Thursday, February 18, 2010

Joseph A. Stack

Let me be very clear...I LOVE learning from my husband and I always respect and appreciate his perspective. He is phenomenal at expressing himself without judging, explaining new perspectives without pushing and listening to others. I love that about him. That's how I can learn so much from him and it's those qualities that make me so excited to watch him be a father.

But sometimes there are instances where situations are simply Rorschach tests to us: they are and will remain with each of us "how we see things." Here's an example:

Here is how Joel sees Joseph A. Stack.

Here's how I see Joseph A. Stack:



Joel reads the words. I see the picture.

Joel focuses the cause. I focus on the effect.

In this scenario, I see a building full of individuals. Not a government agency.

In reading his manifesto, I think of the family he left behind in his "new marriage," now also homeless) not the statement he tried to make about his discontent.

I think of all the people he made a choice for today - without their consent or permission. Just like he complained of our government. I can wrap my mind around his motives, but in my opinion, he is a hypocrite. In his plight for HIS rights he took away the rights of others. And isn't this his biggest complaint of what the upper class minority took away from the middle class majority - their voices and their freedoms? He talked of the bodies he would be joining - as if he believed them (and himself) to be martyrs. What do we call the rest of the wreckage?

I sympathize with the frustration he expresses, and I understand the feeling of having no say or options or control over how much the government takes from us - in reference to taxes, etc...but there are ways around all of it. There are ways to make this world a nice place to live in despite all that other stuff. There are ways to help each other, together, get through the mess that he was drowning in...maybe not a fix for the problem, but a way to get through it. We can help each other...HELP EACH OTHER. Heaven knows the family he left behind is going to need it now.


3 comments:

Joel said...

I completely agree with you babe. No condoning of what he did. I also feel that his actions effecting innocent people is wrong. I guess my whole point in this deal is to just stop and think for a little bit why he felt this was the best way out. It could have been that he wanted to bring all the attention to himself. It could have been that he wanted to bring all the attention to the reasons he felt he had to do this. Either way, it was a selfish act, and should be labeled as so. I also feel that as a mass amount of the public start to feel isolated from their government, and the government keeps ignoring this, there will be more and more of these occur. Your point of watching out for each other should be well heeded.

Robin said...

i know you don't condone it. You just have this way of looking past what happened today and seeing what happened before and what could happen in the future. That's what i mean by the difference in our perspectives...

You're so dang smart. :) <3

Jenny said...

You guys are so cute with your little blog conversations:) I love the way you love each other.

Sooo, what a sad and scary deal. I haven't read very much yet about what happened, but it's just sad.and scary. I think that's all I'll say for now since I'm really sleepy.

Love to you both! Jen