests use our reps as puppets to get and keep whatever they want.

And this is nearly everyone I ask. It makes me wonder why no one does anything. Sure, you see protests all the time in front of the White House or Capitol Hill, but no one listens to them. They’re just pop-up ads that you close without even acknowledging their messages.

Ghandi and Martin Luther King Jr. made history with peaceful protests. They pulled off amazing miracles that entranced the public. But now we have people sitting in front of government buildings and corporations with signs they think are clever. These protests won’t inspire change any more than that homeless guy in the Subway station will.

I was a member of the protest groups that went against the very first Bank Bailouts. We stood out in the rain with signs and nothing changed. Even the ones that stood outside NBC, Fox, and CNN got very little coverage despite their massive numbers (FAR more than the Tea Party) and the fact that the police had their hands full with them. And yet, the “news organizations” barely mentioned us at all.

It is becoming brutally and painfully obvious that peaceful protests no longer work.

The only non-violent protests that gain any ground in these times are boycotts, but those are so difficult to organize and advertise legally that they are losing power too. Some companies threaten defamation suits against organizers who would promote boycotts. That being said, if you live in a small town and Wal-Mart has already run all your other local grocery stores out of business, how are you supposed to boycott Wal-Mart?

So how are the majority supposed to get through to the ones in charge, once they’ve acknowledged that their votes don’t count and their voices aren’t being heard?

As terrible as terrorism is (domestic or foreign), you have to understand the corner that people are being pushed into. You can marginalize the growing population of pissed off Americans that don’t trust their government for only so long before one of them shits a brick and decides to start setting buildings on fire, like we see in the news today.

Sure, the guy’s actions were dangerous and nutty, but his thought process (as displayed by his ‘manifesto’) was lucid and reasoned. The media has been making a circus out of it as they always do, but if you read the actual essay, he never sounds insane. He sounds reasoned, frustrated, and passionate. These features strike me as being pretty common these days.

I happen to agree with much of what this man wrote. And while I definitely won’t be sacrificing myself in effigy to the cause, I cannot look at his actions as unreasonable. Say what you will about me supporting domestic terrorism, but there was a time when that was called patriotism. If you don’t like what’s going on in the Capitol, you’re supposed to gather all your other jilted citizens, pick up your Constitutionally protected firearms and start cleaning house. So while Joe Stack’s airplane may have missed the IRS (or the House of Representatives), his voice has now been heard.

He writes almost identically to my own writing (except no funny images):
http://www.trentonian.com/articles/2010/02/18/news/doc4b7d98936b129390024383.txt

Let me know if that site goes down, since they keep disappearing strangely. On a side note: isn’t it terrible that China and North Korea censor their media?

Look at the comment threads on all of the postings of this story, like the one above. I see something of a 95% majority of people agreeing with him! It’s hard to find anyone who disagrees with a domestic terrorist! What does that say about our government? What does that say about who’s in charge? What does that say about my fat lazy ass that just votes and complains all day?

Joe Stack may someday be recognized as a hero. The only thing that we who agree with him can do now is live up to his sacrifice and work outside the system if we have to. All of you retards who voted for “real change” when you voted for Obama (the new chocolate flavor of business-as-usual) should start thinking about how to change things for yourselves, since none of the people you elected seem to be pulling it off.

So consider this man’s actions a warning. These days the government seems to be ignoring the will of the people on a daily basis, and they don’t even have the good taste to hide it anymore. When your people get frustrated and the last straw breaks, violence will ensue.

I hope that no one gets hurt… unless they deserve it.

EDIT: I am not condoning violence. I’m not saying that it is ever right to use violence to prove a political point. I am saying that the American government is pushing people into corners where they feel like they are being ignored and oppressed. If they continue to push people in that direction, things like this will happen more and more. And we don’t want that, so please start “caving in” to pressure from your constituents… it is your job.